Christof Lauer

Joachim Kühn - EuropeanaCD / Vinyl / digital Joachim Kühn piano Jean-Francois Jenny Clark bass Jon Christensen drums Django Bates horn Douglas Boyd oboe Klaus Doldinger soprano saxophone Richard Galliano accordion Christof Lauer soprano saxophone Albert Mangelsdorff trombone Markus Stockhausen trumpet The jazz symphony "Europeana" is a central work in the ACT catalogue. It epitomises the power of jazz that spans regions, times, styles and personalities. And to mark the 80th birthday of its key figure Joachim Kühn, this milestone is now available on vinyl for the first time. Alongside Joachim Kühn, the album brings together the crème de la crème of contemporary European improvised music, including Albert Mangelsdorff, Django Bates, Klaus Doldinger and Richard Galliano, backed by the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Hanover. The album, released in 1995 and written by the English composer and arranger Michael Gibbs, combines the rich European musical tradition with the language of jazz. Symphonic music, swing, free jazz, blues and flamenco - all this merges into a unique, timeless music without borders.

Various Artists - Fahrt ins Blaue III - dreamin in the spirit of jazzCD / digital Esbjörn Svensson E.S.T. Symphony Youn Sun Nah, Ulf Wakenius & Lars Danielsson Wolfgang Haffner Quartet feat. Dusko Goykovich Nils Landgren Quartet Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano &Jan Lundgren Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr, Tim Lefebvre & Nate Wood Viktoria Tolstoy Cæcilie Norby & Lars Danielsson Matthieu Saglio &Vincent Peirani Ulf Wakenius Norah Jones, Joel Harrison & David Binney Jan Lundgren Quartet Michael Wollny & Vincent Peirani Natalia Mateo Jens Thomas & Christof Lauer Daydreams and soothing stories...in the Spirit of Jazz "There's a place for us, somewhere a place for us. Peace and quiet and open air wait for us. Somewhere…". These words from the classic song from Leonard Bernstein's “West Side Story” set the tone for "Fahrt ins Blaue III - dreamin' in the Spirit of Jazz": this is uplifting music, to take the mind and the soul to a place of safety. The kind of quiet interlude in a day which is always restorative. Switch off and then switch back on – better focused. We find calm, intimacy, thoughtfulness here; the sixteen tracks in this compilation have a sense of flow, while also allowing the listener to wander off into all kinds of musical dream worlds....From the very first spacious piano tones of Esbjörn Svensson’s "Ajar", one feels time standing blissfully still. This little gem, and the "e.s.t. Prelude" which follows it, is our entry point into the dreamy universe which will open itself up to us over the next 67 minutes. Youn Sun Nah's bittersweet "Lento", based on the music of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, gently emerges, seamlessly followed by Dusko Goykovich’s wonderfully warm and sad muted trumpet as he contemplates the falling of "Autumn Leaves" with Wolfgang Haffner's "Kind of Cool" ensemble. Then we hear singer/trombonist Nils Landgren, gentle almost to the point of weightlessness in "Somewhere". There is poetry and the originality in Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano and Jan Lundg-ren’s Mare Nostrum Trio: we hear Swedish pianist Lundg-ren’s earwormish ballad “Aurore”. Lundgren also appears with his own quartet, with some hushed lyrical magic from Finnish saxophonist Jukka Perko in "No.9". On "Fahrt ins Blaue III", Michael Wollny and Vincent Peirani show their astonishing kinship of spirit and their serendipitous ability to move together in their duetting on "The Kiss". Accordionist Peirani is also to be heard with Ricardo Esteve’s heart-rendingly lovely flamenco guitar and cellist Matthieu Saglio on the poignantly sad but uplifting and warmly Mediterranean "Bolero triste". We then hear the Wasserfuhr brothers transport us to New York's Brooklyn Bridge with a sweeping view of the shimmering Manhattan skyline at dusk with their relaxed grooving jazz ballad "Carlo". For peace and inspiration, there’s a man and his guitar: Ulf Wakenius plays Keith Jarrett's "My Song". That is followed by the duo of Caecilie Norby and Lars Danielsson enchanting us with an intimate version of Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah”. Two more singers take us to the world of cinema: Natalia Mateo sings Wojciech Młynarski's gorgeous lyrics to Krzysztof Komeda’s “Lullaby” from "Rosemary's Baby", starting in her native Polish, and drifting into utterly beautiful wordlessness; and Viktoria Tolstoy offers that most pensive and gentle of breakup songs, "Why Should I Care". from the Clint Eastwood film "True Crime", with some stupendous guitar work from Krister Jonsson. And then there is an appearance by inimitable Norah Jones alongside guitarist Joel Harrison and saxophonist David Binney. She recorded a languid version of the country song "Tennessee Waltz" on ACT, on the album "Free Country", from the same era as her 27 million-seller "Come Away With Me". Pianist Jens Thomas and saxophonist Christof Lauer give us the quiet poise of “Green Dance”. This epilogue sums up the aesthetic of "Fahrt ins Blaue III": dreamlike music of beauty, tranquillity and calm – that it is well worth spending some time with. Credits:Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Gerardo Núñez - Jazzpaña LiveCD / Vinyl / digital Gerardo Núñez flamenco guitar Ulf Wakenius jazz guitar Chano Domínguez piano Ramón Valle piano Omar Rodriguez Calvo bass Liber Torriente drums Christof Lauer saxophone Cepillo / percussion“Music for people with open ears and open minds. Far removed from a predefined style. Without any fear of mixing genres.” In 1992, this was the understanding of jazz that producer Siggi Loch based the launch of his ACT adventure on. The label’s very first recording, Jazzpaña, was to become a milestone and synonym for ACT’s philosophy, and became a double Grammy nominee in the process. Jazzpaña brought the stars of the “Nuevo Flamenco” from Spain together with US jazz greats such as Michael Brecker, Peter Erskine and Al Di Meola, backed by the sound of the WDR Big Band. The arrangements came from Vince Mendoza, though a little-known artist at the time, he is now one of the most versatile and prolific composer-arranger-conductors of the last two decades, a multi-Grammy Award winner who has written arrangements for everyone from Joni Mitchell, Sting, Elvis Costello and Bjork to Joe Zawinul, John Scofield and Charlie Haden. 12-time Grammy winner and star producer Arif Mardin, who throughout the course of his career worked with greats such as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and Norah Jones, completed the set with a suite of his own. Jazzpaña sought to connect the unexpected, in this case Flamenco and Jazz, and one album became two in 2000 with a smaller, but no less prominent line-up. Jazzpaña II was led by Gerardo Núñez and Chano Domínguez and peppered with soloists like Jorge Pardo, Perico Sambeat and again Michael Brecker. Once again, it was a huge success: “Grandiose Musik” proclaimed Germany’s esteemed magazine Der Spiegel. Now, 15 years on from Jazzpaña II, and over two decades since the original idea was conceived, ACT presents Jazzpaña live. This latest chapter in the Jazzpaña story was recorded live from both the Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal and WDR 3 Jazzfest in Dortmund. For this concert, once again both Jazz and Flamenco combine through Spanish Guitarist Gerardo Núñez, considered the heir apparent to the great Paco de Lucía, and Swedish guitar virtuoso Ulf Wakenius, however this time a third element, Cuba, is added courtesy of Cuban pianist Ramón Valle. His trio explores the close relationship between Hispanic music and the music of Andalusia, with the results particularly impressive on “Siboney”, an homage to the greatest of all Cuban composers, Ernesto Lecuona.  Credits: Recorded live in concert at the Berlin Philharmonie (KMS), October 21, 2014 Recorded and mixed by Klaus Scheuermann And at the WDR 3 Jazzfest 2015, Domicil Dortmund, January 31, 2015 WDR 3 Jazzfest concert producer: Dr. Bernd Hoffmann Sound engineer: Rolf Lingenberg Audio technician: Reiner Kühl Mastered by Christian Schmitt Recording producer: Christoph Terbuyken Album mastering by Klaus Scheuermann

