Photograph of Michael Wollny by Tim Dickeson

Michael Wollny

“Wunderkammer XXL” (2013)

“Weltentraum” (2014)

The German pianist and composer Michael Wollny has been a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages and is arguably the most important European jazz pianist to emerge since the late Esbjorn Svensson. Due to his boyish appearance it’s tempting to routinely describe Wollny as “young” but the pianist (born in 1978) has been making consistently stimulating music for the Munich based ACT label for almost a decade now. ACT was also the home of the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, label boss Siggi Loch certainly recognises talent when he sees it.

Wollny first became known as a member of the exciting trio known simply as em, a highly democratic and long running unit which teamed Wollny with the drummer Eric Schaefer and bassist Eva Kruse and released five highly acclaimed albums. At the same time the prolific Wollny has conducted a parallel solo career producing the highly personalised solo albums “Hexentanz” and “Wunderkammer”. As part of the ACT family he has also collaborated extensively with other artists on the label, most notably veteran saxophonist Heinz Sauer, but also with trombonist Nils Landgren, accordionist Vincent Peirana saxophonist Celine Bonacina and fellow pianists Joachim Kuhn, Iiro Rantala and Leszek Mozdzer. By 2012 Wollny’s stock was so high that the collaborative trio with Schaefer and Kruse was re-branded as Michael Wollny’s em for the group’s last album to date “Wasted and Wanted”. With Kruse currently on something of a sabbatical following the birth of her second child em has evolved into the Michael Wollny Trio with American bassist Tim Lefebvre joining Wollny and Schaefer on the pianist’s latest album “Weltentraum”, the title derived from a phrase of Gustav Mahler’s. 

WUNDERKAMMER XXL

But we start with “Wunderkammer XXL”, an exciting development of the music that was first heard on Wollny’s 2009 solo album “Wunderkammer”, the German title translating roughly as “chamber of curiosities”. The album consisted of twenty short pieces and frequently featured Wollny overdubbing himself on a variety of arcane keyboard instruments such as the celesta, harpsichord and harmonium as well as his usual piano and occasional Fender Rhodes. On some pieces he was joined in duet by the Israeli musician Tamar Halperin, a specialist on the harpsichord who also contributed occasional celesta. The original “Wunderkammer” sought to charm and enchant - hence the “fairy” imagery of the cover design- and succeeded brilliantly, offering a direct contrast to the darker, sometimes frightening “Hexentanz” (“Witch’s Dance”) which drew on Wollny’s fascination with horror movies, Gothic literature and the works of Goethe.

The success of “Wunderkammer” led to the organisers of the annual Deutscher Jazz Festival in Frankfurt giving him the opportunity to re-work some of the pieces on the album for performance by a large ensemble, the hr-Bigband, aka the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, conducted by the American musician Jim McNeely. The orchestrations were undertaken by Jorg Achim Keller and the music was performed by Wollny and Halperin together with the Big Band under the baton of McNeely at the hr-Sendesaal Broadcasting Theatre on 27th October 2012. The performance is documented on a special Collector’s Edition double CD containing both the original “Wunderkammer” album and the live big band performance from Frankfurt. Even if you own the original recording this double set is a must as Wollny, Halperin and the hr-Bigband totally transform the original music into something even more magical.

The Frankfurt live performance re-imagines six of the pieces from the original “Wunderkammer” repertoire and the concert concludes with two arrangements of pieces from the “Hexentanz” album. The programme also includes an arrangement of “Monsters:Symmetriads” which originally appeared on the third em album.

Several of the “Wunderkammer” pieces are entitled “Kabinett”, literally “rooms in which different things happen”. “Kabinett II” opens proceedings with its hapsichord / piano duo intro leading subtly into the full big band arrangement. Keller’s refreshingly clich? free arrangements ensure that the large ensemble sound like a jazz orchestra rather than a conventional “big band”. His orchestrations are cinematic in scope and deploy voicings that range from the delicate pipings of flutes, piccolos and clarinets to deeply resonant brass. Both these aspects can be heard here alongside the magical twinklings of the two keyboard soloists. This is highly original music, rich in depth, colour and texture.

“Kabinett IV” begins in ethereal fashion, a deeply impressionistic piece that features Wollny on kalimba and Helperin on eerily tinkling glockenspiel. Keller’s arrangement again offers an admirable breadth of colour with Oliver Leicht the featured clarinet soloist.

The influence of minimalism is apparent on “Kabinett V” with its hypnotic, circling keyboard motifs first underpinning Keller’s sumptuous orchestrations before Wollny cuts loose with an expansive and exciting piano solo, still underscored by Halperin and propelled by the rhythm section of bassist Thomas Heidepriem and drummer Jean Paul Hochstadter.

“Monsters;Symmetriads” raids the em repertoire and also gives rein to Wollny’s Gothic fantasies in an arrangement that first blends brooding reeds and brass with the magical sounds of the two keyboard players before progressing into a pounding, sinister odd meter march followed by an unexpectedly gentle coda.

