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Berlin Calling is not yet another attempt to find an ultimate Berlin-jazz-sound, quite the opposite is the case: This music is open in every conceivable direction, it conveys the feeling that it could have originated from any other part of the world; and it is precisely this openness that expresses one of the decisive strengths of the jazz from Berlin. The sound from the German capital has always been much less regional and rooted than that of other global jazz centres. The past, present and future of jazz in Berlin construct a constantly changing collage that will never arrive at a finite form. “The Berlin scene contains a wealth of characters, and thrives on this abundance”, confirms Erdmann while talking about Berlin Calling. “Stylistic boundaries are more likely to dissolve in Berlin than in other places. This calls for the ability to find a creative compromise from the musicians and makes them more versatile and flexible. It is currently almost as easy to form bands with musicians of differing tastes as it is to bring together players who have shared preferences.”
Berlin Calling is an enduring snapshot; a meeting of two different peer groups from the younger generation of the city’s players, and each of the musicians pose their own questions on this album. On the one hand we have the established leaders saxophonist Daniel Erdmann, who created a stir playing in Gebhard Ullmann’s Ta Lam Zehn, and pianist Carsten Daerr, whose trio turns the slightly dusty jazz piano-trio format inside out and upside down – and on the other hand four promising youngsters who have yet to receive nationwide recognition: trumpeter Ritsche Koch, guitarist Ronny Graupe, bass player Oliver Potratz and drummer Sebastian Merk. “Berlin itself needs no wake-up call” states Carsten Daerr. “But maybe this project can be some kind of wake-up call that alerts the outside world to the scene in Berlin. Berlin has a much higher reputation among musicians than among reviewers and listeners. Many musicians are coming to Berlin because they find the contacts that they need here.”
The six musicians have not taken the easy route. They do not stick to a swing idiom, or remain caught up in ethno-platitudes. They avoid the clichés of free-, noise- or groove-jazz that have so far served to label the city's music. Instead, they play a fragile, sensitive and intelligent music, music of cosmopolitan understatement that defies pigeonholing. Yet they bridge the gap to the great musicians of jazz history in that they not only know what to play, they are also masters of leaving out the unessential.
Wolf Kampmann
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