Christof Lauer - Petite FleurCD / digital Christof Lauer soprano & tenor saxophoneHubert Nuss piano Patrice Héral drums NDR Bigband conducted by Rainer Tempel Only very few of today's jazz musicians and fans still know who Sidney Bechet is: one of the founding fathers of jazz. He played the soprano saxophone like no other, and with his French-Creole-inspired compositions, he was a forerunner of jazz's openness to all musical styles. More than ten years ago, ACT owner Siggi Loch, whose passion for jazz was aroused by a Bechet concert that he attended at the age of 15, asked Christof Lauer whether he could imagine doing a project that focused on this jazz pioneer. What Loch was hoping for was an entirely new way of looking at the genius of this New Orleans native, born in 1897, interpreted by someone from a free-jazz background who had developed his unmistakable sound playing with Albert Ayler and Stan Getz, collaborating with the Frankfurt School of Albert Mangelsdorff and Heinz Sauer, and working with American jazz musicians and the French avant-garde around Michel Godard and Marc Ducret. But as Lauer recalls, he – the "best saxophonist we have in Europe" according to Volker Kriegel – was "in a totally different place at the time". But the seed was sown, and it germinated slowly but surely, as is not entirely atypical for Lauer: For example, he didn't bring out his debut album, chastely bearing only his name as a title, until 1990, at the tender age of 37, which, however, promptly won the annual German Record Critics' Award, a feat that he repeated nine years later with his ACT debut "Fragile Network". Lauer also says that he didn't have much to do with Bigband music either, until 1993, when he finally succumbed, after several requests, and joined the NDR Bigband, which he is still a member of to this day. The band director at the time, Dieter Glawischnig, who had been Lauer's teacher in Graz in the 70s, convinced him with arguments such as that the orchestra was transforming into a soloist band. In a similar way, the collaboration had also become more intense with Rainer Tempel in recent times, one of Germany's leading bigband arrangers and composers, who also works for the NDR Bigband. It was with him that Lauer revisited the subject of Sidney Bechet, "and I found myself relating to Siggi Loch's idea as a bigband thing, because Rainer knows how I play and how you can realize a project like that. And because he always totally engrosses himself in every venture he commits to." And that is something that cannot be overheard on the album "Petite Fleur", which they recorded in four days in the studio. Unmistakable Bechet classics appear in an entirely new light thanks to Lauer's distinctive tone and the multilayered arrangements. It all begins with the soprano saxophone, because even though most know Lauer as a tenor saxophonist: "I played an incredible amount of soprano in the HR Jazz Ensemble, and occupied myself with it intensively," he says. Sidney Bechet's typical vibrato is replaced by Lauer's intense and expressive sound, which can draw long lines just as readily as swirling garlands. "It wouldn't make any sense to copy Bechet," Lauer explains. "It's about finding out how it interacts with your own world, and what energy is borne of that." And so Bechet's sound cosmos is given new clothes, with Lauer, Tempel and the NDR Bigband intelligently and profoundly interpreting the contrasts that lie between the lines in these catchy and emotional tunes: on standards that Bechet lent his inimitable signature to, such as Harry Barris' "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" and "On The Sunny Side Of The Street"; but even more so on his own famous songs from his Paris period, from the title track "Petite Fleur" to "Les Oignons" through to the Magrebinian-influenced "Casbah - Song of the Medina". Right from the intro, Tempel's mastery can be heard, letting the NDR Bigband take paths that branch off the streets of Antibes - "Dans Les Rues D'Antibes" -, only to have Lauer's saxophone artistically entice them back onto main street again. And even for Lauer, "Si Tu Vois Ma Mere" is the best proof "of the incredible power of these almost forgotten works. They are really catchy, and yet at the same time artistic." "We tried out a lot more songs than could go onto the CD," Lauer recalls, but one surprise, Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose", is on the album, and it has its own special relevance: "Early on in my career, I was supposed to play that in an old-time ensemble. I turned up at the rehearsal, played it the way I'd learned it, garnered disapproving frowns and never went there again. It didn't work at all, and now I wanted to make up for that – doing it my way." "Petite Fleur" is the best proof of how worthwhile it is to rediscover tradition from time to time, just as one recaptures one's own biography. Credits: Recorded at Studio 1 at NDR Hamburg, 16.09. - 20.09.2013, except September recorded by Hrólfur Vagnsson at Kehreinstudio Frankfurt, 02.04.2014 NDR recording team: Recording engineer: Michael Plötz Tonmeister: Hrólfur Vagnsson Sound technician (recording): Jens Kunze Mixed by Sven Kohlwage Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann A Norddeutscher Rundfunk production, 2013 Producers for NDR: Axel Dürr & Stefan Gerdes Cover art by Imi Knoebel / ACT Art Collection

