Dialoge

Nils Landgren - 3 GenerationsCD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren with Joachim Kühn, Michael Wollny, Iiro Rantala, Lars Danielsson, Cæcilie Norby, Viktoria Tolstoy, Wolfgang Haffner, Ulf Wakenius, Jan Lundgren, Ida Sand, Youn Sun Nah, Vincent Peirani, Emile Parisien, David Helbock, Marius Neset, Nesrine, Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr, Anna Gréta, Johanna Summer, Jakob Manz, and many more We are Family – Celebrating 30 ACT Years Nils Landgren has been and remains the absolute linchpin of the ACT family. To date, the Swede has made forty albums on the label as leader, plus another twenty as producer or soloist. Michael Wollny, whose many many projects with Landgren give him a special connection, sums up a key ele-ment in his success: “With Nils everything becomes easy.” There is indeed a particular ease about Mr. Red Horn’s way of being; it is infectious and runs through everything he does. Which is all the more remarkable when one considers the sheer number of roles he takes on: trombonist, singer, band-leader, producer, festival director, professor, curator, talent scout and mentor.All of Landgren’s multiple roles and traits come to the fore on “3 Generations”. Working alongside producer and ACT founder Siggi Loch, Nils Landgren brings together three gene-rations of ACT artists’ in various line-ups to mark the label’s 30th anniversary. Landgren and Loch have a friendship and habits of working well together which go back almost as long as the existence of ACT itself. The two met for the first time at the 1994 Jazz Baltica Festival, just two years after the label was founded. Landgren became an exclusive ACT artist shortly thereafter. Since that time, it has been through Landgren’s network that artists such as Esbjörn Svensson, Rigmor Gustafsson, Viktoria Tolstoy, Ida Sand, Wolfgang Haffner and many more have joined the label. Nils Landgren continues in his trusted role as ACT’s leading connector and integrator. Finding and nurturing young talent has always been one of ACT’s strong suits. It was true for Nils Landgren, then later for Michael Wollny who joined the label in 2005 and is today one of the most significant pianists in Europe. With artists such as Johanna Summer and Jakob Manz - both born many years after ACT was founded - the label looks to the future with its younger generation of musicians bringing new ener-gy and impetus to the world of jazz.The Times (UK) has written: “Since 1992, ACT has been building its own European union of musicians, fostering a freedom of movement between nationalities and genres, and has given us an authentic impression of what the continent is about.” “3 Generations” demonstrates quite how true that assertion is. Around forty artists from the ACT Family make this anniversary album a celebration of the breadth, openness and inclusive power of jazz. The core of the album consists of recordings made at a summer 2022 studio session lasting several days. In reality, it is only Nils Landgren and Siggi Loch who could have brought this pano-rama of musical Europe into being. The influences here range from jazz, popular song and folk to classical and contempo-rary music, and much more. Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label “in the Spirit of Jazz”.Credits: Recorded by Thomas Schöttl at Jazzanova Studio, Berlin on June 7 - 9, 2022, assisted by José Victor Torell – except as otherwise indicated Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Siggi Loch and Nils Landgren The Art in Music: Cover Art by Yinka Shonibare CBE: Detail from Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, Mandragora, 2018

Jakob Manz & Johanna Summer - CameoCD / Vinyl / digital Johanna Summer piano Jakob Manz alto saxophone & recorder The duo of pianist Johanna Summer and saxophonist Jakob Manz is a stroke of luck for the young German jazz scene: the pair are two of its stand-out figures, each blessed with supreme virtuosity, indomitable boldness, broad musical horizons, and an unmistakable individual signature. Their thorough grounding in jazz can be clearly discerned, but at the same time one can hear how they broaden the idiom, welcoming in all kinds of other influences. For Johanna Summer, classical music is particularly prevalent. She regularly performs in major classical music venues, playing free improvisations on everything from Bach to Ligeti, both solo and in a duo with Igor Levit. Jakob Manz’s musical heritage and leanings are very different: his combination of the melodic and rhythmic power of pop with the sensitivity of jazz is totally compelling. He has deep admiration for pop-jazz crossover artists such as Dave Sanborn and Marcus Miller, and through his recent work with German pop star Sarah Connor, the art of projecting his lively sound into huge venues has now become second nature. Jazz, pop, classical, improvisation, composition...on their second album together, ‘Cameo’, Johanna Summer and Jakob Manz have made the choice to deploy this vast palette of colours in the smallest and most intimate format in which musical interaction can happen, the duo. The repertoire and concept of the new album, produced by Andreas Brandis, mark a step change from their debut together ‘The Gallery Concerts I’. Johanna Summer explains: ‘This time we wanted to write and/or select pieces that not everyone can play, but which suit Jakob and me particularly well. On the first duo album, we played standards and classics, very spontaneously and live. This time, we have tailored the pieces to suit each other.’ The range of original compositions reflects that of their protagonists, from the heartfelt opener ‘The Opposite’ to the rousing ‘The Turmoil’ (with Jakob Manz's virtuoso performance on the recorder) and the soul-drenched ballad ‘The Endless Dream’.In addition to the eight original compositions, there are also three unusual and particularly characterful arrangements: ‘Im Schönsten Wiesengrunde’(in the loveliest meadow) is a folk song from Jakob Manz’s home region of Swabia, a melody which has been in the air around him ever since early childhood. ‘Mahler Neu(n)’ (Mahler new/nine) is based on the 4th movement of Mahler's 9th symphony – a very familiar piece for Johanna Summer. ‘It almost has the feel of a pop song’, she says. The same can be said of Herbert Grönemeyer's ‘Flugzeuge im Bauch’ (aeroplanes in the belly), although interpreting this piece has been quite some challenge. As Jakob Manz recalls: ‘Transferring Grönemeyer's completely uniquely expressive singing to an instrument turned out to be extremely demanding. The song has more of the sense of words being spoken than a classic melody; I tried to extract the essence of the song.’ Manz and Summer have found clever ways to gently and carefully manoeuvre themselves around the original, very edgy theme. The result is that the pair succeed where all too many jazz arrangements of pop songs come to grief: this one adds another dimension and takes the song to a new level. There is true alchemy in what these musicians do, not least because they are both so keen to seek out and discover new music. There is magic in their way of listening and reacting, complete enchantment in how the two protagonists – so different and yet so aligned – complement and surprise each other again and again. ‘Whenever Johanna improvises, something happens that you’re not expecting. When she takes a solo, it often seems as if it's been composed, but in fact it’s different each time, it’s just emerged in the moment. There are very few musicians who have mastered that. It challenges me again and again.’ And Johanna Summer responds: ‘I'm impressed by how endlessly musical Jakob is. Everything he plays is coherent and strong; his playing has a clarity that is very human, musical and relatable. Even when he plays something very complex, it is never an end in itself, but always integrated into something that makes perfect sense and is very clear. It is a clarity that is very human, musical and comprehensible. And I am impressed by how Jakob can deliver to the point and draw out everything from within, regardless of external circumstances. He is always 100% there.’ How and why does the duo of Johanna Summer and Jakob Manz function so well? Rather than trying to investigate the two musicians’ individual backstories or influences, one might just as well admit that their appeal is something which can only be felt rather than explained. For some magical reason, a lot of what happens in the music of Johanna Summer and Jakob Manz finds them in complete accord with each other, even though nothing they play is foreseeable until a split second beforehand.. Jakob Manz says: ‘When I play in a duo with Johanna, many of the habits I have developed in playing with other musicians simply don't work any more. Something new can happen at any moment, so you always have to stay incredibly alert. It's very inspiring!’ This album is a testament to the great alertness and sensitivity of both musicians. The listener cannot fail to notice the particular effervescence and immediacy of their musical dialogue. One can only marvel at how such freedom and such clarity co-exist, at the way in which these two very disparate characters interact with each other with such gentleness and self-assurance. The music they co-create is colourful, lively, and deeply felt. A stroke of luck, indeed, maybe even a miracle.Credits: Music composed by Johanna Summer & Jakob Manz, except #4 (traditional), #7 (Herbert Grönemeyer) and #9 (Gustav Mahler) Produced by Andreas Brandis Recorded by Emanuel Uch from July 31 to August 1 at the ACT Gallery in Berlin, Germany Mixed and mastered by Emanuel Uch

Johanna Summer: Dialoge CD / Vinyl (LP, 180g) / digital  Johanna Summer piano Claire Huangci piano Danae Dörken piano Kit Armstrong piano Igor Levit pianoIt was a very special experience. Pianist Igor Levit went on to describe it as one of the “most artistically fulfilling moments of recent years”. To be wandering through Robert Schumann’s familiar “Waldszenen” (forest scenes)... and then suddenly to veer off onto new and unexpected paths: that was what the audience at the 2023 Lucerne Piano Festival witnessed during the first onstage encounter of pianists Johanna Summer and Igor Levit. Levit played first, starting with the opening piece from Schumann’s cycle of Romantic piano pieces in its original form; Summer then responded by picking up the thread of each of these miniatures in turn and, with an improvisation based on what she had heard, gave a magical account of the places where her musical intuition can take her. Nothing about this evening had been planned; the dialogue between Schumann’s classic pieces and the variations which Summer based on them had complete freedom, everything happened in the moment...Johanna Summer’s