“This view of Paradise isn’t the future of Jazz or even German improvised music. But with its utilization of past motifs coupled with contemporary thematic elaborations, it should be the sound of modern mainstream music – from any country.”
paradise
Paradise (miniature)
At First Glance
Vostok
Baby
Dust
Zuck’s Delight
Marche Funèbre
Lazy Old Days
Boredom
Dunkles Flame
Congo Sleepwalk
Conundrum of Thoughts
Bonk da Monk
Paradise II
Total Time: 59:35
Christian von der Goltz – p
Henrik Walsdorff – as
Rudi Mahall – bcl
Martin Klingeberg – tp
Jan Roder – b
Kay Luebke – d
Compositions by Christian von der Goltz, Henrik Walsdorff, Martin Klingeberg, Kay Luebke
Trouble in the East Records
Recorded December 9, 2015 and March 4, 2016 by Tito Knapp, Titonen Studio Berlin
paradise
Als ich die erste Miniatur hörte, sah ich einen Wald voller Tiere vor mir, die aufgeregt durcheinander schnatterten: so stellte ich mir das Paradies vor und es entstand der Titel paradise. Wir waren zu Tito in sein wunderbar lebendiges Studio gegangen, um Arrangements von unseren Stücken aufzunehmen und improvisierten dazwischen zur Erfrischung irgend etwas anderes, was gerade so kam. Am Ende hatten wir nicht nur eine Sammlung eigener Stücke, mit denen wir überaus zufrieden waren, sondern noch zusätzlich eine kleine Auswahl freier Miniaturen, die sich vor den arrangierten Stücken wie leuchtende Perlen ausnahmen. Diese Perlen waren wie Infusionen, Halluzinationen, es waren gute Stücke wie die anderen, gespielt von den selben Musikern, in derselben Atmosphäre. Letztlich eint uns die Liebe zu bestimmten traditionellen Aufnahmen des Jazz einerseits und zur freien Improvisation in der Gegenwart anderseits, also beschloss ich, es sollte alles auf eine Platte kommen, wie es in Titos Studio erklungen ist. Ich möchte mich bei meinen wunderbaren Mitmusikern für ihre Hingabe bedanken, ohne die ich dieses Projekt niemals zu realisieren gewagt hätte.
– Christian von der Goltz
Reviews
They just don’t make records like this anymore – and for good reason. The boundaries between mainstream, experimental, parody, recreation and reverence have become so elevated that creating a well-played swinging session without a secondary agenda has become practically anathema. Luckily, this sextet of Berlin-based improvisers ignores the strictures to produce this piece of Paradise.
Anachronistic and advanced at the same time, the 14 selections played by the CVDG Project relate most closely to the sophisticated strain of arranged modern Jazz crafted on both sides of the US in the mid-1950s before being swept away by the Hard Bop verses Cool Jazz wars. Composer/arrangers like Jimmy Giuffre, Gil Melle, Gigi Gryce and Benny Golson weren’t afraid to abstain from the cult of the soloist to let individual expression flow naturally from gnomic compositions. And all this was done without neglecting bedrock, Count Basie-ish swing.
Bremen-born pianist, teacher and painter Christian von der Goltz, who composed the bulk of the material understands this. So do the other band members, trumpeter/tenor horn player Martin Klingeberg and alto saxophonist Henrik Walsdorff, part of Ulrich Gumpert’s Worksop bands; bassist Jan Roder and drummer Kay Luebke who have backed up Silke Eberhard; and bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall, featured in innumerable bands, including Die Enttäuschung. The majority of pieces here work with an internal logic that mates comfort with creativity. In fact, even if a composition has been constructed in a cerebral manner, like comic relief in a serious film, traces of an unashamed groove remain. On “Zucks Delight” for instance, the pianist continues spinning out the swinging melody even as the accompaniment accelerates. Von der Goltz’s “Congo Sleepwalk”, which could be an erudite variation on a classic train Blues, featuring dot-dash-like riffs from Klingeberg to contrast with Mahall’s fluid spills as the pianist limns the tremolo theme. Additionally while tunes such as “Marche funèbre” may move past a Sicilian funeral dirge to one in New Orleans, featuring the drummer’s two-beat ending; and “Bonk Da Monk”, may lope, lurch and leap like a 1950s California distillation of the Thelonious Monk oeuvre; emotion remains paramount. Most prominently the blood pumping passion arrives courtesy of Walsdorff, who wafts out wide swathes of reed real estate. Throughout, he sounds like an amalgam of Pete Brown and Johnny Hodges at their most florid without losing his modernist bite.
This view of Paradise isn’t the future of Jazz or even German improvised music. But with its utilization of past motifs coupled with contemporary thematic elaborations, it should be the sound of modern mainstream music – from any country.
—Ken Waxman
June 24, 2017
Christian von der Goltz 