For the 20th birthday of ACT-Music, the Jubilee Album presents 20 highlights from the moving history of the Munich label. A real treat for connoisseurs, explorers, researchers and the curious, as well as for anyone seeking the Spirit of Jazz.

Blues in Mind: Christof Lauer, Michel Godard & Gary Husband create chamber jazz magic with sax, tuba & piano.

The new ACT sampler, "Visions of Jazz," offers 15 compelling reasons to connect jazz with more than just sounds.

"This album is worth it" - AUDIOPHILE HIGHLIGHT (STEREO)

"Perhaps a groundbreaking project" - (SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG)

"Unleashed, confident, passionate." - (DIE ZEIT)

"A fantastic record" - STEREO

"CD of the Month, January 2004 - STEREO"

Jens Thomas and Christof Lauer deliver emotive, wordless hymns blending piano and saxophone in a captivating jazz experience.

Christof Lauer & Jens Thomas with Sidsel Endresen and Cikada String Quartet – awarded Vierteljahrespreis 4/2001, recorded at Rainbow Studio Oslo.

Fusion of Ottoman classical music, Western improvisation, and jazz rhythms – a world music masterpiece with Kudsi Erguner and prominent musicians.

Christof Lauer’s dynamic jazz ensemble with tuba, sax, and guitar, recorded at CMP Studio. Awarded the German Record Critics' Prize 1999

Experience NDR Bigband with legends like Benny Bailey, Gary Burton, and Tomasz Stanko. A jazz masterpiece with top musicians.

Experience the NDR Bigband's live performance with top jazz legends like Chet Baker, Gary Burton, and Joe Pass. A stunning European jazz showcase.