collaboration with producer Andreas Brandis has been steadily building traction. Their first venture was a highly acclaimed solo album, "Resonanzen"; that was followed by "Cameo", a duo album with saxophonist Jakob Manz, and the concert in Lucerne became the catalyst for the new album "Dialoge" (dialogues). The context here is four duos. Each of them features Summer on one of two grand pianos, with another pianist – Claire Huangci, Kit Armstrong, Danae Dörken and Igor Levit – on the other. The objective is to create an open-ended conversation between tradition and the present, between composition and improvisation. As for the repertoire, Summer’s studio guests were encouraged to take as much liberty as they wanted. As the pianist explains: “I asked them to bring along pieces they have a real affinity with...which would make it fine when I added something extra.” Johanna Summer deliberately kept herself in the dark as to which pieces her co-performers had chosen, until they actually started playing. To keep a completely open mind towards the music, she even made sure she left the room while her colleagues were warming up before the recording. The element of surprise is important here. It gives rise to the enormously daring, dynamic effect that Dialoge leaves on the listener. It was particularly appealing for Summer to be able to immerse herself in her duet partners’ very personal musical choices. She explains: “With his Greek heritage, Danae chose a Greek focus, with compositions by Manolis Kalomiris and Mikis Theodorakis. Zhou Tian’s ‘Prelude’ was written specifically for Claire; the two have known each other since their student days. Igor, in turn, brought along ‘Andantino de Clara’, a piece written by Robert Schumann – which, given our shared history, was of course a perfect fit. And Kit brought a lot to the programme, but in an unconventional way with spontaneous quotes from his repertoire – ranging from the Renaissance to the Viennese Classical era.”The improvisational reworking of classical and contemporary works is far less common than improvisation on, say, jazz or pop standards. So Summer’s unusual approach has raised the hackles of some critics. For instance, following the pianist’s acclaimed performance at the Lucerne Piano Festival, an established classical music critic remarked that this way of engaging with the piano tradition “fits into our fake-obsessed present, in which the distinction between original and forgery is becoming increasingly blurred.” Johanna Summer herself is very clear on that point: she is not attempting to impose some kind of rebrand onto European classical music, and is certainly not doing what she does for effect. Rather, she is concerned to bring her own personal and deeply sincere perspective to the musical source materials. “What interests me most is to ask the question: What does this work really want to tell us?” I try to define what attitude and what energy are contained within it – and figure out how I am going to translate that into my own personal vocabulary, which is not drawn solely from classical music. It’s about recognising the essence of a piece for oneself and developing a way of interpreting it. In principle, that is what classical pianists do, they are interpreters. The most beautiful moments are those when you unexpectedly discover a little gem, whether it’s a lovely phrase or an unusual chord combination, and are completely spellbound for a moment. It reminds me of a feeling I used to have as a child. When I was tidying a cupboard, I would find a long-forgotten toy. Suddenly, in that moment, a whole cosmos of creativity unfolds.” Is this classical music? Is it jazz? Does it matter? Johanna Summer doesn’t see herself as a ‘jazz pianist’ – she’s simply a pianist. Piano icon Joachim Kühn, himself a great connector of genres and eras, describes what Johanna Summer does as ‘music full of imagination and beyond categorisation’. Whether she is improvising as a soloist, in a duo with classical musicians, or alongside musicians who cross genres naturally, such as Malakoff Kowalski or Chilly Gonzales, Johanna Summer’s musical imagination seems to know no bounds. Every encounter with the instrument and other musicians is a new beginning. And Johanna Summer is inimitable; she always ends up sounding entirely like herself. CreditsRecorded 19.06. and 23.07.2025 at Emil Berliner StudiosRecorded by Lukas KowalskiMixed and mastered by Emanuel UchProduced by Andreas BrandisPhotos by Gregor Hohenberg, Ilan HamranCover art by Małgorzata Szymankiewicz, Untitled 390, 2025,acrylic on canvas, 100 × 90 cmUsed by kind permission of the artist and

