Harvest Time
Oversáez, Aggregate Festival, Anzû Quartet, Xhosa Cole
Pianist Sandro Sáez Finds His Groove
German pianist Sandro Sáez made an impressive debut as a leader last year with the trio album No Perspective, a sturdy if familiar post-Bill Evans landscape explored by three highly skilled players. There were brief little dalliances with the pianist’s early jazz hero Oscar Peterson and 50s hard bop, but otherwise the music didn’t offer many surprises. The trio—with drummer Nathan Ott and bassist Niklas Lukassen—felt like it was still searching for an identity. Rigorous jazz education has produced a ton of stunning musicians who possess incredible tools to express something in a new way. The institutions haven’t mastered the second part of the sentence; it’s hard to teach creativity. But whether through school or on his own volition, seeds were planted because a year later we can hear his growth. Earlier this summer the trio, now called Oversáez, released Abstract Emotions (Boomslang). Last year the veteran Danish bassist Jonas Westergaard—a fixture on the Berlin scene and long-time member of an eponymous trio with drummer Christian Lillinger and vibraphonist Christopher Dell—took over the bass role, and between his involvement and the pianist’s increased maturity, we’re dealing with a much different ensemble. Abstract Emotions represents a major artistic leap for Sáez.
The pianist is open about his long-time engagement with classical music, and the compositions on the new record reflect a big shift. Rather than making another jazz piano album featuring a sleek rhythm section, Oversáez is a collective enterprise transmitting rigorous three-part conversations that demand close listening. In some ways this recalls the reunited trio Westergaard has with his old Copenhagen running buddies Peter Bruun and Søren Kjærgaard, spreading the roles of the trio format so that everyone has simultaneous rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic responsibilities, forging a genuine collective. The music has a chill, loosely swinging veneer and a familiar timbre, but it doesn’t take long to realize that the group has rejected post-bop orthodoxy, both in terms of those overlapping roles, and how performances are structured. Each tune features plenty of masterfully integrated improvisation and each composition offers some kind of narrative, unconventional as they might appear, but the musicians are interacting in a way that stretches beyond their jazz training, where they might simply settle in a deep groove. Instead, everything is kind of scrambled, an elegant game of hot potato where roles dance around within the trio. Sáez’s classical roots are clear in the sophisticated melodic patterns that distinguish his tunes, all of them articulated with a precision and snap of someone who’s played a lot of Bach.
Oversáez sometimes toys with the listener. There’s a brief piano passage toward about 3:25 into the title piece where it feels like the pianist is about to morph into an easy resolution, releasing the exquisite tensions with a lush, blossoming chorus, but it’s just a tease, as Sáez pivots right back into the piece’s brooding, patient denouement. Check it out, below. If a listener can return such patience, there’s plenty to focus on, tracing how the three separate parts all blaze their own path while delicately moored to the compositional core. Westergaard knits long, elaborate lines with unerring care and woody depth, but they all bristle against feel-good expectations. Instead, they stretch the pianist’s tunes, elasticizing them in a way that gives Westergaard and Ott equal focus. The pianist can’t ignore the extended rhythmic and harmonic cycles of the bassist and the gently melodic constructions of the drummer. Don’t get me wrong: the music still sounds and feels like jazz, usually with a tuneful tenderness and an occasional drive that stands out among the calm, as on the loping “Distorted Dream.” But the trio is aiming much higher than pleasing toe-tapping audiences, even if the energy level occasionally feels constrained. But considering what Sáez has accomplished in such a short time, I’m betting they’ve already moved beyond the level captured when they recorded the music in January. The band belatedly celebrates the release of the new album with a performance at Donau115 on Friday, September 12.
