Five musicians from Estonia and Germany featured a catchy jazz style on December 6th at Kumu Auditorium, performing something which could easily be the soundtrack of a film called Christmas Jazz Festival.
Those versatile musicians started with an energetic composition where three of them did their own solo, capturing the audience with a visceral excitement since the beginning.
Tracks from their album “Edition 13” were heard, for example “Cry from East” by Peter Lehel, which started with a desperate saxophone with tears instead of chords, followed by the band, where every instrument seemed to tell a part of the story about why the sax was crying. Other songs such as “Bright Nights” by Axel Kühn, “Helin” by Kristjan Randalu and “Soundscape” by Thomas Siffling were also played.
The most amazing thing about this stunning performance was how their songs told different stories, taking you out of the auditorium to make you a part of an imaginary movie. They threatened to pull Estonians out of their seat by travelling from a crime film set in the forties to a scape in the purest gangster style just through the chords
Trying to close the concert, “Prisnaia” by Bodek Janke sounded like a mix of styles but after the reclaim of the audience they came out again to satisfy the public in a sublime last arrangement.
This awarded group of five individualists didn’t give a simple gig, they played with the spectators’ mood by changing the tempo any time in a harmonized and homogeneous way. They made a unique and highly energetic performance with their extroverted and entertaining jazz-stories music.
JazzEnsemble Baden-Württemberg on 6th of December at Kumu auditorium
Kristjan Randalu – piano
Peter Lehel – saxophone
Thomas Siffling – trumpet
Axel Kühn – doublebass
Bodek Janke – drums