Various Artists - Fantastische FrauenCD / digital Julia Hülsmann & Rebekka Bakken, Anna Gréta, Solveig Slettahjell, Céline Bonacina, Ida Sand, Cæcilie Norby, Viktoria Tolstoy, Johanna Summer, Rigmor Gustafsson, Terri Lyne Carrington, Rita Marcotulli, Nesrine, Youn Sun Nah, Janne Mark, Kadri Voorand, Laila Biali Music is feminine. And it always has been, whether in Italian, German and French. Viva la musica. Die Musik. La musique. And in jazz? During the 20th century female musicians lives were lived in the shadows. Lil Hardin, for example, wrote compositions like “Struttin‘ With Some Barbecue”, and yet while her husband Louis Armstrong was becoming famous, she was hardly noticed at all. She was, as she described it later, “standing at the bottom of the ladder holding it and watching him climb.” Since then, however, things have moved on. Progress may be slow, but things are definitely changing. In jazz, today the female element has gone way beyond just the “girl singer with a band”. It is not only quite normal for a woman to be playing electric guitar, bass, drums or trumpet, we now have musicians such as Terri Lyne Carrington serving as important role models. “Fantastische Frauen” presents a selection of the strong female voices who have either forged their careers in partnership with ACT, or at least been with the label for part of their journey. Some came to the label at the beginning of their careers; others were already more established: Berlin-based pianist/composer Julia Hülsmann released three albums for ACT in the early 2000s, showing a refined sensitivity for language and a flawless instinct for setting poetry to music. “Same Girl” is her arrangement of the Randy Newman song, with Norwegian singer Rebekka Bakken as a kindred spirit on the album “Scattering Poems”.  Scandinavian singers have always been a major presence on ACT, including some stalwarts who have been with the label for several years: Viktoria Tolstoy, from Sweden, has eight albums to her name on ACT, of which “Shining On You” was the first. It features compositions by probably the most important Swedish jazz musician of the last 20 years, pianist Esbjörn Svensson. Icelandic pianist/singer Anna Gréta is a new member of the ACT family. “Nightjar in the Northern Sky” is simple, direct and con-cise. Solveig Slettahjell (Norway), Ida Sand (Sweden, both singer and pianist), Cæcilie Norby (Denmark) and Rigmor Gustafsson (Sweden) are important and well-established figures on the scene, and are all much more than “mere” singers: they have been writing and arranging their own music for many years, and also penning the lyrics and leading their own bands.  Janne Mark from Denmark occupies a very special place: she has found her own fascinating path between folk music, church hymns and jazz. Kadri Voorand from Estonia is also much more than just a singer. Alongside her mind-boggling vocal skills and her clever use of effects devices, the fact of quite how good a pianist she is – and also lyricist and composer – runs the risk of being overlooked. “I’m Not in Love” is both charming and unsett-ling, with just the right mixture of each. Youn Sun Nah, from South Korea, brought her love of French chanson and jazz to Europe, and has made some terrific recordings: “Momento Magico” with guitarist Ulf Wakenius stuns with its virtuosity, leaving the listener breathless. Nesrine creates magical worlds of sound with no boundaries: Cello and voice with Arabic roots and Mediterranean soul. Canadian vocalist/pianist Laila Biali combines everything which is good about singer-songwriting. Céline Bonacina takes on an unusual role; there are still not many well-known female baritone saxophonists, and even fewer who lead their own interesting bands. This Frenchwoman absolutely does her own thing... ...something which can also be said about pianist Johanna Summer. She chose Robert Schumann’s “Kinderszenen” (scenes from childhood) and “Album für die Jugend” (album for the young) as the starting point for free improvisations. Her album has had a major impact.  For Italian pianist Rita Marcotulli, the power of melody is the driving force – her album with the accordionist Luciano Biondini has a dreamlike quality. Today US-American Terri Lyne Carrington is one of the leading figures on the drum set and has played with all of the greats of jazz. She shared the stage with Wayne Shorter, composer of the classic “Witch Hunt” when she was still in her twenties. “Fantastische Frauen” is a very apt title for this album because music is female and so, increasingly, is jazz. The fact that this is now recognised and appreciated has been a major step forward. At some point in the future it will only ever be about the music, irrespective of whether it has been created or performed by male, female or diverse artists. And that will be the next big step forward.Credits: Curated by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 14 "In The Spirit Of Jazz"CD / digital"More than any other art form, music touches people directly," is ACT founder Siggi Loch's credo. For nearly 30 years, the core of what the label does has been to find and to promote the artists who can inspire the mind, reach the heart and touch the soul, and who do so in ways that have a lasting impact. Perhaps this has never been more important than now in the time of the pandemic, when culture has been silenced, when people have felt emotionally isolated and – far too often – the only “reality” has been virtual. With sixteen tracks from the current ACT release schedule, "Magic Moments 14" gathers together all of the power of "Music in the Spirit of Jazz", this world language beyond words which is understandable to everyone. It not only brings people together, it also moves and inspires them. ACT’s main mission is in the absolute foreground on this album: to be a discovery label. ACT’s main focus has always been on European jazz, to document this art form growing and developing, to show it reflecting on its own musical traditions, linking them back to jazz’s American roots and thereby opening up new paths. So, in that spirit, "Magic Moments 14" begins with a "Canzon del fuego fatuo" from the remarkable