Exactly when and how the long neck lute ‘bouzouki’ first landed in Greece remains a mystery. Its roots go back to the fourth century before Christ. Named after the “Βυζί“, the Greek word for female breast, the current form of the instrument is relatively young and has been all over Athens and the Peloponnese since around 1920. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Magic Moments 17 "In The Spirit Of Jazz"
The annual albums in the ‘Magic Moments’ series, curated by ACT founder Siggi Loch, are among the most popular compilations in European jazz. The 17th edition, which will be released in 2024, is a particularly impressive demonstration of the unifying power of the idea of jazz: 18 pieces by four generations of musicians with strong influences from classical, pop and the music ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Compilations
Each new band in Joachim Kühn's creative career has marked a new departure for him, a broadening of his horizons. Now, in double bassist Thibault Cellier and drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq, the pianist has found two musicians with whom he can achieve the things that are important to him at this stage of his life, around his 80th birthday: to take a path which allows him even more freedom. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Something very special indeed is happening in the Spanish jazz scene. For a long time, its lively centres of Madrid, Barcelona and Seville tended to stay somewhat detached from the international jazz world. But in recent years a whole generation of Spanish jazz musicians has been rising to international renown: it is more than a ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
In the decade since it was founded, the German “Jazzrausch Bigband” has made a habit of combining things which are normally considered to be opposites: techno and jazz; classical and underground electronica; the concert hall and the club; the young and the old. A permanent awareness of dichotomy seems completely ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Big Band
Pianist Jan Lundgren from Ystad in Sweden and guitarist Yamandu Costa, from Brazil’s southernmost province Rio Grande del Sur might seem an unlikely pairing, and the combination of guitar and piano is well known to be fraught with difficulty. But the collaborative affinity of this duo, the chemistry which they have found through playing together, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
‘I keep thinking about how to lead a band from the drums in a way that gives the instrument a central role, but one which is more about shaping the music than displaying virtuosity,’ says Wolfgang Haffner. This way of working, a common thread throughout his career, is a key factor in ‘Life Rhythm’, his tenth album for ACT. Haffner may shun the virtuoso ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Now here’s a challenge: to take the fugue, possibly the most complex compositional procedure in Western classical music, and to transform it to reflect the modern age. The ‘New Piano Trio’ - violinist Florian Willeitner, cellist Ivan Turkalj and pianist Alexander Wienand – has taken this task to heart. Rather than being in any way daunted by the ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
Das Jahr 1994 war das Gründungsjahr der Nils Landgren Funk Unit. Als ich von Siggi Loch das Angebot bekam, Teil seines neuen Labels ACT werden, änderte er als erstes den ursprünglichen Bandnamen Unit zu Funk Unit. Als ich fragte, warum, antwortete er knapp: "Weil ihr Funk spielt" - und damit hatte er recht. Der Rest ist Geschichte. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
The Gallery Concerts III (Rag Bag)
„Mich faszinieren in der Musik, der Kunst und überhaupt im Leben die Widersprüche und Kontraste, die Synkopen, die Risse in der Zeit“, sagt der Pianist Bernd Lhotzky. Und so ist sein Soloalbum „Rag Bag“ eine Reise zwischen Zeiten und Welten, ein Flickenteppich aus unterschiedlichsten Motiven, Stilen und Assoziationen. Keimzelle der Musik des ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
In 1993, three musicians from Sweden, Esbjörn Svensson, Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström formed the band e.s.t.. Svensson and Öström had known each other ever since their first steps into music as children. Neither of them could have anticipated that e.s.t. would become the most influential band in European jazz of the noughties. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The Iiro Rantala HEL Trio is capable of incredible contrasts, and therein lies its appeal. As a pianist, Rantala can take the breath away both with his lightness of touch and the grace of his melodic lines. But then he can transform himself into other, very different characters: there is one who inspires laughter with ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Bloom, the ACT debut of pianist and composer Bill Laurance as leader, marks the transition from the smallest possible form of musical interaction to a large-scale, broadband format: Following the internationally acclaimed ACT release Where You Wish You Were in duo with multi-instrumentalist and Snarky Puppy bandmate Michael League, Laurance now teams up with Manchester-based 18-piece string orchestra ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
How do you follow up a successful album like “Americana”? Released in April 2020, it not only received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, it has also registered streaming statistics approaching ten million. It brought together harmonica player Grégoire Maret and pianist Romain Collin, performing in a trio ...
Composer: Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Kleiner Impuls, große Wirkung - dafür steht der Begriff „Butterfly Effect“. Schon der Flügelschlag eines Schmetterlings an einem Punkt der Erde kann eine Kette von Ereignissen auslösen, die an einem weit entfernten Ort gewaltige Veränderungen zur Folge haben. Im Falle des Duos von Saxofonist, Flötist und Klarinettist Magnus Lindgren und Pianist ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
"I love the music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan," says Icelandic guitarist Mikael Máni. "I think that's the main reason why I often write songs for the guitar that could just as easily be sung." Those words bring us to the core of what "Guitar Poetry", Máni’s debut release on ACT, is all about. This album introduces an instrumentalist who brings ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Anna Gréta goes gentle...into her second album on ACT, “Star of Spring”. The Reykjavik-born pianist, singer and a songwriter, who has lived in Stockholm since 2014, has her own way of approaching the art of quiet, artful, deeply personal songs, often drawing inspiration from the beauty and power of Iceland’s natural ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Any conversation about the piano trio in the European jazz of recent decades will inevitably touch on the topic of the "Nordic sound". The leading exponents of it – Jan Johansson, Bobo Stenson, Bugge Wesseltoft, Esbjörn Svensson… – have not just drawn on the vast palette of American jazz, they are also musicians steeped in the ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Viktoria Tolstoy's ACT debut album, "Shining On You" from 2004, can now be seen as a defining moment, marking the beginning of the continuing success story of popular jazz voices from Scandinavia. The music was written by Esbjörn Svensson, who also formed the core band together with Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström and was soon to become world-famous ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
When accidents happen, they are normally over in seconds, sometimes minutes; this one has been going on for 20 years. It is two decades since the members of Emile Parisien’s quartet played a jam session together. At the end, they looked at each other in disbelief. They had not just been hit by a collective musical ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
