Showing posts with label Theo Bleckmann. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theo Bleckmann. Show all posts

November 01, 2011

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.

December 26, 2010

Moss live at Jazzfest Berlin 2010


Theo Bleckmann, vocals
Peter Eldridge, vocals, piano
Kate McGarry, vocals
Lauren Kinhan, vocals
Keith Ganz, guitar
Kermit Driscoll, bass
John Hollenbeck, drums

recorded live at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Main Stage, November 6, 2010

1. Shadows and light (Joni Mitchell)/ Object devotion (Lauren Kinhan, Peter Eldrigde)
2. I carry your heart (Kate McGarry)
3. Trouble runs in the family (Lauren Kinhan)
4. Longing (Theo Bleckmann)
5. Busy being blue (Peter Eldrigde)
6. These things take time (Peter Eldrigde, Kate McGarry)
7. Old man (Neil Young)
8. Take It With Me (Tom Waits)
9. No Wonder (Luciana Souza)
10. There Alone Go I (Lauren Kinhan, Peter Eldrigde)
11. Come Home (Peter Eldrige)

All About Jazz celebrated him as “German-American Meistersinger” – Theo Bleckmann could hardly be tagged more aptly. The Dortmund-born vocal export and student of Sheila Jordan’s has, together with ‘half’ of the New York Voices, Peter Eldridge and Lauren Kinhan plus all-rounder Kate McGarry, founded a vocal quartet with the sophistication and refinement, which only seems to be exceeded by the relaxed manner of their performance.

It is the cabaret scene as independent as typical for New York, like at Café Carlyle, that seems to incite phenomena such as Moss. Artists like Eartha Kitt and Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch and John Pizzarelli come to mind who were and still are the force behind a culture of entertainment that for some by now might already be covered with “moss”. But what pleasure it is to rest one’s ears on this moss!

A next generation has now stepped up and it’s great that Theo is involved. The standard remains. The repertoire is becoming broader and more confident: Neil Young? Sure! Joni Mitchell? With pleasure! Tom Waits? More of it, pleeeze! For example on record: MOSS.