young Spanish pianist Daniel Garcia. Here is a fascinating new voice from Spanish jazz, taking up the music of his homeland in a refreshingly new way. We also mark here the ACT debut of mesmerising Austrian actor Birgit Minichmayr. Here is a voice and a personality with charismatic presence, delivering a Shakespeare Sonnet in the grand manner, together with Quadro Nuevo’s versatile world music team and the early jazz specialist Bernd Lhotzky. Other examples of new shining stars in the European musical firmament are the French-Algerian cellist and singer Nesrine and Austrian pianist David Helbock’s new trio. This focus on new and recent arrivals at the label does not mean neglecting the artists who have been with ACT since the beginning and who have made it the leading label for Swedish jazz: trombonist Nils Landgren contributes a new humdinger from his Funk Unit, a band which has been giving soul jazz a European face for over twenty-five years. Bassist/composer Lars Danielsson again celebrates the combination of classical music, jazz and Nordic sound with "Cloudland" from his new Liberetto album. Ida Sand conti-nues the tradition of Scandinavian singers who enrich the world's songbook with their pop "in the spirit of jazz". And for the final track, Jan Lundgren and Lars Danielsson, toge-ther with Emile Parisien, the French musician who has single-handedly redefined the soprano saxophone, show us Euro-pean art music with a Swedish accent at its most communicative and inspired. Last but not least, ACT was one of the first important labels to promote contemporary German jazz. There are more German artists on "Magic Moments 14" than ever before, demonstrating this important strand: violinist Florian Willeitner from Passau; guitarist Philipp Schiepek who has made a meteoric rise in the South German scene; the feisty attitude of KUU! led by singer Jelena Kuljic – like Minichmayr also primarily known for her acting and stagecraft; the Jazzrausch Bigband, whose techno jazz is attracting attention worldwide; and two rising stars who are currently harvesting all of the major awards, Johanna Summer and Vincent Meissner.Summer and Meissner - like Garcia, Lundgren and Helbock - also stand for the special place ACT has always found for the best pianists in Europe. Thus it is two German pianists of major international significance who complete the offering on "Magic Moments 14": 77-year-old Joachim Kühn is still utterly driven and a major force; his heir apparent Michael Wollny can also be heard here in his new all-star quartet with Emile Parisien, Tim Lefebvre and Christian Lillinger. The drummer was a multiple award-winner at the new German Jazz Prize, including one for KUU!. "Magic Moments 14" is a quintessence of the many directions which genre-crossing, innovative jazz is currently taking. These difficult times need remedies that are both energising and emotionally affecting: here are musicians who unfailingly show us the value and importance of trust and dialogue.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 15: In the Spirit of JazzCD / digitalBest jazz infotainment for the 30th anniversary of ACT: 16 tracks, 65 minutes of music in the spirit of jazz, featuring artists like Nils Landgren, Emile Parisien & Theo Croker, Iiro Rantala, Vincent Peirani Trio, Michael Wollny Trio, Joel Lyssarides, Jakob Manz & Johanna Summer, and more.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Johanna Summer - ResonanzenCD / Vinyl / digital Johanna Summer piano In early 2020, listeners and the media were delighted, amazed, and taken completely by surprise by pianist Johanna Summer’s debut album “Schumann Kaleidoskop” (Schumann Kaleidoscope). Her improvisational approach to Robert Schumann's “Kinderszenen” also caught the admiration of colleagues from a wide range of musical backgrounds. Star classical pianist Igor Levit’s comments on the album were clear yet heartfelt: “Johanna Summer is an outstanding jazz pianist. She is so centred and at ease with herself, she handles material so confidently and freely...and yet she finds her own right note every time.” Piano poet Malakoff Kowalski found the album simply “scandalously good” and was “enraptured and amazed by an artist who fearlessly follows the music”. And jazz icon Joachim Kühn stated: “Johanna Summer's music is full of fantasy and without category. Coming from European classical music, with a wonderful touch, she creates something perfect and complete. Something her own”. With “Resonanzen” (Resonances) Johanna Summer has extended her extraordinary art and deepened the way she retells the music of classical composers through improvisation. The album spans a wide range, starting with Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Ravel and ending with Mompou, Ligeti and Scriabin. Johanna Summer's deep insights into the two worlds of composition and improvisation are the result of the particular path along which she has developed as a musician. In her childhood and youth, she solely studied classical music. Jazz and improvisation came relatively late, but when they did, it was with a powerful focus. Her classical grounding remained in place, and yet there were many things that she needed to re-learn for “Schumann Kaleidoskop” and for “Resonanzen”. As she says: “It was very important that I should master the original pieces first. That was particularly demanding for “Resonanzen”, because each of