The New Cool David Helbock, Sebastian Studnitzky, Arne Jansen

• 1I Remember Clifford03:48
• 2Pandemic of Ignorance04:27
• 3Op. 28, No. 4: Prelude in E Minor03:20
• 4Truth04:28
• 5Hymn for Sophie Scholl04:47
• 6Time After Time05:09
• 7Solidarity Rock05:02
• 8I Feel Free05:40
• 9On the Shore03:19
• 10Korona Solitude #103:47
• 11Angel Eyes04:40
• 12Surrounded by the Night05:07
• Total Runtime53:34

Info for The New Cool

Three renowned bandleaders & solo artists of European jazz come together to form a very special trio. What unites them is the love for clear themes, melodies, harmonies, with a strong rhythmic grounding. Qualities that originate in the cool jazz of the 40s and 50s which philosophy the trio continues using the jazz vocabulary of today.

David Helbock’s fine musicianship goes hand in hand with a remarkable ability to communicate on several levels. As British writer Peter Bacon has written, there is “much to intrigue the mind, much to warm the heart and much to tickle the funny bone.” German critic Roland Spiegel has elegantly described his music as “never cerebral, but captivating both the head and the body....” For his new album the Austrian-born pianist brings those strengths and that ability to engage and appeal to audiences into a new and different venture.

“It was my wish to cool things down a bit,” he explains. He has formed a new trio with guitarist Arne Jansen and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky, and it is clear when he talks about it how far he has already moved on since his previous group: “In the Random Control Trio we had a lot of instruments on the stage, there was a lot of changing from one instrument to another… and a lot of notes.” And the new group? “It is more about emotions. And emotions are the most important thing in music.

This trio has are other differences from his previous groups: in the past, his bands have been made up of musicians from his native Austria. But he has now been living in Berlin for five years, and “The New Cool” presents his first group formed with players who have also adopted Berlin as their home city. With Arne Jansen, originally from Kiel, what appeals to Helbock is that “he is such an unselfish player, very centred and very calm – and subtle too. With him it’s all about the music.” Studnitzky is originally from the Black Forest, and Helbock likes “his style of playing with that very airy sound” and the fact the range of timbres and moods he creates with just one effects device. And how does it work in the trio? “All three of us are melody players, but we are all capable of holding back and giving space to the others.”

It would be wrong, however, to see the elegaic feel of much of this album as a response to the pandemic. Helbock and producer Siggi Loch were having “a productive and fruitful discussion” about these ideas a full year before the recording sessions took place at the Emil Berliner studios in August 2020. Loch has a fascination for the way cool jazz “turned the wheel around” to connect with a wide audience, and references and connections with the cool jazz movement are scattered throughout this album. It is also the very first time that Helbock has included a tune by his teacher for over a decade, American pianist Peter Madsen, who toured extensively with Stan Getz and also taught Maria Schneider.

While the overall mood and vibe of “The New Cool” tends towards the lyrical and the spacious, the range of expression is remarkably wide. The fine filigree piano opening of “I Feel Free” is in complete contrast to the anthemic grandeur which the trio reaches at the peak of “Angel Eyes”. Helbock also has a remarkable way of setting the tone of piece from the very first utterance: “Hymn for Sophie Scholl” is softly elegaic, whereas the forward momentum of “Truth” sounds like it could easily do duty as a film or TV theme.

Helbock has been inspired by the innovations and concepts of Lennie Tristano, and his sense of affinity with the Chicago-born genius runs deep. Tristano once decreed that "the jazz musician's function is to feel.” Helbock Jansen and Studnitzky have taken that maxim to their hearts. In “The New Cool” it becomes a totally convincing and natural way to make music; and to be.

David Helbock, piano
Sebastian Studnitzky, trumpet
Arne Jansen, guitar

Recorded by Thomas Schöttel at Emil Berliner Studios Berlin, 17. & 18. August 2020
Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann
Produced by Siggi Loch

David Helbock
Zweimal Preisträger und der Publikumspreis beim weltweit größten Jazz-Piano-Solo-Wettbewerb des Jazzfestivals Montreux, begeisterte/internationale Kritiken für seine CDs und der wichtigste Förderpreis des Bundes Österreich 2011 - der "Outstanding Artist Award" - der aus dem kleinen österreichischen Dorf Koblach stammende Pianist David Helbock ist zweifellos auf dem besten Weg zu einer internationalen Karriere.

Helbock ist aber nicht nur ein hervorragender Pianist, sondern auch ein eigenwilliger Denker, der in seine Projekte nicht nur außerordentliche Fingerfertigkeit, sondern auch jede Menge Hirnschmalz investiert.

David Helbock, am 28. Jänner 1984 geboren, begann im Alter von sechs Jahren Klavier zu spielen.

Er studierte am Konservatorium Feldkirch bei Prof. Ferenc Bognar Klavier, wo er 2005 sein klassisches Konzertfach-Diplom mit Auszeichnung abschloss und nahm seit 2000 zusätzlich Unterricht beim New Yorker Jazzpianisten Peter Madsen, der sein Lehrer, Mentor und Freund wurde.

David Helbock spielte Konzerttourneen und Aufnahmen in Länder wie den USA, Australien, Mexiko, Russland, Kasachstan, Kirgisistan, China, Mongolei, Südafrika, Äthiopien, Kenia, Senegal, Marokko, Indonesien, Malaysia, Indien, Brasilien, Argentinien, Chile und überall in Europa.

David Helbock ist seit Beginn seiner Musikerlaufbahn außerdem als Komponist sehr aktiv. Zu seinen Werken zählt ein großes „Jahreskompositionsprojekt“ in dem er für ein Jahr lang jeden Tag ein neues Stück geschrieben hat (Anfang 2010 ist das "Personal Realbook" mit über 600 Seiten Musik erschienen)

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Booklet for The New Cool