Theo Jörgensmann - clarinet
Albrecht Maurer - violin, voice
Peter Jacquemyn - double bass, voice
TRIO HOT – a name that inexorably evokes the bands that sprang up and around the Hot Clubs and enjoyed a heyday almost everywhere in Europe in the ‘30s. The TRIO HOT which consists of the violinist and founder of the band, Albrecht Maurer, a fixed member of the various string ensembles established by Kent Carter over the years, the clarinettist Theo Jörgensmann, one of the contemporary masters of the instrument, and the bassist Peter Jacquemyn, an acolyte of the late Peter Kowald whose legacy he honours by infusing new inventiveness, didn’t get its name merely by chance. In jazz history, the clarinet and the string
instruments were first brought together during the swing era by such personages as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Stéphane Grappelli or Joe Venuti. Forgotten for a good many years – indeed, only the West Coast musicians would continue to play the clarinet, and how! – the two instruments reappeared at about the same time on both sides of the Atlantic when the first wave of free jazz re-united them in non-hierarchical instrumental groups, a trend which would then go on to grow accordingly as free music and free improvisation began to detach itself from the more established forms of jazz.
from the liner note by Philippe Elhem, read the rest further down!
Theo Jörgensmann hat die Renaissance der Klarinette in der Improvisations-musik mitgestaltet. Den musikalischen Raum neu zu definieren, so dass ein wechselndes Klangbild entsteht, betrachtet er als seine größte Herausforderung.
Albrecht Maurer studierte Violine an der Kölner Musikhochschule. Sounds und Loops, Klangfarbenspektren, Grooves und Percussion-Imitationen, verbunden mit der Energie des Jazz und getragen von klassischen Spielfiguren und Techniken, bestimmen sein Spiel.
Peter Jacquemyn bewegt sich spielend zwischen visueller Kunst und Musik. Als Bildhauer bearbeitet er Baumstämme mit Axt und Kettensäge, seine Konzerte sind ebenso spektakulär. Dabei spielt er mit ungebrochener Energie, als würde er liebevoll sein Instrument auswringen.
voices
Jazzreview.com, Glenn Astarita, Feb. 2009
Three of Europe’s top improvisers cast a nouveau spin on the inferences of traditional Trio Hot or Hot Trio connotations usually associated with Swing or Gypsy-jazz ala Django Reinhardt. It’s a study in polytonal contrasts as bassist Peter Jacquemyn and violinist Albrecht Maurer handle the low to middle registers while g-low clarinetist Theo Jorgensmann largely works within the upper register.
With multilayered developments the band generates hyper-minimalism and jagged loop type passages. And that’s not all! For example on “Zoo On The Road,” the dual strings section’s buzzing lines support Jorgensmann’s flotation-like phraseology. In effect, the band offers a cavalcade of interesting propositions.
The piece titled “Jink” features Maurer’s blazing violin phraseology atop Jacquemyn’s supersonic walking bass lines as they subsequently hand it off to Jorgensmann who enacts gobs of counterpoint and colorific frameworks. In addition, they work through sublime moments and gradually evolving thematic forays. But rev it up into a firestorm via the artists’ maddening pace on “Setting Up The Market.”
It’s a fluid and prismatic session, where the musicians also delve into avant-chamber stylizations, evidenced by “Gesture Talk,” featuring their interweaving dialogues and distinct separation of registers. No doubt, the program is a study in mood inducing improv via semi-structured patterns, circular ostinatos and more. Yet we wouldn’t expect anything less from these consummate instrumentalists who sound like they’ve been performing as a unit for decades, which of course isn’t the case. Overall, there’s quite a bit to excite one’s neural network here. It’s hip, heady and wildly entertaining!