these very contrasting compositions makes very different demands on me as a player. At the same time, improvisation is also an art which you have to keep practising and developing, so that the music can attain its own natural flow. To do justice to both of these sides, and to find a balance between them, these really are lifelong tasks for me.” The challenge which Johanna Summer sets herself with her improvisational approach, using such diverse and demanding works as her sources, is also proven by the fact that “Resonanzen” was recorded twice, in very different settings, so that the music could flow as naturally and coherently as it does on the album. Johanna Summer remembers: “For the first session I had prepared everything meticulously and went into the studio with the attitude of a real perfectionist...and also with the objective that the new album absolutely had to be better than the previous one. I could hear this way of approaching the music very clearly in the results. In the process of playing, I had already prejudged too much, thought too much and I ended up stopping again and again because I thought it had to be more perfect somehow. That made the spaces so tight for me that I had to constantly squeeze through them.” These first results didn't have the inspiration or the flow which they should have. So a second studio session took place in an atmosphere which was much more like a concert: the programme was played through twice without any interruptions, cuts or analysis, in front of a small audience. “That made all the difference,” she recalls. “The feeling of playing for an audience did something to me. I was finally able to play with freedom because I knew I couldn't stop or do any patching anyway. I could simply allow things to happen and take their course.” Johanna Summer, it would seem, is never content to take the easy option, something demonstrated by the fact she chose the demanding form of a solo piano recital for her debut album, and has now gone on to develop it further in “Resonanzen”. For a young artist to set herself the objective of moving confidently within two musical disciplines, each of which is a challenge in itself – and to make such a success of it – is a remarkable achievement. And even more so because the listener doesn’t hear even the slightest hint of any of the struggle and effort involved in “Resonanzen”. Johanna Summer's playing is so serene, flowing and soulful. There is so much here which is going to amaze and delight. And every time the listeners might feel, that they know what’s next and where the music is headed, there’s another surprise coming up. Credits: Produced by Andreas Brandis & Emanuel Uch

Various Artists - Romantic Freedom - Blue in GreenCD / digitalACT is a label with a clear sense of its own identity, values and mission, and these virtues find strong expression in this new compilation. ACT has been a major force since 1992 in bringing to the fore Euro-pean jazz which transcends the old genre boundaries, and has played a major part in helping this music to become far better known in its many and varied forms. This is in fact the second compilation album from the label to bear the motto “Romantic Freedom”. Back in 2006, fourteen years after the label was founded, the first album with this title focused on performances by solo pianists, a particularly strong area for ACT. Now, another fourteen years on, "Romantic Freedom - Blue in Green" brings the story and the message up to date - and does so in several fascinating ways.The ACT family continues to grow with the addition of fascinating artists from all over Europe, so it is fitting that David Helbock, a pianist who has only recently risen to prominence beyond his native Austria, and whose association with ACT started in 2016, should be given the honour of starting the album with his Random Control Trio in a moodily, atmospheric version of the modal Miles Davis/Bill Evans ballad “Blue in Green”. Another pianist who has only recently made his album is Carsten Dahl from Denmark. Dahl's “Sailing with no Wind” has calm, balance and great beauty. And for contrast there is the catchy, rock-inspired immediacy of the Stockholm-based Jacob Karl-zon Trio in “Bubbles”. The nurturing of fruitful dialogue across national borders and styles of music is a real strength at ACT, and is a key feature of "Romantic Freedom - Blue in Green". As Chris Pearson of The Times of London reflected in early 2020: “Since 1992 Act, the German label, has been building its own European union of musicians, fostering a freedom of movement between nationalities and genres.” It is worth noting that, whereas almost half of the pianists on the 2006 album were from North America, all the musicians apart from three on the new album were born in Europe. A band which epitomizes civilized conversation across borders, indeed has it at its very core is Mare Nostrum, the trio of Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, French accordionist Richard Galliano und Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren. They play Michel Legrand’s “The Windmills of Your Mind” . Fresu’s appealing and warm flugelhorn sound is to also be heard irresistibly on Komeda’s “Sleep Safe and Warm” (also known as “Rosemary’s Lullaby”) in duo with Lars Danielsson. We also hear the very different heritages of Polish violinist Adam Bałdych and French/Israeli pianist Yaron Herman as the