“Kabinett VI” begins with the familiar interlocking patterns of Wollny and Halperin before the Bigband erupt into an almost free jazz squall with the belligerent tenor sax of Tony Lakatos at the fore. The remainder of the piece is surprisingly gentle and includes a passage of supremely lyrical piano from Wollny plus the kind of hypnotic minimalism previously heard on “Kabinett V”. It’s part of the album’s appeal that the mood, style and dynamics of the music can vary richly within the course of a single piece.

The reflective, sometimes sombre,“Sagee” commences with the sound of deeply sonorous unaccompanied brass and reeds which acts as a kind of overture to the concise keyboard duet which follows. Rich but subtle orchestration characterises the piece which also includes lengthy solo episodes from both Halperin and Wollny.

The mood changes perceptibly on the two pieces sourced from the “Hexentanz” album.
Initially “Hexentanz I” surges along on the crest of a powerful, acerbic tenor solo from Lakatos but this ebullient big band passage is followed by a more reflective episode with the piano and harpsichord exchanges embellished by the sparsest and subtlest of orchestrations.
The piece segues into “Hexentanz IV” which announces itself with free jazz noises and Wollny’s under the lid rumblings and scrapings as the sense of the Gothic gradually takes over. Minimalist keyboard patterns gradually build in intensity with the big band following suit, stealthily and subtly at first but eventually erupting into full out roaring.

Such was the enthusiasm of the festival audience for Wollny’s extraordinary music that the soloists and the ensemble were given a twenty minute standing ovation, scenes that were unprecedented at a festival dating back to 1953.

“Wunderkammer XXL” is a worthy document of an auspicious and unique occasion but it is also a convincing work of art in its own right. Wollny and his colleagues retain the spirit of the original recording but channel it into something new and very special. Even if you have the original version of “Wunderkammer” I’d urge you to purchase the XXL edition too, it really is that special.

For the record the line up on “Wunderkammer XL” is;

Michael Wollny- piano, kalimba, spieluhr (musical box)

Tamar Halperin ? harpsichord, celesta, harmonium, glockenspiel

hr-Bigband
Jim McNeely- conductor
Heinz Dieter Sauerborn ? alto & soprano sax, flute, clarinet, piccolo, contralto clarinet, alto flute
Oliver Leicht- alto sax, clarinet, flute, piccolo, alto clarinet, contralto clarinet ,e- clarinet
Tony Lakatos -tenor sax, flute, alto flute
Steffen Weber ? tenor sax, flute, piccolo, bass clarinet
Rainer Heute ? baritone & bass saxes, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet
Frank Wellert, Claus Reichstaller, Martin Auer & Axel Schlosser ? trumpets & flugelhorns
Gunther Bollmann, Peter Feil, Christian Jaksjo- trombones
Manfred Honetschlager- bass trombone
Thomas Heidepreim ? bass
Jean Paul Hochstadter- drums.

WELTENTRAUM

Released in early 2014 “Weltentraum” has met with universally positive reviews and has proved to be Wollny’s most commercially successful album to date. Essentially it’s a continuation of his work with em but the focus here is less on original composition than on the interpretation of a fascinating selection of largely outside material, the selections revealing a great deal about Wollny’s various inspirations and influences.

With the title roughly approximating as “we search the dreamworlds” “Weltentraum” is a concept album of sorts. Wollny and Siggi Loch had discussed the possibility of Wollny recording an album of “standards”, which in a sense “Weltentraum” is, but the pieces Wollny chose were not the familiar jazz standards but his own “standards”. These include pop and rock tunes but also pieces drawn from the German “lied” and “kunstlied” traditions. The early choice of Alban Berg’s “Nacht” also suggested the possibility of a “night” album and this is also an intermittently recurring theme throughout the album.

The album contains no less than fourteen tracks but in the tradition of em hardly any of them lasts more than five minutes, the main exception being the closing “God Is A DJ”, a song by Pink which sees Wollny, Schaefer and Lefebvre joined by their special guest Theo Bleckmann who adds vocals and electronics.

All of the pieces are delivered in Wollny’s highly individualistic style. For me he’s unique in creating music that lies broadly within the jazz tradition, usually in the familiar piano/bass/drums configuration, but approaching it from a totally European, and more specifically German, perspective. Wollny takes this even further than the pioneering Scandinavian jazz artists with their use of folk melodies, his is a kind of “post jazz” played by a musician who celebrates both his cultural heritage and the milieu in which he currently lives and who has absolutely no intention of trying to imitate the sound of American jazz of any era. 

On “Weltentraum” Wollny places the emphasis firmly upon melody as the basis for improvisation. No piece is allowed to outstay its welcome and the whole album is tightly focussed and devoid of any musical extraneousness. Wollny speaks of “simplicity as space that allows the trio to grow stuff on top of it” and “simple resonances that lay the ground for complex improv”

Berg’s “Nacht” opens the proceedings, an intelligent trio exploration with Wollny’s thoughtful piano musings and Schaefer’s neatly detailed drumming underpinned by LeFebvre’s deep, masculine bass lines.

