Exciting compositions with complex harmonic structures, based on the modal tradition of John Coltrane, powered by the "soul" of Hard Bop - peformed by an outstanding quintet.

7 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Traditional Jazz Combo



Details:
Robert Bachner, trombonist & composer based in Vienna/Austria
For more infomation please also visit http://www.robertbachner.com

Robert Bachner Quintet "Travellling Hard", ATS Records CD 0601
Release date: March 23rd 2006, http://www.ats-records.com

The "Robert Bachner Quintet" are:
Robert Bachner, trombone & compositions
Christian Maurer, tenor & soprano saxophone
Reinhard Micko, piano
Uli Langthaler, bass
Christian Salfellner, drums


Liner notes by Kurt Dietrich

"This is the second album as a leader for Robert Bachner, one of the most talented young trombonists in the world. Bachnerâs debut statement, Heart Disc (ATS CD 0570), made in the wake of his study with New York trombone icon Conrad Herwig, reflected a great deal of musical âhigh energy.â The overall tone of this set (and Bachnerâs playing) may have been brought down a notch, but there are plenty of musical sparks on this new release, in addition to thoughtful, mature musical reflection. The familiarity of the musicians with one another (it is the same personnel as on the earlier album) lends an even more impressive cohesiveness to this effort.

A few comments about each of these seven Bachner compositions may be helpful.

The opening (and title) cut, âTravelling Hard,â is dedicated by Robert âto all people whose job requires a lot of travel.â This includes his colleagues in the Vienna Art Orchestra, who often do tours that require 1000 kilometers of travel per day. The drive, swing and solo power of this group is obvious from the opening measures to the end of this composition/performance, with its interesting rhythmic twists and slightly irregular form.

âStandard of Reference.â A critic suggested that Robert play a standard tune on his new CD, but when he sat down to write an arrangement of a standard, this original, a lilting jazz waltz, resulted instead. The chord changes of this tune are the sort that musicians love to play on â witness the arresting statements of Christian Maurer on soprano saxophone and Uli Langthaler on bass.

âSad Frankâ is a minor blues dedicated to the memory of Frank Rosolino, one of the greatest jazz trombonists ever. The sorrowful mood (colored in part by Maurer switching to tenor) reflects the âdark sideâ of Rosolino that hardly anyone recognized prior to his tragic suicide in 1978. Perhaps as a bow to the âhappyâ Frank Rosolino that everyone saw in public for decades, Robert slips some patented âRosolino tripletsâ into his driving solo.

The ambiguity of the title of âPublic Secretâ is not reflected in the lovely chord progression and flow of this striking ballad. Maurer contributes some smoky tenor. Bachner, in addition to displaying the expected modern sophistication in harmonic and technical approach, also recalls an earlier style of romantic trombone balladry, a style perhaps not heard enough in 2006.

Robert originally wrote âBackupâ for the extravagantly low brass oriented group Heavy Tuba. In this version for reduced forces, the second statement of the head is interestingly scored in very close intervals. The relative calm of the composition is shattered in the solo section, where all of the soloists make extensive use of double time. Christian Salfellner, the driving force throughout, caps off the sequence with a cogent drum solo.

The enigmatic title of âFrom 4 and to 2 andâ refers to where the accents fall in several of this albumâs compositions compared to where the accents fell in several of the compositions on Heart Disc. Not only that, but â4 andâ (4 and 1/2) added to â2 andâ (2 and 1/2) equals 7 â the meter of most of this composition. (Did you get all that?) The meter sounds completely natural in the hands of soloists Bachner, Salfellner and Micko.

The entrancing closer, âEarly Dream,â represents a mood, but is not literally descriptive. It also is somewhat reflective of the famous âECMâ sound, embodied, in part, by the superb trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, with whom Robert often worked as a member of the Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra.

This diverse set of modern jazz compositions, beautifully realized in performance by an outstanding quintet, is another indication of the continued good health of jazz. As the music continues to spread and to be enriched by its practice by musicians of different backgrounds and cultures, jazz becomes, more than ever, both an individual and universal mode of expression."

Kurt Dietrich
Author of Jazz âBones: The World of Jazz Trombone and Dukeâs âBones: Ellingtonâs Great Trombonists.