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Michael Wollny at Kings Place Photo credit: David Forman |
(Kings Place Hall One. 18 May 2018. Review by Sebastian Scotney)
“I have become increasingly interested in the moments between the songs,” pianist Michael Wollny told an interviewer (*) recently. “The piece gets going, then something happens and that leads somewhere.” His trio, he also said, over the past two years has slowly developed a way of playing that is completely “flüssig” (the German word carries the sense of both ‘fluid’ and ‘free-flowing’). All that was very much in evidence at Friday’s concert in Kings Place Hall One. Wollny’s trio doesn’t play just single tunes, they tend to be offered as diptychs, triptychs, handfuls – sometimes even more.
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L-R: Michael Wollny, Christian Weber, Erik Schaefer Photo credit: David Forman |
Saturday’s Kings Place concert was different. Compared to the album, this was an even wilder ride – harder-hitting, more into abstraction and free improvisation. There were more compositions by drummer Eric Schaefer, and it was his variety and dynamic range from the the lightest taps with the hand on the skin of a drum to being at the heart of full-on intensity builds that was much more to the fore than on Wartburg.
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Eric Schaefer Photo credit: David Forman |
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Christian Weber Photo credit: David Forman |
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Receiving the applause from an enthusiastic Kings Place audience Photo credit: David Forman |
SET LIST
Atavus (E Schaefer)
Big Louise (Scott Walker)
Perpetuum Mobile (E Schaefer)
Inerludium (Hindemith)
Farbenlehre (Wollny)
Gravite (E Schaefer)
Nuits Blanches (Debussy)
Roses are Black (Heinz Sauer)
When the Sleeper Wakes ( Wollny)
Lasse! Comment oublieray (Guillaume de Machaut)
Gorilla Buiscuits (E. Schaefer)
Encores –
White Moon (Chris Beier)
Phlegma Phighter (E Schaefer)
(*) Stefan Hentz in the May/ June issue of Jazzthetik
LINK: Michael Wollny Artist Page at ACT Music
Categories: Live reviews
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