JAZZ PODIUM 9/14
For Free Hands
Kaleidoscope Freedom LAIKA 3510305.2
Andreas Brunn is a dedicated guitarist and composer, an active mediatorial and reconciler and particularly fond of the East, nota bene Bulgaria. No wonder, then, that FOR FREE HANDS, as an ensemble, is a corresponding kaleidoscope of colours, with Brunn being the only German, the Greek Dimitres Christides (drums, perc) and the two Bulgarians George Donchev (bass), and Vladimir Karparov, (soprano & tenorsax) a cosmopolitan -Vierer with fine contemporary historical sensors.
2014, a quarter century after the fall of the wall, the music propagates the most beautiful fruits of the Brunn / Karparovschen Duo CD “East Side Story” of 2010: the variegation, as it is only found in freedom. Implementing something like that is not easy.
“Perpetuum five” comes as electrified post-bop, grippy, squared, edged, angry, mad, jazzy. Karparov and Brunn are lively and striking. And there is the uncomfortable “Magic Friday” or the title track, in which Karparovs tendency to occasional lyricism and Brunns occasional “circuit-with-funny outbursts” provide the contrast that generates voltage and excitement.
Or view the “East Side Gallery”’s story as the story of a quartet who, without doubt, would be able to find a comfortable place for themselves in the world, but instead they use the burden of time and the historical workup and responsibly turn it into harmless music that otherwise must have been uncomfortable to make.
And it is just then that they are at their best. And on the double bass, George Donchev still plays exactly the bittersweet mix of boundless joy and all what lurks just beneath that joy.
Alexander Schmitz
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