Moods Zürich – musicophilesblog – From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms

Omer Klein Trio Live at Moods Zurich – Jan 18, 2018 – Groovy Baby!

Omer Klein Trio

I got a lot of feedback on the different channels about my post of the Top 5 Jazz Albums of 2017. Among others from fellow music lover and blogger Melvin.

He recommended Omer Klein´s latest album Sleepwalkers. I must admit I had never heard the name before. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad sign, given how much I care about this kind of music, but probably it just speaks to the fact that we’re truly living in the Golden Age of the Piano Trio with so many fantastic artists out there.

Omer Klein is yet another pianist coming out of Israel, like so many other excellent Jazz musicians (how does such a small country do that?).

Anyhow when I noticed that Klein was scheduled for last Sunday and I happened to be in Switzerland that weekend, I knew what I had to do.

Omer Klein Trio Live At Moods – January 18, 2018

Moods remains my favorite Jazz club in Switzerland. Just the right size, good acoustics, nice drinks, and an excellent program.

So, what did we get?

Let me start by say that what I thought from my original listening to Sleepwalkers confirmed itself. As you know if you read my blog on a regular basis, I’m a sucker for melodies. Omer Klein´s trio is much more focused on rhythms and modal changes than on melodies.

Omer Klein Live At Moods Jan 18, 2018 (c) Musicophile — Omer Klein

So initially, for the first moments, I was a bit skeptical.

However, I was very quickly won over by the sheer musical power this trio had to offer. The technical abilities of all three musicians, including Haggai Cohen Milo on bass, were just outstanding. Nothing ever seemed complicated to them, they played with so much ease and fun the most complex passages, I was just blown away.

Haggai Cohen Milo with the Omer Klein Trio Live At Moods Jan 18, 2018 (c) Musicophile — Haggai Cohen-Milo

But let’s be clear, this was never technical ability for the sake of it, this was always just driven by the music. All three musicians are clearly passionate about what they are doing, and were visibly having fun during the concert.

Amir Bresler with the Omer Klein Trio Live at Moods January 18, 2018 (c) Musicophile — Amir Bresler

In a way, the real driving force behind most songs was the spectacular Amir Bresler on drums. His drive and groove was just fantastics (hence the slightly cheesy title of this blog post borrowed from Austin Powers).

Very interestingly, this trio didn’t follow the typical format of Jazz concerts, where after the intro the musicians get to solo. They played constantly in a very intertwined way (only in the very last song, Bressler got to show off a bit). Songs typically lasted 8-10 minutes and more, and were never boring in any way. Also, there wasn’t´a single standard in the entire concert, only originals.

Overall, an excellent concert. The audience was amazed, and so was I.

If you get a chance to see them live, please do. They are exceptional musicians.

And if they don’t play near you, luckily this concert was recorded and will be put onto the Moods.digital streaming website. This is a subscription well worth having, as you can access all concerts since early 2017 at Moods, recorded in excellent audio and video. I´ll publish a link later when it becomes available.

My Top 5 Jazz Albums of 2017

Following my Top 5 Classical Albums of 2017 published some days ago, let me now write about my favorite Jazz albums.

2017 hasn’t been particularly impressive for me in terms of quantity of new Jazz albums that I really loved. I found myself more and more writing about classical music, or older recordings.

Not sure if this reflects a general slowdown of new Jazz releases or simply that my taste is rather particular. In any case, I also checked for reference some of the other top 2017 lists for Jazz, and didn’t find anything particularly exciting that I had missed.

But maybe you disagree? Let me know?

So here we go, here is my list for 2017. Note that while my Top 5 Classical list only had 5 star ratings, I also had to include two 4 star albums in here, just to make the numbers.

If you’ve been following my blog for a bit, you won’t be surprised to see a large number of piano trio albums here, my favorite genre.

You’ll find download links to each album in the original reviews of the albums that are linked.

Cecile McLorin Salvant: Dreams and Daggers

Cecile McLorin Salvant Dreams and Daggers 24 96 MackAvenue 2017

Well, let’s start strong anyhow: I’ve already postulated early on that Cécile McLorin Salvant could be the THE Jazz singer of the 21st century. It didn’t take rocket science nor a truffle dog to find this, in spite of her young age, she’s received praise from all over the world, including a Grammy nomination in 2014.

Dreams and Daggers is another masterpiece, with a nice mix of standards and originals, and a must have for any Jazz lover.

You´ll find my original review here.

Helge Lien: Guzuguzu

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I’ve been a great fan of Helge Lien for years, since I discovered Hello Troll. Guzuguzu really confirms that he’s one of the most talented Jazz trio artists out there. As I wrote in my review, it combines “Scandinavian lyricism combined with often extremely complex rhythms”. I think there´s nothing much to add here.

