Rainer Böhm

Dieter Ilg - RavelCD / Vinyl / digital Dieter Ilg bass Rainer Böhm piano Patrice Héral drums Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach...Germany’s premer jazz bassist Dieter Ilg has instigated several creative projects, in which he has taken the great composers of Western classical music off in new directions. Here, alongside pianist Rainer Böhm and drummer Patrice Héral, his focus turns to Ravel. It was the 1899 piano piece "Pavane pour une infante défunte" (pavane for a dead Infanta) which first spurred Ilg’s interest in the French ‘maître’. Ilg had been fascinated many years ago by the version with Jim Hall and Art Farmer: "When I was looking for a new source of inspiration for my trio, the memory of this piece came back to me. We delved deeper into Ravel's oeuvre and found a wide range of interpretative approaches that are not to be encountered in Beethoven or Bach. His music is tailor-made for us!"Perhaps it is not surprising that Ilg should be drawn to Maurice Ravel, given that the bassist’s artistic approach is in its essence impressionistic. Claude Monet once said about his paintings: "I'm interested in what happens between me and the object.” This is equally true for Ilg's creative process, because the musical templates act as the trigger for his own feelings, which he then processes into new sounds: "I don't work according to any plan, I don't want to just reproduce anything, but rather to create something of my own which keeps the masters in mind.” Ilg’s only requirement is that pieces should "jump out at him", as he describes it. The precise means by which that initial impulse happens is always left open: it might be a melody, a rhythmic figure, a chord progression or even a mood that creates the attraction. "Listen and decide in the moment" is Ilg's motto for the process of composing, and even more so when it comes to the improvisations with the trio, when the act of creation takes place in real-time.  In "Ravel", the observer becomes the subject: "Ravel leaves us latitude and uncertainty as to what is right or wrong”, says Ilg. “Freedom of interpretation is already inherent in his music, so it can be transformed into jazz quite organically." Maybe this is also the case because Ravel's work coincided with the genesis of jazz, and because he had such open ears for it. With George Gershwin, he travelled around Harlem in the 1920s to hear Duke Ellington and others. In addition, Paris, where Ravel lived, was in thrall to music from America such as ragtime and then jazz. All of this left a profound mark on Ravel's music. The musical current known as impressionism opened the doors for the contemporary music of the 20th century. It is therefore an ideal terrain to nurture Ilg's own jazz approach to the art of variation. A cornucopia of different musical moods awaits the listener. The atmospheric "Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte" is followed by the agitated, rhythmically moving "Alborada Del Gracioso". The "Trio" leads into a firework display of improvisation and "Valse II" swings with gracious ease. The album ends dreamily with "Le Jardin Féerique". It would have been impossible to leave out "Bolero" with its concise rhythmic ‘idée fixe’. It was drummer Patrice Héral, unsurprisingly, who proposed it. And whereas Ravel once said ironically about his masterpiece: “It's just a pity that it contains no music at all," this is simply not true of Ilg's version, where the melodic material of the theme takes some surprising turns at the instigation of pianist Rainer Böhm.  In "Ravel" we find interaction, excitement, joyous participation. At every moment Ilg, Böhm and Héral take equal roles in shaping the music. Freedom of expression is supreme. Solos are never a matter of egotistical display, what matters is how they can provide impulses for the group a as a whole: “It has been a long time since a trio seemed as intensely enmeshed with each other as this one," as a writer from NDR expressed it. Their musicianship opens up a highly individual musical world that makes one marvel at the naturalness, sensitivity and empathy with which bridges are built between classical music and jazz.  What is original, what is variation here? Where does Ravel end and Ilg begin...? Maybe one does not need to understand great art. As Monet himself proposed: "It's simply necessary to love."Credits: Recorded (26. & 27.11.2021), mixed and mastered by Adrian von Ripka at Bauer Studios Ludwigsburg Produced by Dieter Ilg

