Search - Susanne Abbuehl :: April

Susanne Abbuehl
April
Genres: Folk, Jazz

Track Listings (11) - Disc #1
1. Yes Is Pleasant Country:
2. Ida Lupino
3. Closer
4. All I Need
5. A.I.R. (All India Radio) - Susanne Abbuehl, Bley, Carla
6. Seven/Somewhere I Have Travelled, Gladly Beyond - Susanne Abbuehl, Bley, Carla
7. Skies May Be Blue; Yes
8. 'Round Midnight - Susanne Abbuehl, Hanighen, Bernie
9. Maggie and Milly and Molly and May
10. Since Feeling Is First
11. Mane Na - Susanne Abbuehl, Atre, Prabha

CD Details

All Artists: Susanne Abbuehl
Title: April
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Universal/Polygram
Release Date: 3/21/2002
Album Type: Import
Genres: Folk, Jazz
Styles: Traditional Folk, Avant Garde & Free Jazz, Modern Postbebop, Vocal Jazz, Bebop, European Jazz
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1

Synopsis

Amazon.com

Self-referential and remarkably consistent, the ECM label has come to represent a state of mind: a place where melancholy and romance intertwine, seductively rendered in gorgeous sound. The Swiss-born singer, Susanne Abbuehl, making her ECM debut, clearly knows the territory, paying homage to the ECM artists who helped explore it. Backed by piano, clarinet, and drums, all played with a spare angularity (suggesting the early ECM recordings of Paul Bley), Abbuehl's clear diction and wistful delivery align her with fellow ECM stalwarts Annette Peacock and Carla Bley. Indeed, she covers several of Carla's tunes, including "Ida Lupino" and "Closer" (vehicles for the aforementioned Paul) as well as "A.I.R" (from Escalator over the Hill), in which she uses her voice as an instrument, reminiscent of Jan Garbarek's version of the same tune (from ECM's Witchi-Tai-To). Treatments of poet e.e. cummings's elliptical words, and a doleful version of Monk's "Round Midnight" round out the album, with Abbuehl's lovely voice providing bittersweet balm for late-night introspection. --Wally Shoup

CD Reviews

Beguiling

Karl W. Nehring | Ostrander, OH USA | 07/04/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I often got sent recordings by jazz vocalists, but I seldom recommended any in the pages of The $ensible Sound. Quite frankly, most of them are pretty tired. As soon as I auditioned April, however, I knew that it was going to get an enthusiastic review, because this release is fresh, different, and very, very beguiling.

Vocalist Abbuehl is backed by Wolfert Brederode on keyboards, Christof May on clarinet and bass clarinet, and Samuel Rohrer on drums and percussion. The sound of the instruments adds greatly to the overall musical effect of the album, with the spare piano sound (along the lines of Marilyn Crispell), haunting clarinet sound, and the subtle percussion sound providing a perfect musical complement to Abbuehl's vocals. Many of the texts are by e.e. cummings, and there is music by Carla Bley, Prabha Atre, and even an arrangement of "'Round Midnight."

Yes, I know that this sounds awfully artsy and pretentious, but believe me, it works. Not only is this a richly entertaining set, it is recognizable as jazz. How exciting it is to hear somebody doing something new and different that still feels firmly rooted and recognizable. Abbuehl and her cohort have made a sparkling gem of a recording, captured in a setting of crystal-clear sound by ECM engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug."