Martin Sasse - Longing (2023) [Hi-Res]

Everything, writes the poet Nelly Sachs in her poem, begins with longing: "Everything begins with longing, / There is always room in the heart for more, / For more beautiful, for greater things." Sehnsucht is called "Longing" in English, and "Longing" is the title of pianist Martin Sasse's new album, which he recorded with bassist Martin Gjakonovski and drummer Joost van Schaik.

At last there is another trio album by Martin Sasse, in that concentrated, intimate formation that makes so many melodic and rhythmic expressions, variations, moods, atmospheres and emotions possible. And Martin Sasse exploits them all, profoundly, elegantly and with an incredible lightness, as if it were not the slightest effort to make all the wonderful sounds, melodies and harmonies swing, sing, pearl and dance so lightly as a feather.

For more than 25 years Martins Sasse's trio has existed in changing formations, the first trio album was released in 2000 under the programmatic title "Here We Come". Since then, the trio has not disappeared from Sasse's creative work: In the current line-up of Martin Sasse, Martin Gjakonovski and Joost van Schaik, it has been playing together for quite some time now. Clearly one feels and hears: Something has grown together here in the most beautiful way, so close, so trusting, so friendly is the musical approach. Nothing at all sounds like saturated routine, on the contrary: Everything grooves and swings so freshly, as if the musicians had just discovered their own "longing"!
What "Longing" demonstrates no less impressively: Martin Sasse is not only an outstanding, internationally acclaimed musician, but an equally extraordinary composer. As a fabulatory sound-novelist, he tells his memorable stories and embellishes them with melodic and improvisational finesses. Eight original compositions characterize Sasse's trio album, complemented by the standards "How Little We Know" and "Lover Man". Longing" is not yet a concept album, but it follows its own inner logic: Each piece has its dramaturgically cleverly chosen place, none could have unfolded more convincingly in another place. While each piece tells its own story, the chronological order establishes a larger, no less fascinating arc of tension. Thus, "Longing" with all its rhythms, melodies and harmonies is worth experiencing just in its entirety!
Seen in this light, no piece could have opened the album better than "How Little We Know". The standard, made famous by Frank Sinatra and Carmen McRae, sets a musical benchmark with pinpoint accuracy, and anyone who thinks of the lyrics of the piece will anticipate with anticipation where the journey will lead: "How little we know! / How much to discover / What chemical forces flow from lover to lover!"
Indeed: the chemistry flows as powerfully as it does delicately, and there is much to discover on the album. "Groovy Waltz," for example, juggles rhythmic and melodic overlays, occasionally faltering with a wink, only to present Sasse's brilliant, blues- and soul-saturated improvisation all the more palatable. This is taken over by Martin Gjakonovski with an elegant solo, which Sasse in turn underlines with subtly dabbed interjections - just as intelligently as he accentuates Joost van Schaik's fine drum solo shortly thereafter. And there is a method to it: Every now and then, Sasse's piano shapes rhythmically driving parts and uses them to make the soloistic thoughts of his fellow players shine. Joost van Schaik and Martin Gjakonovski thank him with a soulfully punctuated rhythm over which Sasse's thoughtful, improvisationally richly varied melodies literally float.
About the double bass: listen carefully to Martin Gjakonovski's solo contributions on this album. His singing, swinging, indulgent passages set striking highlights and yet are always embedded in the overall dramaturgy of the album, which includes several exciting dialogues between Sasse and Gjakonovski. The piece "Longing" ennobles Gjakonovski introductory and introductory with a wonderful, second melody, which lets Sasse's main theme really shine. The title track, which comes along elegantly with a lot of bossa charm, is one of the highlights of the album, which is certainly not lacking in highlights.
Another gem is without a doubt the ballad "Green and Blue", Sasse's atmospheric-romantic answer to "Blue in Green" by Miles Davis. Strategically placed, probably not by accident, between the concise straight-ahead bangers "The Soul of Jazz" and "Swing, Swing, Swing," "Green and Blue" once again changes the album's sense of space and time from the ground up. The beguiling theme, drenched in deep melancholy, could have been borrowed from an atmospheric film noir from 1940s Hollywood, so that one feels as if one is strolling through a rain-drenched big city night with the melody as well as the improvisational excursions of bass and piano. Raymond Chandler's disillusioned private detective Philip Marlowe greets us from afar, roaming the urban silence with his coat collar turned up, only to get stranded in a tiny bar: "I poured myself so much until my drink was a drink," it says in the novel "The High Window" (1942).
The magical spell of "Green and Blue" reverberates for a long time, and possibly only the final "With You", after the powerfully and atmospherically played "Bennetts Blues", brings one fully back into the otherwise wonderfully swinging and grooving sound world of Martin Sasse. It is a groovy, fast-paced finale, in which the qualities of the album are once again splendidly bundled: as a playful, spirited, all-around inspiring togetherness, tight and yet full of room for freedom. Completely in the sense of Nelly Sachs' poem Sehnsucht: "There is always room in the heart for more, / for more beautiful, for greater things."

Martin Sasse – Piano
Martin Gjakonovski – Bass
Joost van Schaik – Drums

Tracklist:
1.01 - Martin Sasse - How Little We Know (6:55)
1.02 - Martin Sasse - Groovy Waltz (6:53)
1.03 - Martin Sasse - Longing (6:44)
1.04 - Martin Sasse - Never to Return (4:48)
1.05 - Martin Sasse - The Soul of Jazz (4:58)
1.06 - Martin Sasse - Green and Blue (5:44)
1.07 - Martin Sasse - Swing, Swing, Swing (6:56)
1.08 - Martin Sasse - Bennetts Blues (5:54)
1.09 - Martin Sasse - Lover Man (5:02)
1.10 - Martin Sasse - With You (4:21)