Rainer Böhm - hýdōrCD / digital Rainer Böhm piano“ACT seems to be on a mission to introduce the world to Europe's rising new jazz-classical pianists,” the UK’s leading jazz critic John Fordham of the Guardian has noted. And jazz for piano has indeed always been part of ACT's DNA. The label’s roster includes pianists who have achieved international renown such as Joachim Kühn, Esbjörn Svensson and Michael Wollny; and more recently the Austrian David Helbock has started to be recognized as the major talent he clearly is. Siggi Loch started the dedicated album series “Piano Works” to present the finest in solo piano playing, and Rainer Böhm with his album “hýdōr” becomes the latest pianist to enter this pantheon. Born in Ravensburg in Southern Germany in 1977 and now based in Cologne, Böhm is considered by critics to be one of the country’s outstanding jazz pianists, yet among the wider public he has not reached the level of recognition he deserves. He has made his mark through some excellent projects – with saxophonists Johannes Enders and Lutz Häfner, and trumpeter Axel Schlosser, for example. In 2016 with drummer Bastian Jütte’s quartet he won the award which is widely held to be the most important in German jazz, the New German Jazz Prize – and he won the Soloist Prize as well. He teaches at the conservatoires in Nuremberg and Mannheim, where he is one of their youngest professors. Böhm is also known as a long-standing member of the trio of Germany’s pre-eminent bassist, Dieter Ilg. The success and the impact that this group has achieved are at least in part attributable to Böhm’s remarkable piano playing, notably in its jazz adaptations of the greats of classical music – Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven and Bach. Indeed, the concept of crossing such frontiers is at the core of Böhm's musical identity, and is to be found in its purest form on “hýdōr”. Böhm is one of those genre-defiers for whom classical music and jazz are not in opposition to each other, but perfectly complementary polarities situated around a central task: how to convey emotions through music. The way Böhm has now risen to this challenge as a solo pianist is magnificent. He is able to rely on a stupendous technique: seldom can such deft alternation of left and right hands in melody and chordal accompaniment been heard as in the two parts of Böhm's “Bass Study”. Böhm also uses chromaticism in a highly original way on “hýdōr”, not only in pieces such as “Querstand” (where it is to be expected, the title, is the German for the musical term ‘false relation’), but also on “Terzen” (thirds) in which chromatic twists have a captivating way of subverting the melodic sweetness. In “Expansion And Reduction” Böhm achieves exactly what the title promises: wonderful harmonic resolutions, strongly rhythmic playing, and contrasting aggressive syncopation with a calm steady pulse as an underlying ostinato.  All of this allows him to exploit the deepest well of his creativity, which is his inexhaustible melodic inventiveness. Again and again, irresistible melodies emerge; they can be ethereal miniatures reminiscent of Grieg as in the title track “hýdōr”, heavily romantic as in the agitated tune “Catalyst”, skittish as in the bebop-style “Thumb Up, Broken Toe”, or gently lyrical as in “Hypo”. Another kind of fascination comes from a rhythmically superimposed melody in “Badi Bada” – which dances carefree over clusters in the left hand à la Philip Glass. The reason that Böhm's playing, compositions and improvisations are so affecting is that they are so subtle. He prefers allusion to heart-on-sleeve and favours themes which are pared-down (and which can also change in surprising ways) in place of over-obvious motifs. They draw the listener deep into a world which is always tinged with melancholy. “That’s probably in line with my character,” he reflects. In “hýdōr” Böhm has impressively joined the ranks of the great piano romantics. His highly individual voice makes a new and distinguished addition to the “Piano Works” series. Credits:Music composed and produced by Rainer Böhm Recorded by Stefan Deistler at Tonstudio Loft, Cologne, August 10 & 11, 2017 Mixed by Stefan Deistler Mastered by Klaus ScheuermannThe Art in Music: Cover art by Hermann Rudorf, Woge (1998) © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2018

Dieter Ilg - B-A-C-HCD / Vinyl / digital Dieter Ilg bass Rainer Böhm piano Patrice Héral drums Dieter Ilg is among the leading jazz bassists in the world. An exceptionally gifted player, he has, for example, worked with Randy Brecker, Charlie Mariano, and the Mangelsdorff/Dauner Quintet, and also currently has a duo with Till Brönner. However, it is above all his own projects that have defined him. In these he has explored his classical roots and transferred them into jazz with intent, thoroughness and consistency. In 2009 he formed a trio with pianist Rainer Böhm and drummer Patrice Héral, and together they fulfilled Ilg's long-cherished wish to re-conceive Guiseppe Verdi’s “Otello” according to his own musical conception of the work. He took a very different route from the over-mechanistic “third stream” of the 60s and 70s. He also avoided the kind of arrangement by which classical music was shrink-wrapped for the swing or pop markets. His ventures, loved by audiences and critics alike, are a freewheeling and completely convincing combination of the melodies and structures of classical music with the rhythmic and harmonic free spirit of jazz. The success of this first project stemmed from a winning combination of factors: meticulous preparation, a compelling creative vision and a trio that played together until everything they played became second nature. Armed with the right formula, Ilg then addressed Wagner’s “Parsifal”, followed by “Mein Beethoven”. He received an ECHO Jazz award for all of these three albums, and earned praise from critics, including the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Their critic wrote that Ilg had managed to get “difficult old Beethoven singing and swinging in a way that nobody had done before.” And now he continues with “B-A-C-H”. Ilg’s focus is J.S. Bach, the mighty creative force of the baroque era, whose compositions would determine the subsequent course of western classical music. Bach also set in motion the rediscovery of classical music through jazz, notably with Jacques Loussier. For many jazz musicians, Bach serves as a base camp for explorations of classical music, but Dieter Ilg has preferred to make him wait his turn. “Perhaps it’s because I enjoy putting the cart before the horse,” he quips. “Some people don’t believe it, but Bach is no actually easier to adapt than, say, Beethoven. It is simply another process, but it's firmly based on what we developed in our earlier adaptations.” Ilg grew up in a family of amateur classical musicians, and became familiar with Bach’s music from a very early age. Violin practice loomed large for him as a young boy, as did playing in a lot of masses in churches: “It’s the typical background for someone who has grown up in Germany and had his practical musical strengths forged in the furnace of both normal school and music school lessons,” Ilg grins. He pursued his studies at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, from which he graduated on the classical double bass. He developed a particular fondness for the Casals versions of the solo cello suites of Bach, and also “for a while” for Glenn Gould’s recording of the Goldberg Variations. “Sometimes the mathematical genius side of Bach can be a turn-off; it was sometimes the case for me,” he admits. So what is both surprising and also totally convincing is the way the music hovers and luxuriates in the beauty of Bach’s melodies, and how a musical story can suddenly emerge out of these ‘pure’ structures. The points where Ilg as a jazz musician has felt himself the most at one with Bach was right at the cusp where the compositions themselves are suggesting variation and improvisation. Here, Ilg’s well-honed method took over: after a period of dedicated listening, he selected the repertoire they were going to play from Bach’s great oeuvre, wrote out the leadsheets, and then they played together, permitting each of the musicians to bring his ideas to the table. “All three of us is prepared to take risks, but each also knows he can completely trust the others. Musically as well as on a human level that is something very significant.” That group dynamic, and just as Ilg describes it, can be heard clearly on this new recording. In his selection from Bach’s works, Ilg has not confined himself to the familiar. “Air” and “Siciliano” are the only two tracks on the album with the status of “hits”. There are four Goldberg Variations and two Preludes from the Clavierbüchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach “which every piano student knows. They were also the very first pieces I played on the piano, and they never leave you,” says Ilg. During his period of listening, pieces which seemed to leap up at him were the Harpsichord Concerto BWV1052 and the “Sarabande”, “which” says Ilg, “was ideal to make a song from.” The delicate tracery of Héral’s drumming seems to find its way of its own accord, whereas Ilg and Böhm – either solo or in unison, but always as equals – address the harmonic and rhythmic forms and spontaneously make something new from them. Ilg, once again, has taken the work of an old master and made it sound new and fresh. “B-A-C-H” has a depth about it, and yet is completely approachable. Credits: Variations on Johann Sebastian Bach by Dieter Ilg Recorded, mixed and mastered by Adrian von Ripka at Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg von Ripka at Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg Recording date: January 15 & 16, 2017 Produced by Dieter Ilg Executive Producer: Siggi Loch The Art in Music: Cover art by Thomas Schütte, Großer Doppelkopf Nr.6, 2015 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Various Artists - Magig Moments 10 "In The Spirit of Jazz"CD / digitalThe anniversary sampler Magic Moments 10 gives an insight into the current album releases from the ACT catalogue. 