INTAKT RECORDS – CD-REVIEWS
LUCAS NIGGLI BIG ZOOM
Celebrate Diversity. Intakt CD 118

 

 

Nicht so kraftvoll wie die Live-Ersteinspielung "Big Ball" dieses Ensembles, dafür aber mindestens so subtil und eher im kammermusikalischen Ton gehalten, gibt sich "Celebrate Diversity". Und die Artenvielfalt ist wirklich enorm: da wäre die geschwätzige Klarinette und ihre große Schwester, die Bassklarinette (Claudio Puntin), die etwas tiefer sich schlängelnde und manchmal brüllende Posaune (Nils Wogram), die teils liebliche, teils fest zubeißende Gitarre (Philipp Schaufelberger), weiter noch der Kontrabass, der in freier Wildbahn in gezupfter und gestrichener Form vorkommt und einen erstaunlichen Tonumfang sein Eigen nennt (Peter Herbert) – nicht zu vergessen die Familie der Schlaginstrumente, die uns durch die Bandbreite ihrer Klangmöglichkeiten, vom Zirpen bis zum Dröhnen, überraschen (Lucas Niggli) . Wieder gelingt es Niggli und seiner Band, hoch komplizierte Strukturen durch nonchalant s(ch)wingenden Puls quasi "schmackhaft" zu machen. Für Menschen und Tiere mit großen Ohren!
schu, Concerto, Österreich, Dez. 2006

 

 

Das Quintett von Lucas Niggli zählt mittlerweile zu den besten zeitgenössischen Jazzbands weltweit. Während das 'Zoom'-Trio mitunter rauere und in all seiner Komplexität nahezu direktere Strukturen auslebt, wird hier offenbar die Sensibilität geschult und erforscht und unsere Dendriten werden wunderbarst gebüschelt. Die sanften, fliessenden und fragilen Stimmungen, die in den bewundernswert klaren Strukturen entstehen, lassen Komplexität und Abstraktion lebendig, geradezu barock werden. Das Ergebnis ist pure Reife.
MADE MY DAY by HONKER, terz, Düsseldorf, Januar 2007

 

 

The liners on this one liken Lucas Niggli’s Zoom ensembles to lenses of varying powers of magnification. It’s an apt analogy and one that speaks to the precision properties at play in the drummer’s intricate compositions and execution. Intakt has been a receptive home to his past projects with no fewer than nine releases illustrating his talents as either leader or sideman. Big Zoom differs from its smaller Zoom counterpart in the addition of clarinetist Claudio Puntin and bassist Peter Herbert to the core trio of Niggli, trombonist Nils Wogram, doubling on melodica, and guitarist Philipp Schaufelberger. The ready-made tag of “chamber jazz” seems a convenient one to apply on the surface, but ends up cursory when it comes to corralling all the band is capable of playing and everything that goes into it.
For one thing, there’s the recurring complexity of Niggli’s improv-friendly charts and the frequently dizzying tempos he insists on playing them in. The lengthy title piece starts as an amorphous dirge, slowly coalescing via one of Niggli’s lubricious beats into a fluttering maze of contrapuntal horn lines. The collective is intimately accustomed to playing together and the closeness allows them to engage in one devilishly clever detour after another, subdividing and reconvening along a serpentine track that is near hitch-less in execution. Wogram and Puntin manage to sound like a horn section twice and sometimes even thrice their number, pairing together or peeling off in combinations with their colleagues. Both are expert at capitalizing on the voice-like properties of their instruments and the covey of duo and trio passages plugged into the pieces in a wonderful succession of animated, but affable conversations. Schaulfelberger alternates easily between floating gossamer chords and sharper toned rhythm picking, aligning with the growling pitches of Wogram one moment and filling the fissures in a typically earthy Niggli percussion pattern the next as on the jovially rendered “Pidgin.”
The antique board game of Snakes and Ladders works as another handy analogue to the Zoom’s sound and approach. Players negotiate the pieces at accelerated speeds, ascending and descending so fast that complacent attention often results in missed singularities. The pinball pyrotechnics of Klezmerish “Gross Sprünge” provide a fitting case in point, jockeying between hyperkinetic and relatively restive poles. Even on languid pieces like “Screen Sleep” details abound. Niggli and his friends sustain the subtlety and elegance so often associated with the chamber jazz rubric, but manage to inject healthy doses of musical amphetamines into the circulatory system. The familiar phrase adopted as the disc’s title might sound cliché, but as Niggli’s music makes abundantly clear, it’s a sentiment on worth pursuing with vigor and resolve.
Derek Taylor, Bagatellen, USA, January 2007

 

 

