Michalke 06 - Trotz Regen (2021)

“Michalke 06” (sounds a bit like Schalke 04) is just fun. The Cologne pianist, composer and arranger Stefan Michalke wrote 13 pieces for his latest album and recorded them so accurately with a good-humored ensemble (jazz quartet + cello + violin + guests) that the silent prologue (dedicated to jazz singer Sabine Kühlich) until the epilogue is a real pleasure for the drummer Steffen Thormählen. In “vaalser waltz” Michalke lets Manni Hilgers dance lively with his double bass, oriental elements flow into “die wüsten lives” alongside Latin elements, in which Hilgers shines again, alongside Johannes Flamm on the clarinet. In the following title track “Despite rain”, the tango quietly speaks for the first time, which is then explicitly “waltz” in character, yet ingeniously and trickling seductively through the ear canals with the soulful accordionist Manfred Leuchter as figurehead in “invierno”.
The predominantly happy mood of the album in “amistad”, the tango “ledro” or “snow white”, as well as the brilliance of the sun-drenched “dreierlei”, with which Manfred Leuchter (one would like to hear a lot more about him!) With his accordion is as light as a feather plays the realm of Art van Damme or Jean Thielemans remain the common thread. “In spite of the rain” convinced, consistently shaped by Stefan Michalke's fine, intelligent game suitable for all tempos and genres. The wealth of ideas in the compositions and the composition of the ensemble is impressive, with Astrid Naegele on the cello and the violinist Uwe Böttcher also standing out - his part in the Grapelli-colored “snow white” arouses curiosity about more of him.