URS LEIMGRUBER / ADELHARD ROIDINGER / FRITZ HAUSER – Lines (1994)

Label: hat ART – hat ART CD 6149

Series: Hat Jazz Series –

Format: CD, Album: Country: Switzerland - Released: 1994

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Digital tracks recording on May 1-3, 1990 at Radio DRS, Zurich.

Design [Graphic Concept] – Ecke Bonk

Engineer – Peter Pfister

Liner Notes – Art Lange

Photography By – Max Kellenberger

Producer – Pia & Werner X. Uehlinger

Lines is a trio that comprises of Swiss saxophonist Urs Leimgruber, Austrian bassist Adelhard Roidinger, & Swiss percussionist Fritz Hauser. On this document the aesthetics of the free approach in an egoless, commutative matter in which is both enthralling & difficult. All 7 pieces are of collective entities of their own.

The disc begins with “Open” an instant composition which presents melodic invention, rhythmic openings & walking bass lines. This piece showcases the entire trio with given solo space: an entire trio discourse, a drum & bass dialogue,  a concise drum solo & reuniting the trio with swirling madness. Everything is indeed “open.”

Shifted is an epic piece which explores “shifting” moods, textures & rhythms. At first, Hauser places emphasis on riding his cymbal with simple quarter notes, sporadic tom fills & light cymbal crescendos. Then he would play with his shaker & small percussion. Roidinger switches from playing Arco (bowing) to pizzicato. Leimgruber as well shifts from playing altissimo, screechy notes, to beautifully lyrical phrases. There is even a brief section of the piece where they play quite harmoniously. The piece would then conclude with a crescendo of Arco bass, altissimo saxophone & subtle percussion.

“Off” is an excellent example of “call and response” improvisation. The trio now focuses on staccato, disjointed playing of quick arpeggios, plucks & rapid percussion.

The aptly titled “Twisted” exemplifies a sort of approach as it appears the musicians are twisting their instruments from the inside out by the endless flow of notes & rhythms.

“Forgotten” is something of a “free ballad” if you wish to consider it. Leimgruber now switches to his tenor. (the only tenor piece on the album) It is a very gentle piece; perhaps the most accessible on the album considering he accentuates his playing in a very lyrical manner, avoiding anything in the high registers. This piece also displays Roidinger’s walking bass at a more coherent volume & Hauser’s brilliant brushwork. It is a busy piece, but never pretentious.

Another aptly titled piece; “Up” demonstrates ascension of notes from the saxophone, the swinging bass line, and the swift eighth note rides on the cymbal.

“Red” opens with light cymbal crescendos and agile brushwork; along with a slow tempi bass & lyrical soprano saxophone. The group maintains a soft, piano dynamic with a slight shift in the volume of the saxophone & the percussion, but concludes with the original given dynamic.

This excellent recording of this trio presents an ideal introduction to the various works of these musicians.

(Teenbeat, Aug 23 2005)

If you find it, buy this album!

LEIMGRUBER / CRISPELL / LÉANDRE / HAUSER – Quartet Noir (1999)

Label: Les Disques Victo – VICTO CD 067
Format: CD, Album; Country: Canada - Released: May 1999
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded on 15 May 1998 live at Victoriaville during the 15th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville
Packaging: Jewel Tray

Review:

Recorded live at the Victoriaville Festival in 1998 , this 67-minute spontaneous composition is explosive not only for what happens in it, but for what doesn't. The guns don't blaze here very often, but they are just as deadly with silencers on. And needless to say, when Urs Leimgruber is the least-known musician in a quartet, you have some heavyweight players. The quartet is aptly named, given its performance, which uses night not only as a metaphor, but as an m.o. for improvisation, where texture, space, and economy become a hypnotic wilderness of sound devoid of light and all sensation but hearing. 

The opening section is the longest, at 14 minutes. It is the area where the band members establish the language from which they will speak. That syntax develops very slowly on this record, moving one step at a time but no less packed with ideas for its easy, even tortoise-like pace. There is nothing tentative in the manner in which these players relate to one another, but it is subtle. Crispell clearly has control; she keeps each element blending into the others with her colorful swaths of clustered notes and mode-changing lines. Leandre and Hauser forge their own sense of rhythm for Leimgruber to create the group's melodic sensibility and intervalic coordination. Finally, in the very last of eight movements, dawn begins to break and the light startles the players. Crispell drives into the coming storm first, charging in a flurry of augmented chords and single-note runs. Leimgruber follows as Hauser triple-times everyone. 

As tension reaches a fever pitch and everyone has been wakened from their somnambulant pondering in this beautiful abyss, Leandre brings in the final aspect of a dawn rooted to not only the sun, but the earth, and the piece comes to a winding, floating halt — leaving, I am sure, everyone in that audience wondering just what had taken place during that hour when they were hypnotized. 

— by Thom Jurek

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