Der Drummer LUCAS NIGGLI hat seine BIG ZOOM-Truppe für Celebrate Diversity (Intakt CD 118) im Studio um sich geschart. Noch ausgeprägter als beim Debut Big Ball, das 2002 live auf dem Jazzfestival Willisau mitgeschnitten worden war, kommt so die Neigung zu kammerjazzigerTransparenz, quasi Zimmerlautstärke und Intimität zum Zug. Das Titelstück gleich zu Beginn wird zum Programm für die gesummten Finessen von Nils Wograms Posaune (& Melodica), das vogelfreie Klarinettenzickzack von Claudio Puntin und die lyrische Gitarre von Philipp Schaufelberger, ebenso wie für Peter Herbert, dem neben Puntin zweiten 'Big‘-Element, der seinen Kontrabass wie mit Wollhandschuhen betupft oder mehr streichelt als streicht. Und erst recht für Niggli selbst, der seine polyrhythmischen Klicks und Pings mit dem feinen Sonntagssilberbesteck klickt und pingt. Dem Beigeschmack von weißer Soße entzieht sich das Quintett aber durch seine quicklebendige, immer wieder bockige Kapriziösität, durch das agile Herumkapriolen und blubbernde Pidgin der Posaune oder das launige Gesprudel der Klarinette und die Zicken der Bassklarinette. Der Speed-Track 'Große Sprünge‘ ist dafür das Paradebeispiel, so wie vorher 'Screen Sleep‘ einen vor einer laufenden Arte-Sendung wegschnarchen ließ. Niggli zelebriert mit seinem Team Loblieder der Melodie und Harmonie und fasst beim 11-minütigen 'Bridges from Good Times‘ das spezifisch Big-Zoomige wie in einer Nussschale ein. 'Dance for Hermeto‘ überlässt lange der Posaune den Dancefloor für ein Latin-umgroovtes Macho-Solo, bevor die Klarinette ihm kess entgegen tänzelt. 'Parallel Universum‘ streift dann, ähnlich wie schon der Allerseelenmarsch 'Schluss‘, wieder träumerisch, largo, fast grave durch ein Schattenreich, in dem eine gespenstische Melodica fiept, bevor Percussion und Bass, schon als 'Fly & Foggy‘ ein Looney-Tunes-Gespann, als 'Deux Lezards‘ davon huschen.
Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy, Würzburg, 2007

 

 

Wenn fünf Musiker dieses Niveaus, die überdies oft zusammen touren, ins Studio gehen, ist die Chance gross, dass etwas Interessantes dabei herauskommt. Nigglis BIG ZOOM ist ein augenzwinkernder Brückenschlag zwischen Jazz-Roots und zeitgenössischem Jazz. Die beiden brillanten Bläser Nils Wogram und Claudio Puntin sorgen für hinreissende Soli. Die Musik lebt von Individualität, Können und auch Humor der fünf Musiker. Alles vollzieht sich im Vordergrund von Nigglis subtilem, aber auch immer wieder aufmüpfigem Schlagzeugspiel. Ideen werden sofort aufgenommen und "eingezoomt". Keine inhaltsleere Virtuosität, sondern feinsinnige Jazz-Kammermusik auf höchstem Niveau. Die CD beweist auch, dass Niggli nicht nur ein hervorragender Schlagzeuger, sondern auch ein guter Komponist ist: Alle Titel stammen von ihm, zwei davon in Zusammenarbeit mit Peter Herbert.
Gino Ferlin, Jazz'n'More, Januar 2007

 

 

Es ist immer wieder erfreulich, dass es auch hier in der Schweiz herausragende Musiker bzw. Schlagzeuger wie Lucas Niggli gibt. So erschien vor einiger Zeit bei INTAKT Rec das Album des Schlagzeugers Niggli Big Zoom - Celebrate Diversity. Hier treffen sich fünf Musiker welche sich gut kennen, viel gemeinsam touren und nun eine geniale CD produziert haben. So hört man hier wunderbare Solos der beiden Bläser Claudio Puntin sowie Nils Wogram. Die Musik kommt nie langweilig daher, eine Spannung ist da und so entstehen interessante Sounds. Hier wird Jazz auf höchstem Niveau gespielt. Zudem zeigt Lucas Niggli mit diesem Album, dass auch Schlagzeuger hervorragende Komponisten sein können. Sämtliche Kompositionen stammen aus der Feder von Lucas Niggli. Man kann nur hoffen, dass es in Zukunft weitere solche hochstehende Produktionen von Schweizer Musikern geben wird.
Jazzdrummerworld.com, Januar 2007