Em always had something of an indie rock mentality about them, something that explains the choice of Flaming Lips’  “Be Free, A Way” as a medium for artistic expression. Simple, hypnotic and anthemic it’s also strangely moving, especially as Wollny’s piano takes flight above straight rock rhythms.

Wollny’s love of cinema is reflected in his choice of the Jon Brion / Charlie Kaufman song “Little Person” which the pianist first heard as part of the soundtrack of the film “Synecdoche, New York. The song appears in several different guises during the film and this piano trio version concentrates solely on the melody with no unnecessary embellishments. It’s simple, particularly by Wollny’s standards, but undeniably moving.

The 14th century composer Guillaume De Machaut is an increasingly influential figure for jazz musicians with Swiss trombonist and bandleader Samuel Blaser one of several to explore his work.
It fell to Schaefer to arrange his tune “Lasse!”, another piece that the trio keep relatively simple with Wollny’s piano romanticism enhanced by Schaefer’s understated but imaginative drum work and Lefebvre’s grounding bass.

Wollny has arranged two pieces by Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900), a polymath who was both a philosopher and composer. The first “Fragment An Sich I” lasts less than a minute but is irresistibly Romantic.

This leads to another nod to the cinema with the trio’s interpretation of the Peter Ivers / David Lynch song “In Heaven” (from the film “Eraserhead”) with the lyrics reproduced on the album packaging. It begins with a passage of articulate, deeply resonant bass from Le Fefebvre that subsequently provides the backbone of the piece, sometimes locking into a groove with Schaefer but with the drummer sometimes given permission to roam alongside Wollny’s piano. At times it’s almost bluesy as Wollny finally tips his hat at American culture.

Like the opening Berg piece Paul Hindemith’s “Rufe In Der Horchenden Nacht” is a piece Wollny has known for a long time and is one that fits neatly into the concept of the album. It’s the longest piece on the album thus far at just over five and a half minutes with Wollny and his colleagues wringing all the dark romanticism out of it. On an album notably devoid of conventional jazz soloing there’s something of a cameo for Lefebvre.

I suspect that the Wollny original “When The Sleeper Wakes” may have been inspired by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. Even so it’s one of his most appealing and accessible compositions, strong on melody but with space for the musicians to express themselves with Schaefer providing a particularly effective drum part.

Wolfgang Rihn’s “Hochrot” combines lush romanticism with subtly adventurous improvisation. The traditional “Muhlrad” as arranged by Wollny is a closely knit trio discussion deploying snatches of free jazz elements and odd meter grooves with Schaefer’s drum work particularly fascinating.

Given that the album derives its title from a phrase coined by Gustav Mahler it is perhaps appropriate that the Wollny original “Engel”  should include an excerpt from Gustav Mahler’s “Nun Will Die Sonn”. The piece is another example of fiercely interactive but economic trio music.

Schaefer brought in the Edgar Varese composition “Un Grand Sommeil Noir”, another piece neatly fitting into the overall “night” theme. The drummer’s superb arrangement is oddly compulsive and the piece fits in superbly with the aesthetic of the album.

The album was originally scheduled to conclude with Wollny’s second Nietsche arrangement, the somewhat sombre “Fragment An Sich II”. Siggi Loch suggested that this was too downbeat and that Wollny should include the extraordinary version of “God Is A DJ” which the trio had recorded with Theo Bleckmann just a few days earlier. The American Beckmann is interested in testing the boundaries of the human voice, often with the aid of electronics and is best known to me through his work with drummer and composer John Hollenbeck of Claudia Quintet.

Now, I can’t claim any familiarity with Pink’s original but I love this. It begins with blend of Bleckmann’s heavily treated wordless voice and Wollny’s harpsichord, the latter doubtless a hangover from the “Wunderkammer” project. Bleckmann invests Pink’s lyrics with a certain of gravitas, delivering the first verse and chorus only before the trio set up a pounding E.S.T. style groove above which Bleckmann’s treated voice swoops and soars, occupying the space that might one have been occupied by Dan Berglund’s arco bass. Eventually things subside and there’s a reprise of the first verse and chorus, this time with Wollny and piano and with Bleckmann’s voice still subtly treated. At nearly nine minutes the piece is something of a tour de force with a strong narrative arc and it’s a tremendously uplifting way to finish an extraordinary album, radically different to what has gone before but somehow still part of it.

With its focus unashamedly on melody it’s perhaps not too surprising that “Weltentraum” has proved to be Wollny’s most popular album to date. There are moments of genuine beauty here but pleasingly still enough dark edges to keep long term Wollny watchers happy as he continues to stretch the boundaries of the piano trio. One of the best albums of 2014 “Weltentraum” represents an essential purchase.

I was lucky enough to see the trio perform some of this music at the 2014 Cheltenham Jazz Festival, attending the sold out show as a punter. I’ll be seeing them again at Brecon Jazz Festival (http://www.breconjazz.com), this time in my reviewing capacity. Michael Wollny and his colleagues are brilliant live performers and their gigs are highly recommended. Watch this space.       
 

 

 

 

 

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