Benjamin Lackner Quartet feat. Mathias Eick (USA/N/D/F)
Benjamin Lackner: piano
Mathias Eick: trumpet
Paul Kleber: bass
Matthieu Chazarenc: drums
We start the live-stream (real time, stream is not on demand!) about 1/2 h before the show starts. By clicking on "Now Live" a window opens, where you can watch the concert free of charge and without any registration. If you want, you can support this project with "Pay as you wish". Thank you & welcome to the real & virtual club!
Speaking of Last Decade, many jazz musicians aspire to find a home at ECM, but few are called. Lackner, who has a handful of other albums on smaller labels, got the fateful call from Eicher a few years ago. Eicher was very much in the house and in producer mode, and the resulting album benefits from the sonic radiance and sense of space and being in the moment — hallmark qualities for which ECM is renowned. From the opening probing piano-trumpet melody of “Where Do We Go From Here?” to the final suspended chord of the album-closer “My People,” Lackner shows a sensitive touch and an admirable restraint in his playing. He stretches out into flashes of serpentine fire at the right, ripe moments of a solo, as he does on the pensive 6/8 title track, “Last Decade.” He also lends Eick ample expressive space on the record; the pair seem to have a palpable empathetic connection, which one hopes will continue in the future. (Joe Woodard, The Independent)