Search - Kurt Weill, Daniel Humair, Joachim Kuhn :: Music From The Threepenny Opera - Die Dreigroschenoper - L'Opera de Quat'sous

A great version of Mack-The-Knife in avant-guard piano trio

M. Rodriguez Frederic | 07/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album dates back to 1996 & this is an incredible piano trio.
Joachim Kuhn is a brilliant German pianist and belongs to jazz avant-guard (He played with Ornette Coleman among others...). So what you've got here is no mainstream. But the work is quite interesting, and chiefly quite exciting : Pianist Kuhn formed a superlative trio with drummer Daniel Humair (remember he played with Kenny Barron on the highly acclaimed "Scratch" (1985) and also with French pianist Martial Solal and bassist NHOP...) and late great bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark... The music on this disc is not completely their own: it's from Kurt Weil famous repertoire. Mack The Knife, remember ? It's him. Kurt Weil (1900-1950) was an important figure in German musical life during the period of the Weimar Republic. He left Germany in 1933 as many artists at the time (Fritz Lang, Betold Brecht...) and later became a citizen of the United States of America, turning his musical attention to compositions for Broadway. His most famous work is this ThreePenny Opera (Bertold Brescht would write the lyrics) including Mack-The-Knife (which won eternal fame thanks to the interpretations by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis...)
In the format of the jazz piano trio, the three guys seem full of fire (like the picture on the cover) and actually they are : AND full of ideas... Music from hell ? Jazz is a bit of that, isn't it ? No, it's not a music from hell. Barbara song is a superb ballad and Mack-The-Knife (last track)is not that discontructed. You've got here what I like most in a jazz piano trio :
1) Great players really open
2) creative spirits
3) A trio with three musicians with their own creative urges
4) reacting to each other's impulses
5) and this is no shooting line !
= That's all that happens here.
For the fans, there is also the great "Triple Entente" by the same trio (1997). After the recording of the latter, great bassist Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark passed away. But Three Penny Opera might be their best work. CHECK OUT !"