CHRISTOF MAHNIG & DIE ABMAHNUNG - Red Carpet
Leo Records CD LR 854
Christo Mahnig, trumpet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet; Laurent Meteau, guitar; Rafael Jerjen, bass; Emanuel Kunzi, drums
Recorded January 2018 at Suburban Sound Studios, Winterthur, Switzerland
I have always enjoyed the flugelhorn, more so than the trumpet because of its richness and fullness of tone. Here, Mahnig manages to promote this, through his own individual tone, into a group sound for the quartet. This sound defines the group as something with a life of its own.
The sound is in part generated through his use of the plunger mute, thereby recalling sounds like those of Ellington’s bands of the 1920s, probably arising from King Oliver’s use of the device. It’s a very unusual sound to hear today from contemporary trumpeters, particularly from an Avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer like Mahnig.
There is a personality to the group, a density underlined by the animation of the bass and drums, against which the refined, empathetic duelling of the guitar with the trumpet sometimes lead us into a lyricism hardly to be expected from a band of this character.
Red Carpet is without question a great album, a truly inspiring delight.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CD LR 854
Christo Mahnig, trumpet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet; Laurent Meteau, guitar; Rafael Jerjen, bass; Emanuel Kunzi, drums
Recorded January 2018 at Suburban Sound Studios, Winterthur, Switzerland
I have always enjoyed the flugelhorn, more so than the trumpet because of its richness and fullness of tone. Here, Mahnig manages to promote this, through his own individual tone, into a group sound for the quartet. This sound defines the group as something with a life of its own.
The sound is in part generated through his use of the plunger mute, thereby recalling sounds like those of Ellington’s bands of the 1920s, probably arising from King Oliver’s use of the device. It’s a very unusual sound to hear today from contemporary trumpeters, particularly from an Avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer like Mahnig.
There is a personality to the group, a density underlined by the animation of the bass and drums, against which the refined, empathetic duelling of the guitar with the trumpet sometimes lead us into a lyricism hardly to be expected from a band of this character.
Red Carpet is without question a great album, a truly inspiring delight.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