pair create and then release tension in “Riverendings”, the first of two tracks on this album featuring a violin.Musicians from Europe walk, quite literally, in the footsteps of the great classical composers. The young German pianist Johanna Summer, the youngest musician on this album and rapidly becoming a star of the label was born in Saxony very near Zwickau, the birthplace of Robert Schumann’s. She is heard here in her affecting “instant com-posing” version of Schumann’s “Of Foreign Lands And People” from “Scenes of Childhood”. David Helbock lived for some years in Vienna, and in “Beethoven #7, 2nd Movement”, we hear the Austrian in a delicate and thoughtful version on prepared piano. Norwegians pia-nist Bugge Wesseltoft and violinist Henning Kragerrud have a deep feeling for the melodic beauty of their compatriot Grieg’s “Våren” (Last Spring). ACT is home for pianists with a central role in European jazz in recent decades, such as Michael Wollny, Joachim Kühn, Leszek Możdżer. All three (and also Bugge Wesseltoft) were represented on the 2006 and the listener can reflect on the journey they have travelled over the decades with a label that above all help to ensure that their reputati-ons can build beyond their home countries. Michael Wollny’s “Little Person”, a cover of Jon Brion’s song from the film “Synecdoche, New York.” is quietly reflective with a gentle pulse and a deliciously open ending. We also hear Wollny on prepared piano accompanying another core member of the ACT artist family, Nils Landgren on both vocals and trombone), in Sting’s “Fragile”. We have the decisively carefree and rocky side of Joachim Kühn’s New Trio in “Sleep on it”. On this compilation we go back to the beginning and hear the very first track from “Pasodoble” Leszek_Możdżer’s 2007 debut on ACT: “Praying” in a duo with Lars Danielsson. Another massively influential figure in European jazz, and until his untimely death in 2008 a core member of the ACT label family was the late Esbjörn Svensson. He was also on the 2006 album. We hear an e.s.t. track which has become a classic, “Believe Beleft Below”, and also a homage to the Swedish visionary from another pianist who has revealed many sides of his character and his story on the ACT label, the Finn Iiro Rantala, who plays his heartfelt tribute “Tears For Esbjörn”. If we now know what European jazz is, that is at least in part because ACT has shaped an important part of its story. "Romantic Freedom - Blue in Green" shows how appealing, how approachable and how universal European jazz at its best can be. Credits: Curated by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Johanna Summer - Schumann KaleidoskopCD / Vinyl / digitalJohanna Summer pianoThe Süddeutsche Zeitung hailed Johanna Summer's performance at the Young Munich Jazz Prize in 2018 as "a small sensation": for just under an hour, the pianist, born in Plauen in Saxony in 1995 and now living in Berlin, had encompassed a whole gamut from enjoying the harmonic and rhythmic freedom of jazz to savouring the kind of refinement and discipline that her training as a classical pianist gives her. In a packed Unterfahrt club in Munich, the audience had been rapt and totally quiet as it listened: smiles during the more rousing passages, and then a collective holding of the breath during moments of suspense. The Süddeutsche’s had critic marvelled at her "amazing gift to make well-known melodies sound so convincingly her own, they develop a real sense of creative urgency.” The fact that Summer won the prize itself almost became incidental; far more significant was the fact that this competition heralded the arrival of one of the most interesting new pianists in European jazz. "I always wanted to learn the piano. And not just any piano, but a grand piano. Big instrument. Really suits me!" Johanna Summer remembers. And: "I loved to play very much, but as a child I was really lazy about practising. There were several times when I just wanted to give up because there were so many other things that were interesting me. I would have really loved to become a footballer..." The first steps on her path as musician were to a music school, then a jazz ensemble, and these were followed by her entering the German nationwide competitions ‘Jugend musiziert’ (youth plays music) and Jugend jazzt (youth plays jazz). So the piano and jazz both did take hold after all. "By the time I was sixteen, playing the piano was clearly the thing I was able to do the best, and it was also the thing that captivated me the most," she now reflects. Thereafter followed studies at the Musikhochschule (music academy) in Dresden and a two-year stint with the German national youth jazz orchestra "BuJazzO", an ensemble in which the top young players in Germany congregate. While studying in Dresden Johanna Summer discovered an enthusiasm for free extemporisation. She was drawn to exploring the expressive possibilities of duos and trios, but when it came to playing solo piano she did something highly individual: she would take a variety of pieces from the jazz and classical repertoires and do improvisations on them which extended the narratives of the original pieces. An important source of inspiration for her has been one of the professors in Dresden, and a major figure in East German jazz, the drummer and educator Günter "Baby" Sommer."In the beginning, it was really difficult for me, coming more from