Eight Ball & White Horse

Pianistyka Jazzowa
premiera polska: 2008-02-13
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Niemcy
opakowanie: digipackowe etui
opis:
Editor's info:
The pianist, composer, and bandleader Florian Ross of Cologne has revealed many different facets of his musical inner life on his previous releases. He is one of the most reliable of those representatives of recent jazz who resist pigeonholing but whose new album nevertheless, or precisely for that reason, always leaves one expectantly awaiting the next one. Ross combines the qualities of the experienced craftsman with the charm of an adventurer who likes to take risks, who never gets enough of trying new things and redefining himself. Each new album is a continuation of all the earlier ideas but also an utterly new beginning.

Florian Ross's new album Eight Ball & White Horse is once again dominated by the typical features of his musical perspective on the world: rich pieces dispense with a jazz schema limited to themes, bridges, and solos and instead tell stories, an incomparable way of integrating the solo into the composition as a genuinely individual form of expression, and his warm, friendly way of opening doors for the listener. Never before has he worked out the contrast between objectivity and dreaminess as clearly as on this new CD. "Both sides can be found in me, but I don't consciously summon up this contrast," Ross states. "I am both a performing musician and composer. My previous CDs tended in one direction or the other. On the new CD I wanted to treat both aspects equally. I wanted the room for play to be greater for me and the other musicians than it was on the composed albums, but at the same time the composed music should be emphasized more than on the trio CDs. This CD documents the two sides coming together."

Ross has never shied from including contrasts on his albums. Album titles such as Big Fish & Small Pond, Home & Some Other Place, and Blinds & Shades reveal this affinity to antitheses. The title Eight Ball & White Horse too suggests irreconcilable things. But Florian Ross has mastered the great art of reconciling opposites: "I am a somewhat torn person. I am neither a pianist-pianist nor a composer who is only known for his compositions. When I am planning a record, I can never decide which of my sides is more important. There are, after all, still poles like tradition versus modern, jazz versus pop, and jazz versus classical. My interests are rather universal and beyond any style of music. So it is difficult to come up with one album that can cover all these interests. When preparing an album I always decide on one or more certain aspects. But once we start playing, other, completely different components come into it as well."

Yet Eight Ball & White Horse is anything but an indecisive album, rather, it betrays the personal style and dramaturgy of a composer and bandleader who knows precisely what he wants. Nothing is left to chance, and even the momentary aspect, which is a bit overrepresented in jazz, settles organically into the flow of a complex album concept. Just how Ross approaches contrasts in this context is revealed by his use of acoustic piano and electric Rhodes. For the pianist these two instruments have completely different premises and consequences. "Apart from keys the two instruments have little in common. They have to be approached completely differently in terms of pianism. Already when I'm writing I know what I will play on an electric piano and what on an acoustic one. If things get desperate, you can substitute the one instrument for the other, but really you shouldn't do it."

The instrumentation on the CD is unusual, of course. An octet combining piano, bass, and percussion with five woodwinds is not exactly an everyday occurrence. Here too Ross is breaking new ground, with a constellation that is still a combo yet is almost a big band. This profession of faith in woodwinds is ultimately another result from working with an antithesis. Ross himself calls it a simulation. "A couple of years ago I did a record for brass. I was just starting to write for big bands and tended to ignore the saxophonists a little. So this time I concentrated on the woodwinds. The new CD does justice to the woodwind half. Woodwinds have completely different possibilities than brass. They are much more agile and can play longer at one time. Woodwinds do have as much trouble with embouchure and held notes as brass instruments do. Yet brass instruments have the advantage that they can offer much richer and fuller timbres. And if you aren't careful, woodwinds can quickly begin to sound like a big harmonium. It is no coincidence that a big band has large groups of each. The logical step for me is to write a big band record sometime."

But that is music for another day, just as Eight Ball & White Horse leaves so many options open for the future. Ross did not assemble an obligatory program for self-declared jazz lovers but is rather open to pop listeners as well as connoisseurs of classical. His new CD is a playful declaration of faith in the diversity of musical possibilities and the unfolding of the individual within the collective.


muzycy:
Florian Ross: piano, rhodes
Dietmar Fuhr: bass
Jonas Burgwinkel: drums
Frank Vaganee: soprano, alto saxophones, alto flute
Felix Wahnschaffe: alto, soprano saxophones
Jasper Blom: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Walfgang Fuhr: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Niels Klein: baritone saxophone, bass-clarinet

utwory:
1. Cry Out Loud 5:29
2. Wollongong Sketch 8:02
3. Rest, My Simple Mind 8:23
4. Sorry, I Can Do That 4:52
5. Cull Or Keep 1:07
6. Egberto 5:17
7. Minor Mischief 8:38
8. White Horse 10:34
9. Run 4:55
10. Aspects Of... 1:10
11. Quahog Wayland 6:58

wydano: 2007
more info: www.intuition-music.com