My review of Markus Stockhausen.& Florian Weber's Alba, today at All About Jazz.

Sixteen years have passed since Markus Stockhausen was last heard on an ECM recording, but the German trumpeter (and son of renowned composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen) has continued to lead a busy life. The core trio behind 2000's exceptional Karta--notable, in addition to guitarist Terje Rypdal's participation as invited guest, for being largely based on one 90-minute collective improvisation, from which seven of its eleven tracks were excised into fully-formed pieces (despite being pulled from the ether)--continued to work together. Joyosa (Enja, 2004) found Stockhausen, Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen and French percussionist Patrice Héral collaborating with Hungarian guitarist Ferenc Snetberger = 22405--who debuted this year on ECM with a wonderful solo recital, In Concert, and with whom Stockhausen also released 2008's engaging Enja duet follow-up to Joyosa, Streams) in a set of largely formally composed music, while the trio also came together with Polish keyboardist Vladyslav Sendecki on Electric Treasures (Aktivraum, 2008), an electrified live album of spontaneously created music bearing greater affinity with Karta.

Still, Stockhausen has always kept one foot in the electric camp, the other in more purely acoustic concerns, with Fugara--a chamber jazz quartet also featuring Dutch pianist Stevko Busch and saxophonist Paul van Kemenade, along with Finish drummer Markku Ounaskari--delivering a strong set of music from its 2012 debut record, Fugara (DNL), at the 2012 Dutch Jazz & World Meeting in Amsterdam. Stockhausen's preference not to make choices when it comes to the sometimes contentious "electric vs. acoustic" debate reflects a similar philosophy amongst many musicians today, but the trumpeter is amongst a relatively rarified few who can comfortably live in either worlds....or both, simultaneously. Alba, the debut recording of Stockhausen's six year-old duo with German pianist Florian Weber, is a vivid contrast to Karta in its entirely acoustic setting. And while it's not a live album per se, the structure of this fifteen-track, sixty-minute collection of original compositions by either the trumpeter or pianist (with one collaboration, the spontaneously composed "Ishta") possesses the feeling of what a concert performance might be like as the duo covers considerable ground, ranging from fugue-driven energy and polyrhythmic propulsions to sparer, prepared piano-based musings.

Not uncommon for ECM recordings, Alba opens in abstract fashion with "What can I do for you?." A rubato tribute to John Taylor (the first thing the late British pianist would say at the start of a music lesson), Weber commences alone, strumming and drumming on the strings inside his piano, with sparse lines emerging in support of Stockhausen's muted trumpet. It's a dark, introspective piece that might set the stage for what's to come...except that the next track, Stockhausen's wonderfully lyrical, gently propulsive "Mondtraum," makes clear that this will be something far more than Weber's opening composition would suggest.

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