Musicians: Charlotte Greve as, Manuel Schmiedel p, Marc Muellbauer b, Martin Krümmling dr
Recording date: 2009
The series „Jazz thing Next Generation“, where Esther Kaiser, Anette von Eichel, Ignaz Dinné, Benjamin Schäfer, Martin Auer, Oktoposse, Cyminology, Christian Krischkowsky, Nadia Maria Fischer, Gary Fuhrmann, Tré, Coustics, Tobi Hofmann, Frederik Köster, HDV-Trio, Jochen Baldes, Tim Rodig, Subtone, Adrian Reiter, Christof May, Lorenz Hargassner, Max Frankl, Jacobien Vlasman, Andi Kissenbeck, Croomp, Sebastian Gahler, Felix Heydemann, Sebastian Sternal und Metamorphosis released their debut on Double Moon Records veröffentlicht haben, is being continued by Vol. 30 - six successful years of supporting young acts!
We should not overuse the term "child prodigy", even if this is what you want to say automatically when a young lady only 20 years old founds her own band and then records her first CD shortly afterward. When the whole project is also then light years from sounding like a school band, then at the latest you should start to listen more closely to the alto sax player Charlotte Greve. She is not just simply talented. She was already a member of the State Youth Jazz Orchestra when she was 16 and since then has won several music and solo playing prizes on the state and national levels as an alto sax player in various bands. She is also unbelievably hard-working; she took lessons from Loren Stillman, Dick Oatts and David Binney, among others, and is currently studying under Peter Weniger in Berlin. In addition to all of that, she has an unbridled urge to be creative and shape music as well as substantial powers of self-assertion, which a band simply has to have.
The band members have already demonstrated their own merits too. The most well known of them is Marc Muellbauer on bass. Julia Hülsmann has put her trust in his playing for the past 12 years, and he also plays on the most recent ECM album. Martin Krümmling has been a member of BuJazzO since 2006, but also provides the rhythm in David Friedman's trio (he also studied under him, among others). Manuel Schmiedel (born 1987) from Baden-Wurttemberg is the second youngest member of the band: he studied under Prof. Wolfgang Köhler in Berlin and is already a pianist much in demand in that city.
One reason why this quartet has found its own voice is that the majority of the pieces were composed by the band leader and one by the pianist. The CD is rounded out by a Sam Rivers' piece and a standard ("All or Nothing at All") as well as a Tom Waits song, which is played by others rather rarely: "Johnsburg, Illinois"
This is an organic growth of music with stable roots based in instrumental skills, a powerful corpus rich in ideas and branches full of blossoms – sometimes shooting out powerfully and sometimes with the pleasant scent of ballads.
Experienced co-musicians have already realized what the future will bring us:
"Charlotte is a great young player. Beautiful sound and intonation. Her ballad playing especially is wise way beyond her years. A very good first recording.” (David Binney)
"The talent for music and the instinct of Charlotte's playing and compositions bring a lot of sunshine into life. Her power is a gift of nature, infectious!" (Claudio Puntin).
Homepage: www.myspace.com/lisbethquartett