Sebastian Schunke & Diego Pinera - Elusive Beauty (2018)

"For the first time in his career, Schunke has dispensed with a bassist, who in Latin jazz is generally an indispensable pulse-provider, thus opening up previously unheard spaces in the depths of the piano register. Four of the seven pieces on "Elusive Beauty" are duets with the Uruguayan percussionist Diego Pinera, whom Schunke has valued as a reliable partner for more than ten years. But even the extremely virtuoso rhythmist, who was awarded the "Echo Jazz" of 2017 as the best percussionist, is drawn out of his comfort zone. It is no longer enough to make complex, uneven Latin grooves fly (Schunke's trademark since the start of his career), but it is also a question of thinking in musical categories. With the utmost sensitivity, Pinera coaxes drops of sound out of a sea of percussion instruments such as steel drums, timbales, kettle drums or countless cymbals, and makes them sing.

On "Elusive Beauty" a fragile beauty has been preserved whose harmonic form is made to shine in dark colors thanks to the oscillations of a delightfully dissonant chordal note. And we witness the birth of a special musical and compositional idiom which could become something quite new for Latin jazz, just as Ornette Coleman's revolutionary musical philosophy did for the hard bop of the late 1950s that had become so set in ist ways. All in all: in the most delightful way, on his seventh album Sebastian Schunke lives up to his reputation as a bold innovator."

Tracklist:
01. Sebastian Schunke & Diego Pinera - Rapsodia No. 3 Alles Im Fluss
02. Sebastian Schunke & Diego Pinera - Einsamkeit
03. Sebastian Schunke & Diego Pinera - Back to Life Part I
04. Sebastian Schunke & Diego Pinera - Back to Life Part II
05. Sebastian Schunke & Diego Pinera - Rapsodia No. 4 Crazy Danzon
06. Sebastian Schunke & Diego Pinera - Der Gedanke
07. Sebastian Schunke & Diego Pinera - Her Dance