Organs Go New Places
This weekend the extended organ duo known as Gamut Inc (composer and graphic designer Marion Wörle and composer and guitarist Maciej Śledziecki) will present the fifth edition of their Aggregate Festival: New Works for Pipe Organ. I caught several concerts in the 2021 edition and I enjoyed the selection culled from the project’s history on the Wergo anthology Aggregate: New Works for Automated Pipe Organs. The endeavor focuses on how computers can control old-school pipe organs in rarely conceived fashion or using technically daunting if not humanly impossible procedures, a la Conlon Nancarrow’s wild player piano pieces. The curators enlist musicians and composers on both sides of the equation: some work primarily in electronic music, with no real understanding of pipe organs, while other figures are intimately connected with the instrument. Unfortunately, I’m out of town for this weekend’s concerts, but the single performance I’m most interested in experiencing actually falls a bit outside of the fest’s usual parameters; on Sunday, September 14 French keyboardist Frédéric Blondy—the artistic director of the magnificent improvising orchestra ONCEIM—will perform Occam Ocean XXV, the powerfully reduced piece Éliane created for him in 2018. (The program also includes pieces by Hanno Leichtmann and Gamut Inc). In a certain way Radigue has long been doing what Gamut Inc is engaged with, but rather than translating computer programs for an automated pipe organ, she has done it by hand, part of a much bigger project of bringing the soundworld she spent decades creating with feedback and analog synthesizers to conventional, mostly acoustic instruments, with greater precision, detail, and richness than ever. Although Radigue has apparently stopped creating new pieces, over the last couple of decades, she developed each work from the interpreters' individual, specialized languages.
A stunning recording of the piece was released in 2022 on the Organ Reframed label, which also happens to be the name of the organization that commissioned and first presented the piece. You can hear a four-minute excerpt of the piece below, but while it might provide a sense of the piece’s complexion, it fails to suggest its scope and subtle brilliance. Trust me, though, as the molasses-paced gradations and flow are stunning; it’s one of my favorites in the Occam series.
Organ Reframed was launched in 2016 by Scottish musician Claire M Singer at the Union Chapel in London, where she’s been the music director of organ since 2012. Singer is much of an advocate for the instrument as Gamut Inc, so it’s logical that she’s part of Saturday night’s program, which takes place at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. In her own music Singer is refreshingly open, taking all sorts of surprising twists and turns. Her most recent album Saor (Touch), which is Scottish Gaelic for “free,” delves into a wide variety of tactics, including a kind of spectral drone, field recordings, detail-rich ambient drift, and a few corny departures into pop-like organ tunes, all of it augmented by her own use of mellotron, harmonium, cello, and electronics. Given that range and expertise I’d expect something interesting. There will also be pieces from Gamut Inc in a collaborative piece with Sebastian Heindl, a major rising star in classical music and house organist at tonight’s venue, and Danish sound artist Mads Kjeldgaard.
Anzû Quartet Extends the End of Time
When Anzû Quartet—reedist and composer Ken Thomson, violinist Olivia da Prato, pianist Karl Larson, and cellist Ashley Bathgate—first performed in Berlin in November of 2021 they were playing Messiaen’s singular Quartet for the End of Time. So singular, of course, that the work’s unusual instrumentation makes it a difficult fit for most working ensembles with the same lineup since there isn’t too much out there to round out the repertoire. That’s exactly why Thomson formed the group in 2020: to celebrate the Messiaen piece by enlisting new works using the format. An account of the Messiaen classic by the quartet will see release this fall on Cantaloupe Records. Sadly, I wasn’t able to attend when the group returned with a 2022 performance at KM28 to play works by Thomson, Cassie Wieland, Josué Collado Fregoso, and Jonathan Bailey Holland and a world premiere Anna Webber piece, as early fruits of the new endeavor. This past spring the ensemble released its debut album adjust (Cantaloupe), which features Webber’s title composition and Thomson’s “Uneasy.” Both composers are serious improvising reedists with deep jazz backgrounds, but these works push in other directions. Thomson’s three-movement work is a compelling act of acceleration and complication, as lines pick up speed and seeming recklessness masterfully contained by the composer.
Webber’s piece is thornier, and includes space for ensemble members to improvise. On her brilliant 2019 album Clockwise she looked to a variety of 20th century composers for generative inspiration, homing in on specific techniques and vocabulary in the music of Cage, Xenakis, Feldman, Babbit, Stockhausen, and Varése and expanding them within a magnificent set of corkscrewing, demanding original works. A lot of the same cadences, harmonies, and energy populate her five-part piece, which will be revisited when Anzû returns to KM28 on Thursday, September 11. Webber has the musicians lean into extended techniques, articulate rapid shifts in direction, density, and velocity, and make direct input. You can check out the second movement below. It’s a new practice for Webber to write a piece that she doesn’t play on, but either way it remains an impressive piece, the kind of composition that rapidly improves with familiarity by the interpreters. The performance on the album is terrific, but I can imagine the intensity even more amped up now. The program is rounded out by new work from Mario Diaz De Leon and Aftab Darvishi, and the Scottish cellist Louise McMonagle will occupy the cello chair for this performance.
