Alan Bartuš - Born in Millennium (2023)

On four of the eight songs, composed by the band leader except for the Irving Berlin standard "How Deep is the Ocean", a much more prominent man sits behind the drums. It is the American Gregory Hutchinson, who has already been heard with jazz giants such as Joe Henderson, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman and John Scofield. "I met Gregory at a workshop in Slovenia," Alan Bartus said. "I thought that it would be great if he played for my album and just asked him. He is one of the best sidemen in the world and we interact very well. I just like how he interprets my songs." Kornel Fekete Kovacs also plays the flugelhorn on three of the eight songs, which gives the music an additional, more melancholic tone quality. Bartus' pieces are characterized by a sparkling inventiveness ("Movements"), which live from the joy of playing and the virtuosity of the musicians involved. It is obvious to whom the Latin rhythm playing "4Chick 2Corea" is dedicated; the mercurial flowing flugelhorn solo of Kovacs is constantly recharged with energy by the whipping interjections of Hutchinson. Alan Bartus, whose playing has an immense wealth of sound, takes back seat again and again to give his musicians room for dramaturgically coherent solos. "How Deep is the Ocean" shows that Alan Bartus and his band are also committed to tradition and take the necessary time to show their respect for a classic from the "Great American Songbook"; you can hear blues and classical sounds in Bartus' playing there. And we finally hear Alan Bartus, who will attend the Manhattan School of Music in New York starting in September, all alone in the touching ballad "Lydia". There too, he uses the whole range of his instrument: from powerfully formulated chords to vanishingly quiet tones.