Wow, what an album! Precise musical ruminations in a cool and thoughtful setting but with determination and drive that manages to encompass both past and future. This surprisingly excellent album by Niescier and Weber explores many sentiments in a cohesive and collaborative way with their North American partners on ambitious compositions that provide a fertile platform for the hard work to come. Great quintet play. Not sure why so many critics missed this one.
Looking to re-create the excitement of New York City’s vibrancy in music, the group consisting of Angelika Niescier on saxophone, Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Florian Weber on piano, Christopher Tordini on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, create colorful and spirited music on this album. “The Barn Thing” opens the album with choppy horns and spirited rhythm accompaniment. The full band interplay is fast and intricate with heavy drops of piano and rapid drumming. The leader’s saxophone comes into the frame, soloing and keeping the fast pace going. There is an excellent quartet section with everyone just playing lights out, made even more intense by the entry of Alessi’s trumpet. The music is relentless and very exciting and the group runs full tilt to the finish line. Swirling saxophone and trumpet keep the music moving briskly forward on “And Over” and the group brings music forward in waves, before it crests and Weber’s piano takes over, casting the music in a more delicate and thoughtful manner. Light and nimble saxophone is added, and the trumpet joins in adding lyrical qualities to the proceedings. The music drops dynamically to spare piano and cymbals before coalescing at the end. “Invaded” slows things down a little bit with a open ballad type feel. There is gentle and light toned saxophone over spare piano, bass and brushes. They develop a melancholy air to the music, which changes markedly on “The Liquid Stone” where the leader’s strutting saxophone is framed by trumpet and cymbals and cultivates music that is characterized by nervousness and unease. There is a spacious interlude for the rhythm section that gradually gathers steam aided by smears and sparks of brass that enter the stream of the music. The strong drumming and piercing trumpet are very impressive, and Niescier engages with her fellow musicians setting up a powerful collective group improvisation. “Parsifal” brings the intensity back down to a simmer, with light trumpet and spacious rhythm accompaniment. Saxophone and trumpet gently probe the music while delicate brushes and bass provide a subtle backdrop. The swirling brushes plus the thick and ever present bass provide a quiet focus for this track. The concluding selection “Für Krefeld” sees the band opening together nicely with the saxophone building over piano, bass and drums with trumpet riding shotgun. The horns push the tempo over taut rhythm of strong piano and drums and stoic bass. The piano and drums are very strong and exciting, making for a complicated and interesting rhythmic foundation allowing the horns to blast back in and enjoy the fun. This leads to an exciting saxophone and drums based conversation, before Alessi takes the baton and drives home a very powerful statement of his own.
I've been a fan of Cologne-based Polish saxophonist Angelika Niescier for quite a few years, and my admiration was cemented when she played at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of European Jazz Meets Chicago in 2012. At Moers she was partnered with bassist Yasser Morejon Pino and drummer Ruy Adrian López-Nussa, who also serve as the deft rhythm section for explosive Cuban pianist Harold López-Nussa. That pianist is a fiery performer, and together their playing bursts with high-energy pyrotechnics. With Niescier they were cooler, trusting in their rapport and focusing on a subtler but no less rewarding approach. Niescier evoked the disparate sounds of two alto greats—the bright melodies of Ornette Coleman and the airy bounce and rhythmic grace of Lee Konitz—and the trio's entirely improvised performance traversed lots of peaks and valleys, fueled by deep, organic grooves.
Earlier this year Niescier released a fantastic album with German pianist Florian Weber called NYC Five (Intakt), titled thusly because it was made in New York with drummer Tyshawn Sorey, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, and bassist Chris Tordini. Both of the Germans have worked in New York often, and the saxophonist's previous studio album, 2011's Quite Simply (Enja), was made with Sorey and bassist Tomas Morgan—as a result, this doesn't feel like a pickup session, where visiting musicians hire a top-flight band to burnish their own reputations but end up generating few creative sparks. Each of the leaders wrote half of the six tunes, and Niescier brings an aggressive, driving vibe, while Weber generally opts for a more contemplative feel. Below you can hear the album's opening cut, Niescier's "The Barn Thing," a tightly coiled burner that constantly seems on the verge of exploding but instead stays reined in throughout its series of concise solos stoked by Sorey and Tordini.
NYC Five is a beautifully constructed album of songs by one of the most extroverted saxophonists in Europe. Angelika Niescier might not be a name many are familiar with but the Cologne-based alto saxophonist inhabits many worlds seemingly at once. The music that is improvised is strikingly majestic and the written work – especially the ballad, Invaded – is likely to tear your heart out for its deep emotion and exquisite showers of notes by the pianist Florian Weber. The ubiquitous American drummer Tyshawn Sorey makes an electrifying appearance wherever he goes and this record is no exception. Watch out for the lightness and bounce of Ralph Alessi’s trumpet – the other American of repute on the album.
Angelika Niescier NYC FIVE Trailer from Angelika Niescier on Vimeo.
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