Tapping Into Xhosa Cole
I’ve heard the name of British reedist Xhosa Cole bandied about quite a bit in recent years, but I’m embarrassed to admit I hadn’t listened to any of his music until the January release of On a Modern Genius Vol. 1 (Stoney Land), a live Thelonious Monk homage that’s deep enough inside the material to bring something fresh to the table. Leading a nimble quartet with drummer Nathan England Jones, guitarist Steve Saunders, and double bassist Josh Vadiveloo, Cole tears into the tunes, skating through his spunky, well-proportioned tenor saxophone improvisations with seeming ease, quoting from other Monk tunes, and displaying an easygoing, alert rapport with his bandmates. But the primary conceptual wrinkle is the prominent role of US tap dancer Liberty Styles, whose sharp footwork becomes an equal part of the ensemble on the four tracks she’s on. As the band races through tempo shifts and altered attacks on “Rhythm-a-ning” the taps adjust no less adroitly—check it out below.
I can’t say I have much attraction to tap dancing as a sonic element, but it actually works here. Obviously tap dancing and jazz have an extensive history together, although the only recording featuring the marriage that readily pops into my head is Geri Allen’s Timeline Live album from 2009, where her trio was augmented by tap dancer Maurice Chestnut. I actually caught the group performing in Bergen, Norway around that time. I recently saw Cole perform at Jazzfest Saalfelden, although I could barely hear him. He was part of an improvising quartet with drummer Hamid Drake, guitarist Eva Mendoza, and Moroccan guimbri player Majid Bekkas, which also performed at the Pierre Boulez Saal here in Berlin last year. It wasn’t that the sound was problematic: it just seemed as though he couldn’t project through the din with his saxophone, although his flute playing was strangely more audible. There’s no question from the Monk record he’s got a big sound with fuel to burn, and anyone that can keep with Pat Thomas can’t be weak, so I’m not sure why his presence in the other quartet seemed so tentative. Anyway, he’s revisiting the Monk material over two nights at Sowieso this week. On Thursday, September 11 he’s joined by bassist Vadiveloo and dancer Styles, while on Friday, September 12 they’ll be joined by Berlin drummer Marius Wankel. I’m sure the drummer knows Monk’s music well, but I’m curious to see how he fits in with the strongly intuitive attack the rest of the band possesses.
Recommended Shows in Berlin This Week
September 9: Sound of Mu (Bo-Sung Kim, janggo, jing, kkwaenggwari, Oliver Potratz, electric bass, double bass, electronics, and Matthias Mainz, piano, seaboard, live electronics) with with Peter Ehwald, tenor and soprano saxophone, tárogató , 8 PM, studioboerne45, Börnestraße 43/45, 13086 Berlin
September 9: Rumble Phone Fish (Anna Kaluza, alto saxophone, Florian Müller, guitar, Ben Lehmann, double bass, and Martial Frenzel, drums), 8 PM, Panda Theater, Knaackstraße 97, (i.d. Kulturbrauerei, Gebäude 8) 10435, Berlin
September 9: Otis Sandsjö, tenor saxophone, Camila Nebbia, tenor saxophone, Marta Warelis, piano, and Kit Downes, piano, 8:30 PM, Kühlspot Social Club, Lehderstrasse 74-79, 13086 Berlin
September 9: Ensemble Adapter, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
September 9: Fink 70's Revisited (Silke Eberhard, alto saxophone, Johannes Fink, cello, and Tilo Weber, drums); SKOV (Eli Khentov, violin, Rudolfo Pacapelo, bass, Isabel Anders, piano, and Johannes Fink, cello), 8:30 PM, Kunstfabrik Schlot, Invalidenstraße 117, 10115 Berlin
September 10: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Vladimir Jurowski conductor, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano (Helmut Lachenmann, Dmitri Shostakovich), 8 PM,Philharmonie Berlin, main auditorium, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin
