New Old Luten Quintet - Big Pauer (2013)

Tracklist

01. Dry swing
02. Small luten at five
03. Smooth dritt
04. Big luten at midnight

Despite the heading ensemble name this album presents for only half of the total disc time music of the N e w O l d L u t e n Q u i n t e t. During the quintet set of the year 2012 a technical problem happened while recording. Oliver Schwerdt’s task to document the beautiful music as a vast piece would not be fullfilled before next year‘s concert date later released as Tumult!. The album released in celebration of Luten’s 80th birthday entitles the grand piano player’s strenght. Consequently the opener of Big Pauer presents Oliver Schwerdt solely at the keys of his instruments. Moreover it’s the longest piece of the album. One year before Schwerdt for the first time was sitting down to set a recording for a piano solo album playing nothing else than the keys of the instrument. Obviously in 2012 he took the chance to play solo again. By the way some of the piano phrases presented here are sounding very familiar with distinct moves Schwerdt did to accompany Friedrich during the recording session for their duet Gay – Wir Saunawirt one and a half year before. The first of the two published parts of the quintet of 2012 shows the ensemble at the middle of it‘s run. Old Luten can be listened to playing his shepherd’s flutes accompanied by Schwerdts most sensitive percussion and piano sounds. Floating into this lyrical sound scape the strings and even the drums of Christian Lillinger increase the intricacy of the music. Despite it‘s fragmentary character everything seems to be structured clearly. Everything happens with inventively choice. Anyway, nonetheless the crescendo developing with the interplay of the whole quintet does not lead to a document of fine hard core free jazz music. The technical failure happend in fact at the expressiv height of the original set. The second quintet part captures that state of the total process that was reached after the ultimate climax. Right after Schwerdt‘s squeaking that’s comming out of the middle register of the grand piano strings topped with a circling lid of a cooking pot we have a nice double bass duet of Robert Landfermann and John Edwards. Then Oliver Schwerdt with two percussive motives gives the cue to move a quintet interplay again. Ernst-Ludwg Petrowsky raising his clarinet spreads a beautiful melodic fantasia which is soon empowerd by the basses and Lillingers swifty sequences on the drums. Now Oliver Schwerdt celebrates Elan Pauer‘s racing keyboard runs surely inflaming the astonishing virtuosity of the old guy! All the better the piece is passing really tenderly. Big Pauer‘s Small and Big Luten prove that the quintet of 2012 was not less adventurous and not less brilliantly performed than the three great quintets of 2013-15 later released as Tumult!, Krawall!, Rabatz! Maybe the music is that superb because everybody could have felt the possibility of experiencing Luten’s last concert. Presentet in between the two quintet parts finally Big Pauer documents another piano trio piece, the longer one of the two piano trios Schwerdt recorded with Christian Lillinger and Robert Landfermann before the show. Smooth Dritt recorded second is more percussive than Fresh Dritt released on Small Pauer. The piano player can easily draw his lines and throw some of his inventive sounds at the adventurous woven canvas his drummer and it’s bass player spread out. The deciding coefficient of delicacy is about a stature of musical time, which was given from mutual reliance.

Das White Power Blues-Trio um Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Elan Pauer und Christian Lillinger arbeitet seit 2011 mit John Edwards und Robert Landfermann, den zwei kreativen Kontrabassisten der Londoner und Kölner Szene. Big Pauer zeigt Petrowsky zu Beginn seines 80. Lebensjahres als lyrischen Flötenspieler und scharfen Klarinettisten.

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