Michael Wollny & Theo Bleckmann live at JazzBaltica 2011

Michael Wollny - Piano
Theo Bleckmann - Vocals, Electronics
Gastsolisten: Nils Landgren - Trombone; Christopher Dell - Vibraphone
JazzBaltica Salzau, July 3, 2011

You Go To My Head (Coots)
None Of The Above (Bleckmann
The Rip (Portishead)
Song Of Indifference (Wollny)
Take My Life (Bleckmann)
Marion & Sam (Herrmann)

"Singing is difficult. Singing with words is a challenge. To sing without words is an art. Theo Bleckmann is very daring. The Dortmund-born singer, who has been living in New York for a decade, makes collages and water colors, destroys and re-constructs sounds, until almost nothing is left of the well trot expressions of Jazz language. The few standards that he in-cluded into his program at the Unterfahrt, seemed like little reconcilliating life savers amidst the experimental sounds in front of s stunned audience. Bleckmann works with layering and Irritation, with harmonies and contrast. Effortlessly and with breath-taking intonation he changes registers, departs from the semantic connection of the words, to then create soundscapes through new combinations of syllables and utterances and their associations. Sparsely, sometimes dry and introverted or edgy and loudly accompanied by the guitarist Ben Monder, he plays with vocal expressions, gargles and presses, breathes and screams, beams and triumphs. Bleckmann, who has also worked with Philip Glass and Meredith Monk, combines compositional and interpretive elements of the contemporary classical music with influences from experimental jazz. With dodecaphonic joy he jumps into variations of melodies creating new, fresh and provocative colors, sometimes directly, sometimes in dialogue with a sequencer. That is not always easy to listen to. A jazz concert for advanced listeners, powerful and convincing."-Ralf Dombrowski, Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Theo´s latest CD "Hello Earth! – The Music of Kate Bush" was released on Winter & Winter this year.