 


stampa email
Con questo quintetto, il batterista e compositore svizzero Lucas Niggli ha trovato lo strumento ideale per esprimere la sua ricca scrittura, in bell'equilibrio tra avanguardia e tradizione, passione e ragione, forme cameristiche e libera improvvisazione.
A chi conosce il percorso musicale del leader, lungo e articolato considerando l'età (39 anni), il Big Zoom è un nome familiare. Costituisce l'ampliamento del Lucas Niggli's Zoom, trio fondato nel 1999 con il trombonista Nils Wogram ed il chitarrista Phillip Schaufelberger. I nuovi arrivati sono il contrabbassista Peter Herbert e clarinettista Claudio Puntin, quest'ultimo già presente nel collettivo che nel 2003, ha inciso Sweat, sempre per la Intakt Records.
Presentando questo disco ai lettori il primo riferimento è Henry Threadgill. Come quella del geniale leader statunitense, la musica di Niggli è avventurosa, ricca di cambi di direzione, sorprese ritmiche e si snoda su piani espressivi diversi. Il batterista è un raffinato evocatore di atmosfere cameristiche, spesso rarefatte, che puntualmente stravolge in un turbinio di collettivi convulsi e variopinti interventi improvvisati. Abbiamo parlato di Threadgill, anche per la somiglianza di certe soluzioni formali (linee tematiche ispirate a marce, l'urgenza espressiva delle parti in unisono) ma sarebbe appropriato citare anche Mingus, per la ricchezza delle soluzioni timbriche e la partitura votata ad accostare climi e stilemi in contrasto tra loro. Il tutto filtrato dalla particolare sensibilità di strumentista mitteleuropeo, attratto da un quadro formale coerente e attento ai dettagli.
In questo percorso i solisti hanno ampi spazi di libertà e ne fanno buon uso. Sostenuti da una ritmica fantasiosa e stimolante (anche in questo Niggli è un maestro) le tre voci in front line esprimono le loro doti. Nils Wogram è uno dei massimi trombonisti oggi in Europa, Claudio Puntin è un clarinettista tanto estroverso quanto tecnicamente brillante, Phillip Schaufelberger un chitarrista dotato di naturale senso lirico, che evidenzia una bella sonorità morbida e un fraseggio introspettivo.
Per concludere, Celebrate Diversity costituisce un lavoro che dimostra quanto sia possibile trovare ancora sintesi nuove e avvincenti, senza cadere nelle secche di una sterile e noiosa sperimentazione.
Angelo Leonardi, All About Jazz Italia, April 2007

 

Luc Bouquet, Improjazz, France, April 2007

 

Lucas Niggli Big Zoom. Celebrate Diversity. Intakt CD 118
Matthias Schubert Quartet. Trappola. Red Toucan RT 9330

