JORG SCHIPPA'S UNBENDINGT
Jorg Schippa's UnbedingT
Zirkus Bizarr
Unit Records (2014)
UTR 4477
After about four years Jorg Schippa's UnbedingT are back in town with a new release titled Zirkus Bizarr. They seem to suggest that this time their main interest is in penetrating the idiom of music made for and played in circus. Not exactly so. Basically it's the same good old chamber jazz as the last time around. Yet now it has many additional flavors, one of them being the long European circus tradition.
But if you listen more closely, you may hear some other influences, as varied as occasional gypsy/klezmer sounds, but also the old Berlin cabaret tradition, a bit of Kurt Weill, different modern classical references and lots of chamber jazz playing as well. Impeccable musicianship from the same line-up as before: the leader Schippa on acoustic guitar, Florian Bergmann on bass clarinet, Jurgen Kupke on clarinet and vocals and Christian Marien on drums.
And you can often hear bass here and there, despite the fact that they do not have a bass player. Good music. Brave and strong. Intricate but raw. Still, elegant. How strange!
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