14 tracks, over 1 hour of the best jazz infotainment "in the spirit of jazz".Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 8 "Sing Hallelujah"CD / digitalThe eighth edition of the popular series Magic Moments is a 71-minute musical joyride through the current ACT release schedule, and features not just the stars of the label but also its newcomers and discoveries. The ACT label's proprietor and producer-in-chief Siggi Loch has put together a programme of sixteen tracks, under the title “Sing Hallelujah.” Encompassing jazz, soul, gospel and Afro-American roots music, it is yet another example of the Munich-based label defining itself by the will to be different, and by steering well clear of predictable and well-trodden paths. This is music “in the spirit of jazz,” which slips effortlessly between genres. It is fresh and up-to-date, and refuses to be a slave to any pre-ordained style. Magic Moments 8, “Sing Hallelujah” places the vocal artists of ACT in the spotlight. The collection opens with soul-blues legend Mighty Sam McClain, who died very recently. He is heard here with Knut Reiersrud, the Norwegian guitarist. Reiersrud himself is also heard later on another track with singer Solveig Slettahjell and the trio In The Country. They perform “Borrowed Time” from the album "Trail of Souls,” a CD which marries the American gospel and spiritual traditions with a Norwegian sound aesthetic. The title track “Sing Hallelujah,” a song by Mike Settle, is sung by Torsten Goods. He is surrounded by an all-star band of Roberto Di Gioa, Tim Lefebvre and Wolfgang Haffner, and delivers the song with his characteristic cool and nonchalance. Ida Sand has one track "Hey Hey, My My,” in which she honours Neil Young. The voice of Natalia Mateo "has a story all of its own to tell,” in the words of Die Zeit. Mateo gives “I Put a Spell on You,” - sung in the fifties by American blues singer Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and later a huge hit for Nina Simone – a treatment which is bound to take people by surprise. Norwegian singer-songwriter Randi Tytingvåg shows her genuine class on “Steady Going,” a song with its roots in American folk and country music. Drummer Wolfgang Haffner in “Piano Man” brings vocals to his “Kind of Cool” group with the powerful soul singer Max Mutzke. The final tracks of Magic Moments 8 are all instrumentals, but they could not be more varied and contrasted. Bassist Dieter Ilg with his regular trio interpret Beethoven; Iiro Rantala plays John Lennon's “Imagine” alone at the piano; saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, a 3-time Downbeat winner in 2015, honours the great Charlie Parker with “Bird Calls. The old cowhand shout of Yippee Ki Yay….in Berlin? Kalle Kallema the Finnish guitarist now makes his home in the German capital and his trio's take on the western classic “Ghost Riders In the Sky,” by Stan Jones and the Death Valley Rangers really does bring High Noon to the mean streets of Kreuzberg. Pianist Frank Woeste, born in Hannover, is a new face on the ACT Label. He has been a major and consistent success in France where he now lives, and where he frequently performs with Ibrahim Maalouf and Youn Sun Nah. Here the singer brings her unique and inimitable voice to “Star Gazer.” “If music be the food of love, play on,” begins Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night. Add the words “... and of life,” and what results is an artistic credo, the philosophy which underlies all that the ACT label does. Siggi Loch and his team have been producing nourishing music for the past 23 years with an unstinting passion and an instinct for quality. This is music which goes straight the hearts and minds of people whose ears are open to the unexpected, and who love good music. “Magic Moments 8” is 100% true to that vision.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Dieter Ilg - Mein BeethovenCD / digital Dieter Ilg bass Rainer Böhm piano Patrice Héral drums "A feast for the ears, not only for hard-core jazz fans, but for all those who love music." (Thomas Quasthoff) "Mein Beethoven" is the logical next step for Dieter Ilg. His last album "Parsifal" – a chamber-jazz interpretation of Richard Wagner's sacred festival work, which Focus magazine called a "highlight in the Richard Wagner Year 2013" – closed with a whispered theme from Beethoven's Ninth ("Ode to Joy"), retitled "Sehnsucht" (Longing) by Ilg. Now he has satisfied that yearning and recorded an entire album, "Mein Beethoven", dedicated to this Olympian of German classical music, the most classical of