Duo Art Creating Magic

Michael Wollny:
On the Original Digipac the name is
mispelled. We apologise for this error!
Duo Art Creating Magic
ACT 6014-2 (2 CDs)
German Release Date: Jan. 17, 2014
Duo Art – it is the most reduced form of making music
together, while no less rewarding. When it succeeds it is the
smallest big-band in the world. Two people all alone, in harmony
and competition. Complementing each other, scrutinising, and
telling each other their opinion – a fascinating ear-to-ear dialogue.
Spontaneous and intense, call and response – jazz in its purest
form. A musical tight-rope act without a safety net. Ideally,
wonderful art results. The duet can be found all through the history
of jazz. The oeuvre of every great jazz musician simply cannot be
without its duet recording.
"To make a dream come true, just take two" is how Marvin
Gaye put it in his hit "It Takes Two". Sometimes less is more when
it comes to creating magical moments – as "Duo Art Creating
Magic" proves.
The duet has also always been a source of fascination for
ACT: "How will two musicians react to one another? Will they find
a common ground and will it lead them to new heights?" To this
day, ACT continues to seek new answers to these questions, and
it dares to experiment with the most diverse of musician
constellations. "Creating Magic" is a presentation of more than 20
years of ACT Duo Art and the musical trailer for the new ACT Duo
Art series that documents magical dialogues.
03 Philip Catherine & Martin Wind Fried Bananas
As early as in the initial ACT program in 1992, Jasper van‘t
Hof, Bob Malach and Wayne Krantz joined forces in various duos.
The Swedish pianist Jan Johansson is considered a pioneer of
Scandinavian jazz. With "Jazz på svenska" (Jazz in Swedish) he
paved jazz a road into folk music, significantly in a duet with Georg
Riedel on the bass. Siggi Loch experienced the two musicians in
1964 in Hamburg at the NDR Jazzworkshop, and 30 years later he
wrote further pages in the story of "Swedish Folk - Modern"
together with Nils Landgren and Esbjörn Svensson. Together with
the Polish piano high-flyer Leszek Możdżer, Swedish master
bassist Lars Danielsson also achieves a harmonious symbiosis on
"Pasodoble" that is rare to behold. Together they attain an
unheard-of level of interaction and esprit. Iiro Rantala and Michael
Wollny created an ethereal musical moment in their dialogue on
two grand pianos on "Jazz at the Berlin Philharmonic" in December
2012: "Tears For Esbjörn" is a poignant homage to the piano
visionary Esbjörn Svensson, who died in 2008. Wollny can also be
heard in duet on "Creating Magic": the unreleased "Polygon",
recorded at Schloss Elmau, with the Norwegian saxophone
shooting star Marius Neset, is the first ever meeting of these two,
perhaps most important young European jazz musicians of our
time, and it shows in no uncertain terms that the future is bright.
The sampler ends with a track that has, in its own tragic way,
gained a place in jazz history: "You Stole My Heart" is the last
recording that Eddie Harris made, briefly before his passing. After
the concert recordings with the WDR Big Band, which can also
be heard on "The Last Concert", he asked pianist Gil Goldstein to
stay for an extra night session. One last time he exposed his soul
in the song he dedicated to his wife. Back in Los Angeles he was
hospitalised and died on 5 November 1996.
09 Bugge Wesseltoft & Henning Kraggerud
Improvisation Over La Folia
CD1:
01 Jasper van't Hof & Bob Malach
Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair
02 Jan Johansson & Georg Riedel Visa Från Utanmyra
04 Viktoria Tolstoy & Jacob Karlzon Red Rain
05 Michael Wollny & Marius Neset Polygon*
06 Gwilym Simcock & Yuri Goloubev Pastoral
07 Nils Landgren & Esbjörn Svensson Song From The Valley
08 Iiro Rantala & Michael Wollny Tears For Esbjörn
10 Youn Sun Nah & Ulf Wakenius Avec le temps
11 Adam Bałdych & Yaron Herman Letter For E.
12 Gerardo Nuñez & Renaud García-Fons Un Amor Real
CD 2:
01 Sidsel Endresen & Bugge Wesseltoft Nightsong
02 Christof Lauer & Jens Thomas Green Dance
03 Nguyên Lê & Paolo Fresu Lacrima Christi
04 Lars Danielsson & Leszek Możdżer Pasodoble
05 George Mraz & Emil Viklický Up On A Fir Tree
06 Klaus Paier & Asja Valcic Tango Loco
07 Heinz Sauer & Joachim Kühn Lover Man
08 Jens Thomas & Verneri Pohjola T.N.T.
09 Wayne Krantz & Bob Malach Fate
10 Jonas Knutsson & Johan Norberg Jämtpelle
11 Danilo Rea & Flavio Boltro O mio babbino caro
12 Eddie Harris & Gil Goldstein You Stole My Heart
Compilation produced by Siggi Loch
Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann
DUO ART Releases in Spring 2014
January 17, 2014
January 17, 2014
March 28, 2014
March 2008, 2014
Planned for May, 30th, 2014:
Rita Marcotulli (piano) &
Luciano Biondini (accordion)
August 29, 2014
Cover Art (Detail) by Philip Taaffe / ACT Art Collection