Search - Wolfert Brederode, Claudio Puntin, Mats Eilertsen :: Currents

The gentle pulsations of the piano of Wolfert Brederode have played a significant role on April and Compass, ECM recordings of singer Susanne Abbuehl. Now the Dutch pianist (born 1974, in Wassenaar near Den Haag) steps forward to lead a group of gifted players - clarinettist Claudio Puntin and drummer Samuel Rohrer from Switzerland, and Norwegian bassist Mats Eilertsen - all of whom commit their improvisational energies to the lyric flow of his music, its chamber music sensibility, and the slow-drifting currents of its river of sound. Currents, recorded at Oslo's Rainbow Studio, is Brederode's ECM leader debut. Distinctive in its own right, Brederode's music can also be viewed in the wider context of the developing `traditions' of chamber jazz. The quartet's contrapuntal improvising and its melodies, shared between clarinet and piano, may bring to mind vintage Jimmy Giuffre and Paul Bley collaborations, important influences on music at ECM: the harmonic palette of the Giuffre 3, of course, drew influence from 20th century composition, as do these players. Wolfert Brederode studied classical and jazz piano at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and clarinettist Claudio Puntin is active in both jazz and contemporary music - he has worked with, for example, the Ensemble Modern. Brederode's touch as a player is a poetic one, aptly so given the ongoing collaboration with singer Susanne Abbuehl. Susanne is co-composer of one piece here, the E.E. Cummings-inspired "As You July Me", a piece from the Abbuehl band repertoire. Everything else here on Currents is from the leader's pen.