Swiss clarinetist Claudio Puntin provides the linkage between these Western European combo sessions, which basically proffer contrasting takes on modern improvised music. Although both are up-to-date expressions of the leader’s concepts –
German tenor saxophonist Matthias Schubert on Trappola and Swiss drummer Lucas Niggli on Celebrate Diversity – musical choices also refer to divergent earlier jazz strategies.
Encompassing the bounding understatements from the drums of American Tom Rainey, who often works with altoist Tim Berne; and the multifaceted tuba rhythms of Freiburg native Carl Ludwig Hübsch, in whose trio Schubert also plays; the quartet on Trappola – including reedmen Schubert and Puntin – achieves an unfettered pseudo-Dixieland vibe on some tracks. The joyful abandon initially associated with the style is present as well.
On the other hand, modifications in Zoom, Uster-based percussionist Niggli’s long-time working group with two Germans – guitarist Philipp Schaufelberger and trombonist Nils Wogram – on this CD tips its bare-boned sound towards the super-subtle chamber jazz of early 1960s practitioners like clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre.
Adopting a mellow Dr. Jekyll-like musical personality as opposed to his rambunctious Mr. Hyde-like note ejaculations on Trappola, Zug-native Puntin brings to Big Zoom the sort of muted, easy-going linear tones that could fit in with his other gigs playing in contemporary chamber ensembles and composing film music. Solid bassist Peter Herbert, whose tone and timing is unfortunately underutilized on Celebrate Diversity possesses similar credentials, having among his other projects, worked with mainstreamers like American pianist Marc Copland, along with more experimental German reedist Gebhard Ullman.
The highpoints are compositions such as “Pidgin” and “Bridges from Good Times”. The former harmonize Schaufelberger’s Tal Farlow-like picking, gentle trills from Wogram, a vibrating coloratura tone from Puntin and the hint of Latin percussion from Niggli. Constructed with definite sections and transitions, the more than 11-minute other track, showcases folksy, romanticism. Relying mostly on ornamental clarinet puffs, mid-range rubato trombone tones, as well as comping guitar and drum ruffs and patterning, this smooth interlude is only breached in its penultimate minutes by distorted reed work that leads to a recap of the head.
Although elsewhere use is made of near-vocalized tones from the clarinet, internal tongue stopping from the trombonist, and even a flurry of slurred fingering from the guitarist, overall not a note appears out of place on the 10 selections. Calm and laid back, more hocketing intensity from the rhythm instruments and slurry spit from the horns would have been welcome.
Then situation is certainly livelier on the other CD, with the band even performing its own version of Jelly Roll Morton’s “Shreeveport [sic] Stomp”. Complete with jungle effects and a snorting tuba bottom, the tune is only saved from imitation by Schubert’s contrapuntal astringent textures.
Equally capable of producing rondo coloration and careful waltz time, the band on Trappola gets more mileage from the ability of the four to blend intimations of earlier forms such as circus parade music and Ragtime to antiphonal dissonance. “Upgradeing [sic]”, for instance begins as a near-baroque, adagio piece with rolling clarinet lines on top of tuba pedal point, then picks up speed to andante as Rainey paradiddles and ruffs and Puntin produces a siren-like glissando. Heading into a simple four-to-the-bar swing then speedy Ragtime, the conclusion owes as much to the Woody Woodpecker theme as anything else.
Compositions like “Statik und Penetranz” which make much of the contrast between brass mellowness and wheezing clarinet trills also suggest stripped down versions of the Dutch little Big bands like the ICP Orchestra and the Willem Breuker Kollektief (WBK). When the polyphonic interplay between the horns, plus Schubert’s yakity-sax lines is more apparent, the resemblance is even stronger. However when the tenor saxophonist blows colored air through his horn and Hübsch breaks tones into their partials with valve tightening, the quartet proves that it too can be as serious as the ICP and WBK in their less-jokey moments.
At points as well, the four also manage to simultaneously refer to the freeform dance rhythms of cabalettas and the repetitious layering of Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music, although the later excessive formalism is missing.
More to the point the Schubert Quartet is defined by a composition like the 131⁄2- minute title track which shakes and rattles with Dixieland-style drumming, European peasant dance rhythms and cross-fading tremolos from the horns. Before the tune ends in a burst of tutti polyphony, the pitchsliding has encompassed braying capillary pedal point from the tubaist, wiggling clarinet bites and slap tongue tenor saxophone.
More fun than the other session, Trappola maintains its integrity while it welcomes different ways of approaching the music. More straight-faced, Celebrate Diversity, doesn’t exactly live up to its title and will be preferred by those who revel in modern chamber sounds.
-- Ken Waxman, Jazzworld, USA, Juli 2007

 

Peter Rüedi, Die Weltwoche, Nr. 2/2007

 

 

Although not particularly well known in the U.S., drummer Lucas Niggli’s work has been well documented by the Intakt label since the middle of the ‘90s, both as a sideman (to Irene Schweizer, Pierre Favre a/o) and leading his own bands. He should be better known. Niggli formed the trio Zoom with trombonist Nils Wogram and guitarist Philipp Schaufelberger. After a couple of releases, that band morphed into Big Zoom with the addition of clarinetist Claudio Puntin and bassist Peter Herbert. This is the band’s second release. Niggli has a crack band here and he knows it. They are able to draw from a wide range of experiences and Niggli uses this as the base of his music for this group. (Hence the album’s title?) It’s not that these charts are all over the place. This record has a distinct uniform sound. It’s just that the music takes the listener on a journey throughvarious contemporary styles and techniques, filtered through Big Zoom’s unique prism. Niggli knows he has some ace musicians in his ensemble and gives them interesting and difficult material that they handle with ease. Clarinetist Puntin is a real find with a beautiful, light, airy, yet expressive tone and an uncanny ability to maneuver the most difficult passages and make them sound easy. The same could be said for trombonist Wogram, who is arguably the best-known member of the band. The tricky time signatures and the frequent stop-start passages would seem to indicate that this is a drummer’s band. Yet, Niggli is far from the center of attention. No flashy drum solos here. As a matter of fact his playing is pretty much confined to the “background,” yet it’s the glue that holds these tunes together. He has a great ear for blending the unusual front line. All of this is brought to the fore on the album’s centerpiece, “Bridges From Good Times.” But the entire album works this way and the net effect is almost suite like. This is a refreshing disc, a real tonic for the ears and is agood place to check out Niggli’s unique music
Robert Iannapollo, Cadence, NY, USA, July 2007

 

 

Andrew Choate, Signal to Noise, USA/Canada, Spring 2008

 

Marcello Lorrai, In Sound, Italy, September 2007

 

Klaus Nüchtern, Falter, Österreich, Nr. 41 / 2007


To Intakt Website: home