EMPIRICAL & Michael Wollny`s [em] - Jazzwise to the power of 15 Festival Tuesday 13th March

This concert is part of the 'Jazzwise to the Power of 15' festival, helping celebrate 15 years of Jazzwise Magazine

Empirical:

Empirical is a project involving 4 young, British Jazz musicians, that aims to expand on the traditions of Jazz. We perform compositions and improvisations that express ideas beyond music in an uniquely equal approach. Each member is given equal responsibility for the direction of the music in composition and in the moment of improvisation.

The aim is to present a path for the audience into music by commenting on well known ideas in the world today, taking influence from Film and TV, proverbs and sayings even sports! We express what we think and feel on this ideas through the collaborative trial and error process of Jazz improvisation.

Empirical has been presenting PROJECTS, performances and recordings since 2007. The eponymous debut ‘Empirical’ and the 2009 release ‘Out ‘n’ In’ have been extensively toured throughout the jazz circuit in the UK and abroad.

Michael Wollny`s [em]

“Whatever you do, question everything around you and don’t simply follow authorities.” While this attitude might be associated by some with punk music, it was also adopted by jazz visionaries like Miles Davis and Albert Mangelsdorff. Reinventing yourself, discovering something new, making a clean sweep, being a bit of a rebel and always being driven by creativity – this outlook also applies to Michael Wollny, Eva Kruse and Eric Schaefer.

Michael Wollny once said that they wanted to have some punk in their jazz. Breaking boundaries is the philosophy of the trio and certainly holds true on “Wasted & Wanted“. European jazz tradition, indie rock, Western and contemporary art music, sound experiments and some punk attitude – this all merges effortlessly and uniquely together and makes the trio one-of-a-kind. The potential of the band was discovered early on and they took the jazz world by storm. They have been highly acclaimed ever since their debut album “Call It [em]“ was released in 2005, and the German newspaper DIE ZEIT even called them “the world’s most exciting piano trio". Their album “[em] live at Jazzbaltica“ from 2010 was hailed as “the finest jazz album of the last quarter of a century” by the well-known English critic Stuart Nicholson and it received the Echo Jazz award for “Best Ensemble National”.

On “Wasted & Wanted“, the listener won’t hear be greeted by overtly intellectual and ostentatiously academic jazz, but rather extremely energetic music with some nearly telepathic interaction between its creators. Such energy levels are seldom reached in jazz. The pianist Michael Wollny, who is stylistically absolutely unique, proves once again why (according to the Hamburger Abendblatt), he is “the strongest personality in the German (jazz) music business since Mangelsdorff”. Eva Kruse’s pulsating bass is the driving force of the trio, while drummer Eric Schaefer is full of rock energy with his insistent, versatile and richly coloured sound. “Wasted & Wanted“ exudes fresh, unconventional, continuously surprising and exciting music that is full of creativity, power and virtuosity.

Wollny, Kruse and Schaefer take us along on a high intensity musical adventure, full of enthusiasm. It is an adventure that changes its colours like a chameleon: it’s about tracing new sounds and experiencing different emotions. Energetic and ecstatic, mysterious and contemplative, melancholy and overwhelming, performed with heart and brain, powerful and wild - the album is all of this and more.