Peter Kuller - Jazz Presenter Radio Adelaide, Australia
Very contemporary, adventurous and interesting! It grows on you after a while! Not for everybody, but I‘m happy to include the music in my playlists.Thank you very much for sending the music to me. Andrzej E. Grabowski - Diapazon, Polen
„Maybee for first time I listen the instruments, like this set: violin, double bass and clarinet. I‘m on colossal impression. In first listening, I‘m not sure what‘s this. My friend who collaborate with Oles brothers Theo Jörgensmann is a leader, but not only he. Next and next listenings this music draw. I don‘t know exactly, why? This music is not easy. But the same interpretation of „Round Midnight“, the axis of this recording, it‘s impossible to don‘t surrender.“
Herman te Loo, Jazzflits, April 2009, Netherland
‘Jink’, de titel van deze cd is te vertalen met ‘ontwijkende beweging’, en dat is veelzeggend voor de muziek van Trio Hot, die zich kenmerkt door vele verrassende wendingen. Violist Albrecht Maurer en klarinettist Theo Jörgensmann zijn geen onbekenden in de Duitse improvisatie-scene. Ze worden gecompleteerd door bassist Peter Jacquemyn, een formidabele instrumentalist uit de school van wijlen Peter Kowald. Dat betekent dat er van hem weinig walking bassachtige inspanningen te verwachten zijn. Hooguit een puls, maar vooral veel fysiek, ritmisch sterk spel. De krachten in Trio Hot zijn dan ook gelijkelijk verdeeld, niemand stelt zich vóór op het virtuele podium op. Hoewel de naam anders suggereert, vallen er bij de groep dus weinig jazzachtige momenten te bespeuren, en is het referentiekader eerder die van de moderne gecomponeerde muziek. Het grote vormgevoel van de drie zorgt er ook voor dat hun vrije improvisaties klinken alsof ze grotendeels op papier staan. De enige titel die zich daaraan onttrekt, is Monks ‘Round Midnight’, maar daarvan horen we het thema pas in minuut elf van de in totaal veertien langskomen, als uitgangspunt voor de rest van de improvisatie. Eerder een citaat dan een interpretatie, dus. Maar wel een citaat dat goed past in de verrassende, soms abstracte en asymmetrische, en soms emotionele en aansprekende muziek.
Liner Note by Philippe Elhem, Brussels (translated from the French)
... Admittedly the music of Trio Hot on Jink (surprising movement) bears only little resemblance to the music played by the small swing ensembles. Nonetheless, each piece in its continuous search for expression, a way of moving “Straight Into” (as the first title on the CD is called) the music, celebrates the pleasure of being and playing together from start to finish, qualities undoubtedly found in many other types of music but that undeniably belong to the jazz of that era. At least that’s what the music and the documented cinematography of that period confirm. Yet we cannot truly speak of swing here, even if one or the other piece has a certain dance-like feel to it, produced or intensified by intermittent bursts of the violin or the clarinet. In this respect, their interpretation of “Round Midnight”, the only composition allowed within the framework of twelve totally improvised pieces, perfectly sums up the many, sometimes contrasting but always complementary, aspects of Jink. As such, Monk’s composition manifests itself very late – and this on the longest track on the CD on which six of the pieces are no longer than four minutes, and none of them, except for the one in question, longer than ten minutes. In fact, one has to wait a whole eleven minutes before the clarinet closely followed by the violin finally plays that widely popular and famous Monkian tune. Before that, even though “Round Midnight” keeps wafting about as an apparition of sorts, the music first goes through a range of sonorous atonalities fulgent with an abstract whiff of New Music. Here, the musicians play with contrast and the dynamics of their respective instruments before embarking on a collective improvisation – tonal this time – in which one briefly hears Albrecht Maurer’s countertenor (already heard elsewhere in the shamanistic voice of the bassist). They then enter into a less turbulent moment, thereby creating room for the bassist Peter Jacquemyn’s strong solo which is suddenly cut short by Theo Jörgensmann’s clarinet which brings Monk back into play. After that, by intensifying the tone, they succeed in slightly distorting the melody before falling into silence, one by one…
Albrecht Maurer, Theo Jörgensmann, Peter Jacquemyn – three seasoned improvisers, three exceptional soloists who proffer tellurically grounded music throughout Jink, never shying away from the confrontation with nor the complexity of their instruments. And they accomplish this by means of a spontaneous kind of musical architecture, its continually shifting motif being by turns melodious, noisy, lyrical, contrapuntal, playful, narrative, abstract. A whole universe – uniquely that of TRIO HOT.