pop and classical music," says Summer. "Then you sit in front of this man who is one of the greats knowing that you have never tried to do anything like this before. But that was exactly the reason why I wanted to give it a go. I found it very exciting and then I quickly started to perform like this in public, because I think it's important to just do things; I find it exciting to be compelled to deal with musically challenging situations." Whereas Summer’s first attempts at extended solo piano improvisation had used jazz standards as their points of departure, her debut album "Schumann Kaleidoskop" investigates a repertoire much closer to her own roots in Saxony. Schumann's cycles of piano pieces "Kinderszenen" (scenes from childhood) and "Album für die Jugend" (album for the young) had been familiar to her since childhood, not just as player and listener, but also – because Schumann was from nearby Zwickau – as works that originate in her region of Germany. From an early age she was enchanted by both the melodic and the pictorial aspects of these short pieces, she had loved how "Ritter vom Steckenpferd" (knight of the hobbyhorse), "Von fremden Ländern und Menschen" (of foreign lands and peoples) or "Mai, lieber Mai" (May, sweet May), convert a childlike view of the world into music. And yet, to make her own adaptations of seven of the pieces was a far from a simple task: "I worked for a long time on recasting them, trying out all of the pieces in all keys and in a lot of different time signatures, creating several miniature interpretations and finally arrived at this selection, which I shaped into a cohesive sequence with a single arc." The depth of her involvement with the original Schumann pieces comes across strongly on the album. As does her impressive and complex personality as a jazz musician with a very wide range of expression: romantic passages and an instinct for melody, but also powerful grooves and exciting innovations. Despite there being such variety and depth, the listener never has the impression that Summer just wants to fire off as many ideas as she possibly can, or inded that her aim in this debut album is to present herself as a virtuoso. Quite the contrary. Everything she does is imbued with a deep sense of how to tell stories through music, a mature and clear vision of dramaturgy, dynamics, tension and atmosphere. A sentence written by Schumann seems to predict exactly the kind of new life that Johanna Summer has breathed into these pieces: "How infinite is the realm of forms, with everything that can be used and worked on for centuries to come." Credits: Variations on Robert Schumann by Johanna Summer Recorded by Stefan Deistler at LOFT Cologne, October 21 & 22, 2019 Recording supervisor, mixed and mastered by Emanuel Uch Produced by the artist 

Jakob Manz & Johanna Summer - The Gallery Concerts ICD / digital Jakob Manz alto saxophone & recorder (on 5) Johanna Summer piano The Art in Music – Siggi Loch has had the clear objective to foster creative interaction between jazz and visual art ever since he founded ACT in 1992. As a producer who is also an art collector, he loves to bring not only topflight musicians together around him, but visual artists as well. Works by Philip Taaffe, Gerhard Richter, Martin Noël, Martin Assig and many more don’t just adorn album covers, they are also on display at the ACT Gallery in Berlin. And it is there, in the gallery, before a small and select audience, that private musical evenings known as the Gallery Concerts take place. The works of art provide an inspiring visual backdrop for artists to try out new things. The house concerts are special, up close and personal; these extraordinary musical experiences are now being made available for a wider public to enjoy. On 27 October 2021 Jakob Manz and Johanna Summer were performing... Manz and Summer are two of the most outstanding talents to emerge from the young German jazz scene in recent years. As a duo, their dialogue is intimate, open and scintil-lating. The saxophonist (b. 2001) has shown above all through his band the Jakob Manz Project that he is a passionate exponent of contemporary jazz-rock, playing “amazingly sophisticated, powerful, soulful-funky music with groove” (Jazzthing). In partnership with Johanna Summer (b. 1995), he also shows his mastery of the quiet and the lyrical. German jazz icon Joachim Kühn admires his young pianist colleague, and is full of praise for her “music, so full of fantasy and beyond category”. With Summer, nothing is ever done for the sake of surface effect; it is all about the storytelling, and her fully-formed instincts for dramaturgy, dynamics and harmony. From the very first note, it is evident how perfectly matched Manz and Summer are. A magic and freedom emerge in the way they play together.  Inspired by the spirit of discovery, they have the courage to surrender to the moment and be totally spontaneous, fresh and carefree in their musicmaking. Any flaws just become part of the charm. Manz and Summer's “Gallery Concert” is a musical prologue: one can still only guess where and how this artistic relationship, still in its early stages, might develop.Credits: Live in concert at ACT Art Collection Gallery Berlin, 27.10.2021 Recorded, mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Curated by Siggi Loch Cover art "Das Sterben der Blätter" by Manfred Bockelmann / ACT Art Collection