Nuremberg (Germany)

Outstanding new release from clarinetist Rebecca Trescher, whose 2012 release, Sud, was pretty amazing in its own right.  Back with the same quintet, she continues working a modern chamber jazz sound that is full of introspective qualities, while finding a way to be so damn expressive that the music seeks out engagement wherever it can find it… even when it’s floating in contemplative serenity.

Trescher switches fluidly between clarinet and bass clarinet, is highly lyrical on both, and it’s just a question of whether she wants to fill out a particular song with darker or lighter tones of moonlight.  Opening track “Lofoten” fits the latter category, with a sudden surge of activity bursting forth from a sleepy introduction, whereas the brooding “Eine Frau die verschwindet” is more aptly defined by the former, with its low uneasy hum and the patient woodwind call over the curls and eddies of percussion and effects.  “Camille” also falls in line here, but its tone is one of tranquility, not anxiousness.

And while there are some mild effects utilized on the recording, they’re primarily relegated to the four “Flux” interludes.  It’s a nice touch, adding a little extra texture like that, but it’s nothing that should turn off jazz purists.

“The Red Line” and “Verzwickte Verzwickung” both go up-tempo, with the former an jittery motion to the latter’s pulsing cadence.  “Samarra” also charts an upbeat course, but it’s part of a shifting tide of rhythms that interact with a twisting melody like shadows of moving objects on a bed of sand awash in sunlight.

The album’s masterstroke is “Floodwater,” a song of tiny thrills from how clarinet, alto sax and guitar entwine melodic lines like vines growing up the rhythmic wall, expanding out in different directions but also keeping in touch with common threads.

Just a wonderful new release from the clarinetist, and a fine reason to to look forward to her next.

Your album personnel:  Rebecca Trescher (clarinet, bass clarinet), Julian Bossert (alto sax), Phillip Staffa (guitar, effects), Friedrich Betz (bass), and Tilman Herpichböhm (drums).

Released on Double Moon Records.

Jazz from the Nuremberg, Germany scene.

Available at:  Amazon

Some other stuff you should probably know:

I mentioned Trescher’s previous release, Sud.  It still comes highly recommended.  It was given the #20 slot on the Bird is the Worm Best of 2012 list.  Here’s a LINK to a small write-up of the album.

Some of this review was used originally in the weekly new jazz releases column I write for eMusic, so here’s some language protecting their rights to the reprinted material as the one to hire me to write about new jazz arrivals to their site…

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks,“ reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2014  eMusic.com, Inc.

As always, my sincere thanks to eMusic for the gig.