CD jw 253 SCHULTZE – EHWALD – RAINEY
PUBLIC RADIO
STEFAN SCHULTZE piano
PETER EHWALD tenor saxophone
TOM RAINEY drums

DEU
Die Verbundenheit zwischen Rainey, Schultze und Ehwald ist hörbar. Sie sind beständige Kollaborateure, nicht nur in diesem Trio, sondern auch bei Schultzes Exploration des Buchla-Synthesizers mit seinem Large Ensemble. Während die ersten beiden Alben des Trios überwiegend komponiertes Material enthielten, finden sich auf ‚public radio‘ ausschließlich spontane Improvisationen. Das Ergebnis zeigt nicht nur, die Entwicklung von Schultze Ehwald Rainey zu einem unglaublichen starken Klangkörper, sondern auch, wie tiefgründig hier kommuniziert wird, ohne Kompositionsfahrpläne zu benötigen. Schultze präpariert das Klavier, was die Musik in experimentellere Bahnen lenkt. Um diesen Klavierklang herum bauen die die drei Musiker in Echtzeit auf den Ideen der jeweils anderen auf. Das Trio schöpft dabei aus seiner langjährigen Erfahrung. und eine Musik geht weit über den Jazz hinaus und bleibt doch mit ihm verbunden. Letztendlich geht es jedoch nicht um Abstraktion, eine bestimmte Tradition oder einzelne Solopassagen. ‚public radio‘ zeigt, wie brillant Schultze Ehwald Rainey ihre Musik gemeinsam von Grund auf aufbauen – als eine Einheit – mit dem Selbstvertrauen, sich über Regeln hinwegzusetzen, Widerstände zu akzeptieren und neue musikalische Zustände zu kreieren. Das zeugt von der tiefen Gewissheit, dass ihre musikalischen Strukturen trotz der ihnen innewohnenden improvisatorischen Ungewissheit stabil bleiben. Auf ‚public radio‘ kann man einer einzigartigen kollektiven Geisteshaltung wunderbar zuhören. Peter Margasak

ENG
A couple of years ago, as I was writing the liner note essay for ‚Stamp‘, the wonderful debut album from the eponymous quintet co-led by pianist Stefan Schultze and tenor saxophonist Peter Ehwald, both musicians credited drummer Tom Rainey for opening up their conception of improvised music. He wasn’t part of that band, but his impact bled into all of their work. Indeed, Rainey has that effect. Over a career stretching back to the late 1980s he’s finessed his ability to straddle a swing impulse with unbound improvised exploration, a quality that always seems to elevate any playing situation he finds himself in. The sense of camaraderie between the two German musicians and Rainey is mutual, and they’ve been steady compatriots in the studio and onstage for quite a few years,
not only in this scintillating trio formation, but in Schultze’s fascinating exploration of the Buchla synthesizer with his ambitious Large Ensemble.
In fact, they were in the studio recording the pianist’s ambitious 2023 jazzwerkstatt album ‚The Buchla Suite (A Handcrafted Tribute To Morton Subotnick)‘ when they found themselves with some extra time on their hands after tracking the material. While the first two albums by the trio with Rainey featured some collective improvisation, most of the material had been composed in advance by either Schultze or Ehwald. Energized by the Buchla session, which required a much different mindset, playing written material closer to new music tradition than free jazz, the trio decided to use that remaining studio time to spontaneously lay down some freely improvised performances. While it’s no secret that all three musicians are excellent improvisers, the music that emerged from that unexpected session vividly indicates not only how strong the trio has become over the years, but more strikingly how the music reveals a staggering internal rapport. They no longer need the roadmap of compositions to come together. Now they pick up and elaborate upon one another’s ideas and concepts in real-time.
I’ve listened to the music on ‚public radio‘ many times over the last six months or so, and it’s been spellbinding to closely observe how the music comes together in each piece. The three musicians draw from lifetimes of rigorous experience, knowledge, and curiosity. They don’t eschew their jazz roots, but they’re also willing to push well beyond them. Schultze decided to use a variety of simple piano preparations for a bunch of the pieces, which by its very nature nudged the music toward more experimental terrain. Together they nonchalantly dash expectations and open up fresh pathways, sometimes within the blink of an eye. Take the gesture that opens the album: in the first second of ‚Crane‘ Ehwald blows a tart note followed immediately by a Schultze piano chord and a Rainey drum tattoo. On first blush I had the instant expectation that the trio might be making a stab at soul jazz, yet by second two the music heads in an entirely different direction—a halting, jagged foundation laid down by piano and drums that gives Ehwald a fecund foundation to unleash an extended, elliptic statement that magically ties it all together.
Palladio‘ feels more inchoate from the start, but it provides one of the most compelling and revealing listening experiences on the whole record, letting us hear the trio find its way through the darkness—the blindfolded quality of free improvisation where musicians must orient themselves, together—and to build on threads that provide some basic shape until a pattern emerges. There’s a sour, muted saxophone utterance, some ambling, tentative tom-tom patterns, and a delicate series of loose variations of a piano arpeggio to open the piece. As the three musicians cycle through these rudiments, each iteration becomes sharper and more assured, either encouraged or pared down by the three-way interaction. The transformation is patient and generous, but by the time they’ve been refining those patterns for about 90 seconds a collective shape has taken root and they dig in deep, exploring within a form they’ve forged from thin air, right before our ears. The trio builds on that material, interacting with heightened sensitivity, but it’s almost more astonishing to witness them getting to that point in the first place.

Schultze’s deft but sparing use of piano preparations further advances the trio’s possibilities. On the ravishing ‚Slip Song‘ a pattern articulated on a couple of damped piano strings produces a cycling tessellation with a timbre somewhere between a muted chime and a gamelan instrument. All three musicians build on that element: Rainey suggests a broken clock, Ehwald unspools a slow-moving, breathy solo—sometimes gnarled, sometimes fluid—and the pianist toggles between clean and treated tones in a series of delicate melodic jabs and feints. On the two final pieces Rainey strips down his input to bare essentials, playing the drums with his hands on ‚Limestone and Seabed‘ and reverting to flamenco-esque handclaps on ‚Greet All People‘, but in both cases there’s nothing missing. With the most basic materials, he proves sound trumps tools in each exploration.

At the same time, the trio doesn’t completely reject jazz-derived approaches. The lovely ‚Promise‘ is a ballad of exquisite delicacy, opening with an extended piano solo marked as much by silence as meticulously chosen, deeply resonant notes. Rainey makes his presence felt through his beautifully irregular brushwork that nonetheless injects a pulse allowing Ehwald to blow emotionally-potent cries and sobs, as the pianist evokes the great Bobo Stenson in his sparse accompaniment. There’s a kind of distended Coltrane-ish quality to ‚Focus‘, with a hydroplaning foundation sculpted by Rainey and Schultze for Ehwald’s incantatory blowing. In the end, however, it’s not about abstraction, any given tradition, or individual contributions. What ‚public radio‘ establishes is how brilliantly Rainey, Schultze, and Ehwald work together, building pieces from the ground up, as a single unit with the confidence to flout rules, embrace pushback, and construct new edifices, confident that the structures will not topple despite its inherent uncertainty. That collective state of mind makes it all work.
Peter Margasak / Berlin, July 2024