all our composers, the one-time "superstar of the music capital Vienna": Ludwig van Beethoven. The choice to do so was not only logical in view of the connection to its preceding album, but also with regard to the career of Ilg, who is not only "one of the best jazz bass players of our time" (Fono Forum), but also a musician who keeps raising the bar for bandleaders everywhere. Ilg has earned his ranking as a partner to Randy Brecker, Nguyên Lê, Dave Liebman, Albert Mangelsdorff, Dhafer Youssef, Rebekka Bakken, Nils Landgren or Charlie Mariano and currently as the duet partner of Till Brönner and a member of star baritone Thomas Quasthoff's jazz ensemble. With his own projects he has explored his personal cultural roots in the European music tradition. In 1992 he was involved in the revolutionary flamenco-jazz experiment "Jazzpaña", the Grammy-nominated first ACT album. From 1997 onwards he worked on folksongs together with Wolfgang Muthspiel and Steve Argüelles. In 2010 he fulfilled his long-held dream of eking out the jazz possibilities of Guiseppe Verdi's "Otello" in the trio that still exists today with Rainer Böhm and Patrice Héral. It was a showpiece of improvisational art music for which he was awarded the ECHO Jazz as "Best Bassist National". The "Live at Schloss Elmau" version was the starting gun for Ilg's collaboration with ACT, and it was followed by the Wagner gamble "Parsifal", "a chamber musical, acoustic jazz opus" (Spiegel Online), for which he received his second ECHO Jazz in 2014. With "Mein Beethoven" Ilg, along with his perfectly harmonising trio, demonstrates that he is not about gimmicky "jazz goes classic" crossover music, but about taking the originals and somehow making them his own. His incorruptible eye for the essence, his mastery of making the monumental sensual and human, is impressive. It is not only Ilg's singing, grooving bass, savouring every nuance, that makes his Beethoven arrangements such a joy to behold, it is also Reiner Böhm's sparkling touch, his pianistic greatness in respectfully playing around some of the most beautiful melodies in music history, and Patrice Héral's ability to always add orchestral splendour through his extraordinary drumming, with fitting fills and variations. Is it jazz? Or is it not simply wonderful music, enchanting, flowing, dreaming, condensing, singing, relating, grooving….? It is a synthesis that will make Ilg's "Mein Beethoven" your Beethoven.Dieter Ilg about the project: Ludwig van Beethoven, born in 1770 in Bonn, first attained notoriety as a pianist, and especially for his passion for improvisation. Always searching for ways to optimise, to further develop music, to form and achieve perfection, he wanted a composition to grow with all the abilities of its creator, changing constantly. Throughout the course of his career his reputation as a composer grew year on year, then ultimately, in the music capital Vienna, he finally rose to the status of what we would today call a superstar. His works are revolutionary milestones. The quiet and monumental moments in his 9th Symphony, his romantic and masterfully demanding piano sonatas and their form breaks, the impetuous eruptions, rough edges and redesigns of the structure of his string quartets, and his elegant and unconventional arrangements of Irish folk songs all fascinate, to mention just a small fraction of his oeuvre. They are ingenious templates for experimentation, even in the 21st century, and Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the great improvisers of Europe’s music history, approaching everything with passion, imagination and the will to create something new. Without Beethoven, today’s music would sound different – it’s jazz too. Rainer Böhm and Patrice Héral accompany and guide me through the formative oceans of Beethoven’s world. Together with them I want to transport Beethoven’s musical expression to the modern day in the true tradition of the man, with a will to in some way make it my own. I can’t think of any place I would rather sail right now. My Beethoven.Credits: Produced by Dieter Ilg Executive Producer: Siggi Loch Recorded by Adrian von Ripka, September 1 & 2, 2014 at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg Mixed by Adrian von Ripka. Mastered by Christoph Stickel at MSM Cover art by Markus Lüpertz, Beethoven (2010 - 2011)

70 minutes of the best jazz infotainment through the current ACT line-up at a special price.

Dieter Ilg transforms Wagner’s Parsifal into a chamber music masterpiece—monumental and sensual.

Dieter Ilg presents impressive jazz variations of Verdi's "Otello" in a trio with Rainer Böhm and Patrice Heral – a masterful fusion of jazz and classical music.

Ben Kraef creates pure jazz with a bluesy Sonny Rollins influence, blending lyrical warmth and clarity in his compositions.