Written by German-American pianist Benjamin Lackner makes his ECM debut with a quartet consisting of Manu Katché on drums, trumpeter Mathias Eick and Jérôme Regard on bass. Released today, the album’s striking lyrical quality to Benjamin’s compositions open up many possibilities for his colleagues to inject the music with their own character.
The chemistry between pianist Benjamin Lackner and Jérôme Regard can be traced back to 2006, when Jérôme first joined Benjamin’s trio. Various incarnations of the trio produced six albums between 2004 and 2019 – Jérôme appears on half of them. Now having to expand his compositional framework from trio to quartet, Benjamin recognizes new opportunities and finds freedom in having a melodic partner on horn.
Born in Berlin in 1976, the German-American pianist Benny Lackner moved to California when he was 13, and later on to New York. After traveling between two continents for many years, in 2008, he permanently returned to Berlin. According to Lackner, life on the road was something he had grown accustomed to, but eventually, he just wanted to settle in and be at home in one place.
Speak about the new album Lackner explained “We decided early on that this would be an acoustic record, which made it easier for me to focus on a direction and allowed me to rediscover the piano more intimately”, explains Benjamin. “I worked on finding grooves that allowed me to conceptualize melodies in a more open way. With a horn player in the band, I had to come up with different harmony parts on piano than what I’m used to, and think of the trumpet as the leading voice, which is new territory for me, too, since I tend to play mostly in solo or trio settings. It was an inspiring change to write with Mathias in mind because his phrasing fits perfectly to the way I hear melodic material.”
Between them, Manu Katché and Mathias Eick have appeared on over twenty albums for the ECM label with numerous leader-dates each. Mathias was also part of Playground (2007), Manu Katché’s second album for ECM. Their contributions to this quartet are highly distinctive, Katché’s drum patterns exude both natural spaciousness and a particular confidence, while Eick’s trumpet tone transcends the textures. Lackner: “In the studio, my colleagues were very open minded and helpful in the arrangement process of the music and we ended up making several changes that gave my compositions exactly the final touch they needed. Manu spontaneously added unique rhythmic accents and the session had an overall feeling of freshness because it was all new to all of us.”
This freshness is apparent from the start, as is Benjamin’s ability to compose frameworks within which his sidemen’s exceptional abilities can unfold completely. “Where Do We Go From Here” opens the proceedings with a rubato that has Katché exploring the cymbals before switching to a more robust rhythmic foundation for “Circular Confidence”, a song that finds piano and trumpet sharing the melodic themes in equal parts.
Throughout, Jérôme Regard serves as both harmonic partner and grounding force, navigating the entirety of the double bass fingerboard with elasticity and elegance, often interlocking with Katché’s different emphases in the process. The programme is made up of exclusively Lackner originals, except for “Émile”, named after Jérôme’s son. The bassist improvised the music on the spot in the studio, capturing his instrument’s pristine acoustics. On “Camino Cielo”, named after the mountain range in California where Benjamin Lackner’s ancestors emigrated to from Germany in the 1930s, the bass blends in with the band in an especially smooth way, so that the remarkable interplay of the group becomes the centre of attention, not the solos. Which is true for most of the music on the album.
On “Hung Up On That Ghost”, the title track, “Remember This” or “Open Minds Lost” it’s never just about the individual but about the sum of the parts. In this case, the sum of four musicians improvising over thoroughly wrought designs with precision, mindfulness for each other and Manfred Eicher’s guidance as producer, which, as Benjamin stresses, “helped shape the improvisations in a way I have never experienced before.”
Closer “My People”, originally intended as a strict 11/4-time, was collectively refashioned into a loose rubato head with a jam-friendly middle-section in the studio and summarizes many of the idioms introduced previously. It reinforces the idea that Last Decade builds on the strengths of each member of the quartet, as they work together to create a greater whole.
Benjamin Lackner and his quartet will be presenting music off Last Decade through Europe in January, Concert dates are listed below.
13.01.2023 Jazzhaus Freiburg Germany
14.01.2023 Domicil Dortmund Germany
15.01.2023 Flagey Brussels Belgium
16.01.2023 Café Hahn Koblenz Germany
19.01.2023 Opderschmelz Dudelange Luxembourg
20.01.2023 Nasjonal Jazzscene, Victoria Oslo Norway
29.01.2023 Theater Regensburg Germany
Line-Up:
Benjamin Lackner, Piano | Mathias Eick, Trumpet, Voice | Jérôme Regard, Double Bass | Manu Katché, Drums
Track Listing:
1. Where Do We Go From Here 3:57 | 2. Circular Confidence 6:23 | 3. Camino Cielo 5:15 | 4. Hung Up On That Ghost 5:55 | 5. Last Decade 5:52 | 6. Remember This 2:44 | 7. Open Minds Lost 4:18 | 8. Émile 2:18 | 9. My People 4:50
Release Date: October 14, 2022
Format: CD | LP | Digital
Label: ECM Records
New Release Spotify Playlist
The Jazz In Europe New Release playlist features tracks from the new releases featured on Jazz In Europe. Updated weekly, this playlist is the perfect place to discover new music from the leading jazz musicians currently on the scene. We hope you enjoy this selection.
Last modified: October 14, 2022
