Live at the Bird's Eye Heinrich von Kalnein & Meretrio

• 1Lamentos Sertanejos - Cerrado05:06
• 2Baque05:18
• 3Sexto Andar05:10
• 4Triangle07:27
• 5Entrelinhas04:44
• 6Lamentos Sertanejos - Caatinga06:00
• 7Berlin07:10
• 8Ancestral Contempora^neo06:08
• 9Beauty08:46
• Total Runtime55:49

Info for Live at the Bird's Eye

An absolutely organic mixture of Brazilian music and European jazz and an equally natural sound of exciting rhythms and beguiling melodies, acoustically perfectly staged.

"This new album is very special to me because it shows a beautiful blend of Brazilian music and European jazz in a very organic way. We have been developing the sound of this quartet since 2015 with my meretrio and Heinrich, and it's great to see the evolution of this band crystallizing with this new live album!" (Emiliano Sampaio)

Emiliano Sampaio tells us, "I had organized this almost three-week European tour for the quartet for the spring of 2020, as well as a trip to Brazil in August. We had our first production going at the time, freshly released the year before (NAT 47618 "Passagem") and were in a pretty good mood. Then the Corona virus, like all the others, threw a spanner in the works. Last year we were finally able to catch up on a whole series of concerts; in addition, we had the pleasure of a four-week stay in Australia in October!

During the spring concerts we had a three-day guest performance at "the bird's eye" jazz club in Basel; three evenings with three different formations. One of them was again the quartet with Heinrich and this evening we recorded live. The club has its very own acoustics, which the long-time manager, Swiss bassist Stefan Kurmann, had thought about for a long time together with international acoustic professionals. Everything is amplified, but you have the feeling as a musician as well as in the audience that the sound is completely natural. I think you can feel that very nicely in our recordings, too!

Again, the music comes from Gustavo, Heinrich and myself. Luis always has such the perspective of the critical listener and his input during the rehearsal phase is essential. Within the trio, Gustavo and I are quickly satisfied and it's good to have a critical mind in the band! This time there are clearly more influences especially from North Brazilian music, which you can hear well especially in Gustavo's tracks. "Baque" for example is such a rhythm. But also pieces like "Entrelinhas", where Heinrich plays a fantastic tenor solo, or my "Lamentos Sertanejos" show this well. Heinrich uses his flutes a lot with us, which I particularly like. His piece "Beauty" is my favorite in this regard. I myself am now also using my trombone in this band for the first time, and the sound I achieve with Heinrich, for example with the soprano in "Berlin" or also with the alto flute in "Sexto Andar" is super and really very special! This year, especially in autumn, there will be a whole series of very nice concerts again, which I am very much looking forward to. It's nice that we get to present our music live!"

"This album is the second manifestation of my ongoing collaboration with my friend Emiliano Sampaio and his incredible Meretrio, which has been going on for almost 20 years now. Each time we meet, our music becomes more colorful and varied, an ongoing journey into a new musical terrain full of exciting rhythms and beguiling melodies. I hope you, the listener, enjoy the music as much as I do!" (Heinrich von Kalnein)

Heinrich von Kalnein, saxophones, flutes
Emiliano Sampaio, electric guitar, trombone
Gustavo Boni, electric bass
Luis Oliveira, drums, percussion

Heinrich von Kalnein
Seit über 25 Jahren gehört der in Österreich lebende deutsche Saxofonist und Flötist zu den namhaften Musikern Europas. Als Leader wie auch als Sideman ist er auf über 40 CD’s vertreten, viele davon unter eigenem Namen. ​

John Coltrane, Jan Garbarek, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Gato Barbieri, Charles Lloyd, Gene Ammons, Stan Getz, Oliver Nelson, Joe Farrell, Michael Becker, Charlie Parker, Phil Woods, Julian Cannonball Adderley, David Sanborn, David Liebman, Bill Evans, Paul McCandless aber auch Christof Lauer und Heinz Sauer waren prägende Einflüsse.

Nach Unterricht bei Johannes Seidemann, Matthias Schwarzer und Christof Lauer absolvierte er ein mit Auszeichnung abgeschlossenes Studium am Grazer Jazzinstitut bei Karlheinz Miklin und Carl Drewo. Masterclass bei David Liebman sowie Workshops u.a. mit John Surman, Bob Berg und Oliver Lake.

In den späten 1980er Jahren begann er neben seiner Unterrichtstätigkeit als Hochschullehrer eine Karriere als freiberuflicher Musiker, die ihn durch ganz Europa, Nord- und Südamerika sowie Russland, Indien und Sri Lanka führte.

Zusammenarbeit u.a. mit Iain Ballamy, Django Bates, Theo Bleckmann, Carla Bley, Bob Brookmeyer, Jay Clayton, Kurt Elling, Gil Evans, Heiner Goebbels, John Hollenbeck, Jerry Granelli, Doug Hammond, John Hendricks, Marc Johnson, Sheila Jordan, Nguyên Lê, René Loussier, Charlie Mariano, Phil Minton, Bob Mintzer, Glen Moore, den New York Voices, Marc Ribot, Paquito d'Rivera, Arkady Shilkloper, Diane Schur, Dave Taylor, dem VAO und dem Vokalensemble Take 6.

Er war Kurator des renommierten Wiener Jazzclubs „Porgy&Bess“ und arbeitet seit einigen Jahren auch als Produzent und Aufnahmeleiter. Seit 2003 leitet er zusammen mit Trompeter / Vokalist Horst-Michael Schaffer die JBBG – JAZZ BIGBAND GRAZ (CD’s „A Life Affair“ 2003, „Joys & Desires“ 2006, „Electric Poetry & Lo-Fi Cookies“ 2008, „Urban Folktales“ 2012 und „True Stories“ 2016). 2008 gründete er sein Trio KAHIBA zusammen mit dem Schweizer Schlagzeuger Gregor Hilbe und Akkordeonist und Pianist Christian Bakanic (seit 2016 mit dem türkischen Pianisten Anıl Bilgen). CD Veröffentlichungen „Global Dialects“ 2009 „Orbital Spaces“ 2012, „The Sixth Sense“ 2014 und „aLive!“ 2018). Mit dem deutschen Gitarristen Axel Fischbacher gründete er 2016 das Quartett Kalnein & Fischbacher Group (CD „One Man Disco“).

Seit Mitte der 1980er Jahren beschäftigt er sich in seinen eigenen Projekten mit der improvisatorischen Verwendung von Live-Elektronik; zuerst im Trio „X-tra“ (zusammen mit Keyboarder Uli Rennert und Trompeter Lars Lindvall – u.a. LP „Electric Poems“ und CD „life traKs“), später mit dem Indojazz Fusion Projekt „Free Winds“ (CD’s „Free Winds“ und „Indian Air“) sowie aktuell mit seinem Trio KAHIBA (u.a. auch unter Verwendung einer iPhone App) und der JBBG Jazz Bigband Graz.

2012 gründete er sein eigenes Label Natango Music, unter dem er bis jetzt 7 Produktionen vorlegte.

This album contains no booklet.