Eric Schaefer – Kyoto Mon Amour (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Eric Schaefer – Kyoto Mon Amour (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 49:55 minutes | 903 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music

Drummer and composer Eric Schaefer has been described as the central shining star of the German jazz scene. On “Kyoto mon Amour”, he takes on the challenge of building bridges between Japanese and Western music. Over more than a decade, he has made three visits to Korea and stayed in Japan no fewer than six times, trips which have greatly influenced Schaefer’s musical psyche.

The music of “Kyoto mon Amour” is improvised in both the Japanese and the European way – and what emerges is something completely new. It is analogous to what happens when everything is pared back to basics in the calligraphy of “Shoshu-san”: in the music all the tone-colours and rhythms are subservient to the beauty of the melody. On the 400-year old tune “Rokudan” it is composer Yatsuhashi Kengyō whose spirit reigns. The flow of sound from the koto has a clarinet melody as counterpoint. It then gradually and slowly becomes imbued by Schaefer and Eckhardt with more dynamic intensity and swing. One of the pivotal pieces on the album is the slowly evolving “Santoka’s Walk” which allows itself to stray off on all sorts of subsidiary paths. It is inspired by an epigram from the Zen monk Santoka Taneda: “On travels touching this and that, recording the mind´s changing impressions.“ Schaefer has made this idea into the leitmotif which runs right through the CD. This album bringing together the West and the Far East does not only have reflective and lyrical tracks. On “Ticket To Osaka,” for example, Schaefer captures the commotion and bustle of the big city. On “Kansai Two-Face”, a nostalgic melody on the koto encounters an urgent and effervescent improvisation from the clarinet which is spurred on by the rhythm players. That very brief moment encompasses the contradictions of present-day Japan, it brings together opulence and simplicity, modernity and tradition in a confined space. At first sight, the final track, Ravel’s “Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant” from “Mother Goose” might seem a surprise, but there is a context: around 1900 the French impressionists in both art and music fell under the spell of “japonisme,” and their enthusiasm gave rise to work of enduring quality. Eric Schaefer’s quartet has found fascinating ways to carry this lineage forward into our time.

Tracklist:
1. Eric Schaefer – Shoshu-San (03:49)
2. Eric Schaefer – Kussa Karu Otome (05:07)
3. Eric Schaefer – Santoka’s Walk (04:22)
4. Eric Schaefer – Hiroshima Mon Amour (07:05)
5. Eric Schaefer – Tengu (03:08)
6. Eric Schaefer – Hiei-Zan Nightfall (04:30)
7. Eric Schaefer – Tohoku (05:17)
8. Eric Schaefer – Rokudan (03:11)
9. Eric Schaefer – Ticket to Osaka (02:43)
10. Eric Schaefer – Shadow in the Woods (03:41)
11. Eric Schaefer – Kansai Two-Face (04:23)
12. Eric Schaefer – Pavane De La Belle Au Bois Dormant (02:33)

Personnel:
Eric Schaefer – drums
Kazutoki Umezu – clarinet & bass clarinet
Naoko Kikuchi – koto
John Eckhardt – bass

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