MANU KATCHE – Touchstone for Manu
ECM 379 3906
Manu Katche (drums); Mathias Eick, Tomasz Stanko (trumpet); Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet, loops); Jan Garbarek, Trygve Seim (tenor saxophone); Tore Brunborg (saxophones); Jacob Young (guitars); Marcin Wasilewski, Jason Rebello (piano); Jim Watson (piano, Hammond B3 organ); Slawomir Kurkiewicz (double bass); Pino Paladino (bass)
Recorded between 2004 & 2012
Touchstone for Manu is a compilation of the French drummer’s albums as leader for ECM over the last eight years. Katche first caught my attention as a member of Jan Garbarek’s group, playing on the saxophonist’s 1990 album I Took Up The Runes and the superb follow up Twelve Moons, and if at first seemed an unlikely cohort for the saxophonist he soon carved a niche for him in the group sound that Garbarek sort at the time, and has remained as a core member of Garbarek’s subsequent projects.
Coming from a rock background, Katche is essentially a patterns player. What marks him out as something special, and compatible within a jazz context, is the complexity and variety of the patterns he plays along with his vibrant delivery. This trait is immediately evident on his eponymous debut album for ECM, Neighbourhood, and can be heard on two tracks on this compilation, ‘Number One’ and ‘Take Off And Land’. For this impressive debut the drummer has employed the services of Jan Garbarek whose tenor saxophone energises the performance whether accompanying his front line partner in the unison lines or as a soloist, and Manu also manages to recruit three quarters of the Tomasz Stanko Quartet including Stanko himself.
It is this recruitment of Marcin Wasilewski and Slawomir Kurkiewicz to complete the rhythm section that not only makes Neighbourhood so enjoyable but also the follow up, Playground, as retaining them in the line-up gives a continuity and flow between the two sets. Frontline partners this time out are Trygve Seim and Mathias Eick who both bring a lighter and more inherently buoyant feel to proceedings, as if floating upon the grooves as opposed to leaning against them.
For his third outing Third Round trumpet is replaced by Jacob Young’s guitar and Tore Brunborg is heard on both tenor and soprano saxophones, and whilst the saxophonist fares well the guitarist is a little less fortunate with ‘Keep On Trippin’’ featuring Brunborg’s dancing soprano lines, but the arrangement leaves Young out in the cold with his contribution kept very much in the background. Even when he gets his chance to solo, there is nothing substantial for him to get his teeth into, and better use is made of the quartet sans guitar on the gently reflective ‘Senses’.
The self titled fourth album fares little better. ‘Running After Years’ has a nice balance between understated trumpet and powerful tenor over a bubbling rhythm section but using a similar format ‘Slowing The Tides’ over a slower tempo is hindered by the organ playing of Jim Watson that does not sit well with the ensemble.
It is therefore somewhat inevitable that the strongest playing is found on the first two recordings for the label, benefitting enormously from the constant of piano and bass for both. It goes without saying that the rhythm section supporting the two master soloists is iron clad.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
ECM 379 3906
Manu Katche (drums); Mathias Eick, Tomasz Stanko (trumpet); Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet, loops); Jan Garbarek, Trygve Seim (tenor saxophone); Tore Brunborg (saxophones); Jacob Young (guitars); Marcin Wasilewski, Jason Rebello (piano); Jim Watson (piano, Hammond B3 organ); Slawomir Kurkiewicz (double bass); Pino Paladino (bass)
Recorded between 2004 & 2012
Touchstone for Manu is a compilation of the French drummer’s albums as leader for ECM over the last eight years. Katche first caught my attention as a member of Jan Garbarek’s group, playing on the saxophonist’s 1990 album I Took Up The Runes and the superb follow up Twelve Moons, and if at first seemed an unlikely cohort for the saxophonist he soon carved a niche for him in the group sound that Garbarek sort at the time, and has remained as a core member of Garbarek’s subsequent projects.
Coming from a rock background, Katche is essentially a patterns player. What marks him out as something special, and compatible within a jazz context, is the complexity and variety of the patterns he plays along with his vibrant delivery. This trait is immediately evident on his eponymous debut album for ECM, Neighbourhood, and can be heard on two tracks on this compilation, ‘Number One’ and ‘Take Off And Land’. For this impressive debut the drummer has employed the services of Jan Garbarek whose tenor saxophone energises the performance whether accompanying his front line partner in the unison lines or as a soloist, and Manu also manages to recruit three quarters of the Tomasz Stanko Quartet including Stanko himself.
It is this recruitment of Marcin Wasilewski and Slawomir Kurkiewicz to complete the rhythm section that not only makes Neighbourhood so enjoyable but also the follow up, Playground, as retaining them in the line-up gives a continuity and flow between the two sets. Frontline partners this time out are Trygve Seim and Mathias Eick who both bring a lighter and more inherently buoyant feel to proceedings, as if floating upon the grooves as opposed to leaning against them.
For his third outing Third Round trumpet is replaced by Jacob Young’s guitar and Tore Brunborg is heard on both tenor and soprano saxophones, and whilst the saxophonist fares well the guitarist is a little less fortunate with ‘Keep On Trippin’’ featuring Brunborg’s dancing soprano lines, but the arrangement leaves Young out in the cold with his contribution kept very much in the background. Even when he gets his chance to solo, there is nothing substantial for him to get his teeth into, and better use is made of the quartet sans guitar on the gently reflective ‘Senses’.
The self titled fourth album fares little better. ‘Running After Years’ has a nice balance between understated trumpet and powerful tenor over a bubbling rhythm section but using a similar format ‘Slowing The Tides’ over a slower tempo is hindered by the organ playing of Jim Watson that does not sit well with the ensemble.
It is therefore somewhat inevitable that the strongest playing is found on the first two recordings for the label, benefitting enormously from the constant of piano and bass for both. It goes without saying that the rhythm section supporting the two master soloists is iron clad.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