September 10: Klima Kalima (Kalle Kalima, guitar, Oliver Potratz, double bass, electric bass, and Oliver Steidle, drums), 8:30 PM, Jazz Club A-Trane, Bleibtreustraße 1, 10625 Berlin
September 10: Rodrigo Amado New Orbit (Rodrigo Amado, tenor saxophone, Joel Grip, double bass, and Michael Griener, drums) with guest Alexander von Schlippenbach, piano, 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
September 11: Anzu Quartet (Olivia De Prato, violin, Louise McMonagle, cello, Ken Thomson, clarinet, and Karl Larson, piano) play Mario Diaz De Leon, Aftab Darvishi, and Anna Webber, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
September 11: Xhosa Cole, tenor saxophone, Josh Vadiveloo, double bass, and Liberty Styles, tap dancing, perform the music of Thelonious Monk, 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
September 11: Basement Berlin (Silke Eberhard, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, Jerome Bugnon, trombone, Gebhard Ullmann, tenor saxophone, Oliver Potratz, double bass, and Mia Ohlmeier, drums), 8:30 PM, Kunstfabrik Schlot, Invalidenstraße 117, 10115 Berlin
September 12: Berliner Philharmoniker, François-Xavier Roth conductor (Pierre Boulez, Ondřej Adámek and Igor Stravinsky), 8 PM, Philharmonie Berlin, main auditorium, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin
September 12: im klang sein; Jonathan Heilbron, double bass, Joseph Houston, piano, Rebecca Lane, microtonal bass flute, and Vanessa Porter, percussion, play Klaus Lang, Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, and Sarah Hennies, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
September 12: Xhosa Cole, tenor saxophone, Josh Vadiveloo, double bass, Liberty Styles, tap dancing, and Marius Wankel, drums, perform the music of Thelonious Monk, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
September 12: Hayden Pedigo, 8:30 PM, Gretchen, Obentrautstr. 19-21, 10963 Berlin
September 12: Oversáez (Sandro Sáez, piano, Jonas Westergaard, double bass, and Nathan Ott, drums), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
September 12: Faces & Places (Michaël Attias, alto saxophone, Florian Müller, guitar, Jonas Westergaard, double bass, and Oliver Steidle, drums), 9 PM, Zig-Zag Jazz Club, Hauptstraße 89, 12159 Berlin
September 13: Berliner Philharmoniker, François-Xavier Roth conductor (Pierre Boulez, Ondřej Adámek and Igor Stravinsky), 7 PM, Philharmonie Berlin, main auditorium, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin
September 13: Carme López; Maria Rodés; Ubaldo, 8 PM, Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Arnimallee 25, 14195 Berlin
September 13: Aggregate Festival: New Works for Pipe Organ, with Claire M Singer; Gamut Inc (Marion Wörle and Maciej Śledziecki) with Sebastian Heindl; and Mads Kjeldgaard, 8 PM, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, Breitscheidplatz, 10789 Berlin
September 13: Jung-Jae Kim’s Shamanism (Jung-Jae Kim, tenor sax, piri, Brad Henkel, trumpet, Chris Heenan, contrabass clarinet, soprano sax, Marcello S. Busato, and Samuel Hall, drums, 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
September 14: hr-Sinfonieorchester (Rebecca Saunders, Gustav Mahler, and Helmut Lachenmann), 7 PM, Philharmonie Berlin, main auditorium, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin
September 14: Aggregate Festival: New Works for Pipe Organ, with Hanno Leichtmann; Gamut Inc (Marion Wörle and Maciej Śledziecki); Frederic Blondy plays Eliane Radigue’s Occam Ocean XXV, 8 PM, Sankt Hedwigs-Kathedrale, Bebelpl., 10117 Berlin
September 14: Maulwerker (Ariane Jeßulat, Henrik Kairies, Christian Kesten, Katarina Rasinski, Tilmann Walzer, and Steffi Weismann, voices, instruments, objects) play music by Antonia Baehr, Bryan Eubanks, Rolando Hernández Guzmá, and Pauline Oliveros, 8 PM, Ballhaus Ost, Pappelallee 15, 10437 Berlin
Digging OVERSÁEZ! A bit of Chick in there, but very much its own thing. And Anzû are a mighty force of nature.