See my original review here.

Triosence: Hidden Beauty

Triosence: Hidden Beauty (24/96) Okeh 2017

Don’t get deterred by the cover art. Germany´s Triosence is one of the stars of Jazz trio based heavily on beautiful melodies and harmonies. Some would argue this is not Jazz, I don’t even bother to argue, as I simply like it very much.

You’ll find my original review here.

Tingvall Trio: Cirklar

Tingvall Trio Cirklar 24/96 2017 Skip Records

Tingvall Trio is another German group if you count there home base in Hamburg, but actually are much more international if you look at the members of the trio.

Cirklar is very good, if not their best album ever, but if you like their style (and they have a very strong regional following), you should really check this out.

You’ll find my original review here.

Shai Maestro Live at Moods

Shai Maestro on piano live at Moods March 17, 2017 (c) Musicophile — Shai Maestro Live At Moods March 17, 2017 (c) Musicophile)

My last album actually isn’t an album at all. It is the captured videostream of an outstanding concert I attended this March at Moods Zurich, the best Jazz club in town.

You’ll find my original writeup of Shai Maestro´s concert here, and it was truly an outstanding concert.

But for once, you don’t have to take my word for it. Moods has recently installed what they call Moods.digital, basically a platform video streaming and archiving all concerts at Moods.

And I was really lucky, the technology just went live shortly before this concert. So with a subscription fee (you can cancel anytime if you don’t like it) you can now watch the entire back catalog of recorded concerts at moods with outstanding video and very good audio quality. Check out my article about it here. And no, I’m not getting sponsored for writing this.

What do you think?

My list is obviously very biased, very personal, but such is my entire blog.

Did I miss anything? I´d very much like to hear about your personal favorites for 2017.

GoGo Penguin Live At Moods, Zürich – May 8, 2016 – A Review

Jazz has a problem. An age problem. I go to many Jazz concerts, and unfortunately, the typical spectator at such a concert is male, middle-aged at least, and grey haired.

I guess the times of Jazz being the music of the cool kids is over since the 1960’s, and overall this genre has been niched too much as intellectual, and has very little presence in the mainstream media and the public mind. Women and younger people are often clear minorities at this kind of concert.

Therefore I was very happy to see that I was able to attend a Jazz concert where not only the musicians where all in their early thirties, but the average age of the audience must have been not more than 25! Also both genders were pretty much equally represented. A very refreshing sight.

So who was able to pull these younger crowds into Moods, the best Jazz club in Zurich?

GoGo Penguin Live At Moods

Well, obviously we’re talking about GoGo Penguin. I’ve already praised their recent release Man Made Object previously, and was very happy to have such a musically rewarding weekend after seeing Michael Wollny’s trio just the day before.

So, how did it go?

Well, first of all, I was impressed. The trio sound of GoGo Penguin is very much influenced by Electronica, so I imagined a fair share of Logic Pro or Ableton computer wizardry going on on the album.

Well, I obviously was mistaken. While they had their sound engineer with them, and I saw a Macbook connected to the mixing console, the ludicrous speed you here on their albums is nothing but exactly the same what they are pulling off live!

GoGo Pengui Live At Moods May 8 2016 1

Bassist Nick Blacka pictured above was just impressive. Although I was sitting in the first row, I could sometimes barely follow his fingers, they were that fast. And he made generous use of the bow, which is always a nice change.

GoGo Pengui Live At Moods May 8 2016 2

Chris Illingworth on piano sounded at times like a reborn Esbjörn Svensson, but this is probably one of the best compliments you can make to any Jazz pianist.

The real hero of the evening however was Rob Turner on drums.

GoGo Pengui LIve At Moods May 8 2016

The way he kept the beats of amazing syncopating complexity and even crazier speeds was just breathtaking. His pulsating bass drum was of drum machine precision, and was one of the key factors why this evening was so absorbing musically.

Obviously, this is not very traditional Jazz. There was some improvisation, but the music lived much more of the groove and in many moments sounded way more like Drum-and-Bass than Dave Brubeck.

But this is really what we need. Miles Davis famously said “It’s not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.”

EST really gets the credit for having started to modernize the Jazz trio. But here we truly have a worthy successor!

This is the kind of change I’d love to see more of!

Check out their concert schedule and if they come anywhere near you, you just have to go!

P.S. To close, some impressions of the Schiffbau buildin, where Moods is located, a former ship yard and industrial site, beautifully converted into a complex for theater, dining, and Jazz. Worth checking out if you’re ever in Zurich