PETER MATERNA - The Kiss
Jazzline: D77104
Peter Materna: sopranino, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone; Lisa Wulff: electric and double bass; Silvan Strauss: drums
Recorded in May 2020 by Silvan Strauss, and 2019 live at NEES
Well-known, particularly in the world of free jazz (and, of course, director of Jazzfest Bonn), German saxophonist has crafted a set of compositions which haunt the listener. Accompanied by a rhythm section that finds the groove in each of the tunes. Wulff has a captivating style that creates tunes of her own while allowing Materna the space to stretch across his tunes, and Strauss provides a busy undercurrent that swings unabashedly. Both of his bandmates are recipients of the Hamburg prize and, from this showing, you can certainly hear what impressed the judges and why Materna’s playing is so finely wrought. I had assumed that ‘The Kiss’ of the album’s title had some reference to Rodin – but the reality was more prosaic and, perhaps, more significant. While Materna was writing, his wife walked into the room and kissed him. From such a simple act of affection, he has created a suite of tunes that flow with tenderness, passion and joy. The title track opens the album, with a cross-cut drum pattern and a bass line that is less about maintaining the rhythm (although it is always impeccably in time) than about creating a running commentary on the saxophone melody. The sinuous lines that Wulff creates for ‘Dancing-A’, track 2, or ‘Oxygen 1’, track 6, are worth the CD alone – and are perfect foils for Materna’s tunes and his flight of fancy solos. Elsewhere, bass and drums evoke a skittish post-jazz with stop-start rhythms around which Materna swirls his lines.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Jazzline: D77104
Peter Materna: sopranino, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone; Lisa Wulff: electric and double bass; Silvan Strauss: drums
Recorded in May 2020 by Silvan Strauss, and 2019 live at NEES
Well-known, particularly in the world of free jazz (and, of course, director of Jazzfest Bonn), German saxophonist has crafted a set of compositions which haunt the listener. Accompanied by a rhythm section that finds the groove in each of the tunes. Wulff has a captivating style that creates tunes of her own while allowing Materna the space to stretch across his tunes, and Strauss provides a busy undercurrent that swings unabashedly. Both of his bandmates are recipients of the Hamburg prize and, from this showing, you can certainly hear what impressed the judges and why Materna’s playing is so finely wrought. I had assumed that ‘The Kiss’ of the album’s title had some reference to Rodin – but the reality was more prosaic and, perhaps, more significant. While Materna was writing, his wife walked into the room and kissed him. From such a simple act of affection, he has created a suite of tunes that flow with tenderness, passion and joy. The title track opens the album, with a cross-cut drum pattern and a bass line that is less about maintaining the rhythm (although it is always impeccably in time) than about creating a running commentary on the saxophone melody. The sinuous lines that Wulff creates for ‘Dancing-A’, track 2, or ‘Oxygen 1’, track 6, are worth the CD alone – and are perfect foils for Materna’s tunes and his flight of fancy solos. Elsewhere, bass and drums evoke a skittish post-jazz with stop-start rhythms around which Materna swirls his lines.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
