This CD is a highlight, a wordless communication among musicians who’d already played with one another on numerous occasions. It’s a music characterized by a high degree of virtuosity and reserve; the nearly somnambulistic interaction is articulated by a playful give and take. In this recording, musical instinct guides both the musicians and the listener through a multitude of stylistic allusions, in which only the most necessary elements—a melody, a loose arrangement—are laid down in order to restrict the creative flow as little as possible.
Listen to a sample from Dreaming:
Empty Hands Katharsis Dreaming
Dreaming
Katharsis
Empty Hands
Nardis
Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love
Romantic Waltz
Next Step
Forever True
Dreaming
Total time: 49:00
Christian von der Goltz – p
Ed Schuller – b
Eliot Zigmund – d
All compositions by Christian von der Goltz except No. 3 (Miles Davis/Bill Evans) and No. 4 (Charles Mingus).
yvp music
Recorded January 15, 2000 at Acoustic Recording Studio, Brooklyn, New York
Recording engineer: Mike Brorby
DREAMING
Christian von der Goltz, piano
Special guests: Ed Schuller, Bass; Eliot Zigmund, drums
This CD, recorded in January 2000 in Brooklyn, New York, introduces the composer and pianist Christian von der Goltz to a wider American audience in a special session recorded with Eliot Zigmund and Ed Schuller.
Eliot Zigmund is above all famous as the drummer of the legendary Bill Evans Trio; later, he played in the trio of the French pianist Michel Petrucciani.
Ed Schuller, son of the composer, arranger, and writer Gunther Schuller, is a much sought-after bass player in Europe and America. Over the past several years, he’s been playing regularly with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano.
Von der Goltz – well-known in Europe with his own trio – is responsible for the conceptual framework of this New York session.
His compositions form the basic structure that the recording revolves around. The music born out of this constellation, however, owes its origin to the magic of free improvisation alone.
This CD is a highlight, a wordless communication among musicians who already knew each other and who had played with one another on various occasions. It’s a music characterized by a high degree of virtuosity and reserve; the nearly somnambulistic interaction is articulated by a playful give and take, without any of the musicians pushing into the foreground or withdrawing into an unimportant role.
In this recording, the musical instinct guides both the musicians and the listener through a multitude of stylistic allusions, in which only the most necessary elements – a melody, a loose arrangement – are laid down in order to restrict the creative flow as little as possible.
With his compositions Katharsis, Empty Hands, Romantic Waltz, Next Step, Forever True, and Dreaming, von der Goltz once again proves himself to be – following his CD debut ”sophie said” – a composer whose melodic and harmonic structures unite to form one voice that is at once unmistakable and unique.
Christian von der Goltz 