
KAUFMANN/GRATKOWSKI/DE JOODE
Achim Kaufmann – piano
Frank Gratkowski – clarinets and alto saxophone
Wilbert de Joode – double bass
In early 2002, Achim Kaufmann, Frank
Gratkowski and Wilbert de Joode first got together as a trio at a small
venue in Amsterdam.
Since then, the three musicians have
been touring and performing internationally on a regular basis, while
constantly developing, deepening and enriching their musical rapport
now documented on five CDs so far: kwast on Konnex; unearth on nuscope; palaë and oblengths on Leo Records; and geäder on gligg records.
The trio’s music has been completely
improvised from the outset, created in the moment. There have never
been any rehearsals prior to concerts, premeditated structures or
concepts – a fact that frequently flummoxes listeners, critics or even
fellow musicians, as the three often manage to evoke the impression
that their music could indeed be adhering to compositional presets.
Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode combine
the transparency of early 21st century chamber music – silence, the
moving into and out of noise regions, textural juxtapositions, the
relics of almost tonal harmony surging up then evaporating just as
quickly– with the energy, the rhythmic momentum and unpredictability of jazz and other rhythmically more aggressive musics.
To celebrate their ten-year anniversary as a trio in 2013,
Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode invited Richard Barrett, Tony Buck, and
Okkyung Lee to form the sextet SKEIN which led to a series of concerts
and a release on Leo Records in 2014.
QUOTES............................................................................................................
“From hot, Dolphy-esque
cascades to piano-roll pointillism, to unresolved twelve-tone tales,
it’s improvised chamber music of the highest
order.”
Clifford Allen, Signal to Noise magazine (review of palaë)
"...the power of their
collective history is highlighted during their third album's opening
number, where de Joode's athletic and falsetto bass is matched with
unerring timbral precision by the blunted subtone of Gratkowski's
clarinet. The two musicians jive around each other, their counterpoint
gelling into a cracked continuum, which Kaufmann bolsters using the
inside of his piano.
It's like the three musicians are
channelling themselves through the same default sound – a strikingly
original opening gambit to a savvy hour of improvised
music.”
Philip Clark, The Wire (review of palaë)
“The three spontaneously weave
compact pieces full of intricate, multi-threaded interaction. (…) The
group can construct spare, riveting music from the quiet hush of
bristling detailed textures. They can also shape improvisations that
build to a full-bore rush of heated intensity. But what stands out most
is how they do this with such a highly-developed group
sound…”
Michael Rosenstein, Signal to Noise (review of kwast)
"Yes, this trio is pretty astounding
(…) The ways in which this group interacts and creates new environments
for improvisation reminds me of the Graewe/Reijseger/Hemingway trio,
despite the different instrumentation. They create a new world every
time they perform. This was one of the best improvised concerts I
have seen in quite some time, and is right up there with performances
by other long-time groups that I have witnessed live such as G/R/H, the
Schlippenbach Trio, and Parker/Guy/Lytton."
Russell Summers, nuscope recordings
"For me, however, the highlight
was hearing the trio at Snug Harbor. A working band since 2002, this
drummer-less group drew rapt attention from the club crowd with
performances that bordered on musical telepathy. (…)
In other hands, this music might have
seemed a cool, intellectual exercise in musical collage. From these
three, it proved utterly sensuous, full of golden keyboard sonorities,
breathy winds and even the rare sound of an accomplished bassist
rubbing the body of his
instrument."
Chris Waddington, Time Picayune New Orleans (2007)
“…it’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before."
Greg Buium - down beat magazine (review of 'kwast’)
"The best band I heard [at the
2008 Dutch Jazz Meeting] was the free-improvising Wilbert de
Joode/Achim Kaufmann/Frank Gratkowski trio."
Kevin Whitehead
"You have to have been there -
to see and hear how jazz and all facets of New Music are amalgamated
here and transformed into true sonic flights of
fancy."
Gerda Neunhoeffer, Südkurier (Donaueschingen, Germany)
“What an amazing band! I agree that they are one of the best working groups in improvised music right now.”
Rob Cambre, New Orleans
Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode have
been performing regularly since 2002. They toured North America
successfully twice (in 2007 and 2009), including appearances at the
Umbrella Festival in Chicago, the Earshot Festival in Seattle, Roulette
(NYC), Mills College (Oakland), Princeton University, Nameless Sound
(Houston), Coastal Jazz/Western Front (Vancouver), the Flynn Center
(Burlington), Hallwalls (Buffalo), Montréal, Toronto, New Orleans, and
Portland.
Their European performances include
the Ring Ring Festival (Belgrade), Ars Nova (SWR New Music Festival in
Germany), Porgy und Bess (Vienna), Nickelsdorf, Ulrichsberg, De Singel
(Antwerp), BIMhuis (Amsterdam), Musée d’Art Moderne Contemporain
(Strasbourg), Open Music (Graz), Exploratorium (Berlin), Offene Ohren
(Munich), Kammerspiele (Magdeburg), Cultureel Centrum Maasmechelen etc.
discography
kwast
Konnex kcd 5129 (2004)
unearth nuscope cd 1016 (2005)
palaë
Leo Records LR 504
(2007)
geäder gligg 033
(2012)
SKEIN
Leo Records LR
708 (2014) – with Okkyung Lee, Richard
Barrett, Tony Buck
oblengths Leo Records LR 748 (2016)
Kevin Whitehead's liner notes for oblengths
soundcloud
some video links:
VPRO Amsterdam 2016 part 1
VPRO Amsterdam 2016 part 2
photo credit: Goran Potkonjak