| Kaja Draksler & Susana Santos Silva — This Love (November 3, 2015) |
Kaja Draksler & Susana Santos Silva — This Love
♠
Location: Trboje, Ljubljana, Slovenia ~ Amsterdam, Netherlands ~ Porto, Portugal.
Genre: Free Jazz
Album release: November 3, 2015
Recording date: March 22, 2015
Record Label: Clean Feed
Duration: 40:04
Tracks:
01 Laurie 6:36
02 This Love 6:03
03 Hymn To The Unknown 7:34
04 Foolish Little Something 5:40
05 Forgotten Lands 6:16
06 You Persevere 7:57
Personnel:
♠ Susana Santos Silva — trumpet, flugel
♠ Kaja Draksler — piano 
© Kaja Susana 2015 By Petra Cvelbar
Credits:
♠ Tracks 1 and 6 by Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva, 2 and 5 by Kaja Draksler, 3 and 4 by Susana Santos Silva
♠ Recorded at Culturgest on the 22nd of March 2015 by Luís Delgado / Mixed and Mastered by Luís Delgado
♠ Produced by Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva / Executive Production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul / Design and artwork by Travassos / Inlay photo by Petra Cvelbar
© Kaja Susana 2015 By Petra Cvelbar
Description:
♠ “This Love” is the first recording of a new duo capable to impress all the audiences Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva played to, and also the definitive statement that this project is something to develop further and further. From Slovenian origin, but living now in Amsterdam, Draksler is another woman pianist to add to that list of notables where we find Eve Risser, Sophie Agnel, Kris Davis and Angelica Sanchez. ♠ Combining classical and jazz motives, elements from the traditional music of her country and the study of the inner structures of Cecil Taylor’s improvisations, Draksler is a superb player, either revealing a special interest for subtleties and a strong rhythmic feeling. Active in both the mainstream and the avant-garde scenes happening in Portugal, trumpeter Susana Santos Silva confirms here, in a more intimate context, everything she did as a member of a band that already had Chris Speed and Joachim Badenhorst as special guests, Lama. Namely, her warm, tightly focused, lyrical and yet highly geometrical style. Everything they individually did until now seemed to announce this duet where they use nothing but their original music and original interpretation of it. This a totally creative record of the highest level as the duo can go from composition to improvisation just like that, using the appropriate tools as the music goes in a very natural and organic flow. And here it is, finally documented.
Website: http://susanasantossilva.com/
Website: http://kajadraksler.com/
Label: https://cleanfeed-records.com/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/kajadraksler
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drakslerkaja
© Kaja Susana 2015 By Petra Cvelbar
ABOUT
♠ “This Love” is the first recording by the new duo of Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva, and is set to delight audiences old and new and add to the critical acclaim that has greeted both musicians individually since they came to public attention just a few short years ago.
♠ Of Slovenian origin, but based now in Amsterdam, Draksler joins a list of notable modern female pianists that include Eve Risser, Sophie Agnel, Kris Davis and Angelica Sanchez. Combining classical and jazz motifs, elements from the traditional music of her country and the study of the inner structures of Cecil Taylor’s improvisations, Draksler is a captivating and adventurous player, brimming with ideas and as exciting to behold for the nuances of detail in her playing as for her strong feeling for rhythm.
♠ Active in both the mainstream and the avant–garde scenes in Portugal, trumpeter Susana Santos Silva confirms here, in a more intimate context, everything she brought to the band Lama (which featured Chris Speed and Joachim Badenhorst as special guests), namely, her warm, tightly focused, lyrical and yet highly geometrical style.
♠ To those who have followed these two musicians in the various configurations in which they have performed, there was probably a certain inevitability to their coming together as a duo, and now that it has finally happened the resulting album is as satisfying as anyone could have wished. This is a document of creativity at its highest level, capturing the duo communing back and forth between composition and improvisation, the flow so organic that one could be forgiven for forgetting that it takes musicians of exceptional ability, sensitivity and inventiveness to make music like this sound so effortlessly natural.
REVIEW
BY MASSIMO RICCI NOVEMBER 27, 2015
Clean Feed
♠ The beautiful black and white photo adorning the inside of the CD’s mini–sleeve portrays Santos Silva as if she was observing an ant colony, and Draksler thinking to something that only she knows, with an ironic half–smile. Both women are sitting on the grass in the picture; but there’s no hint of ineffectual staticity or vacuous rumination in This Love, in spite of the pseudo–quietude characterizing various segments. In fact, this is a pleasingly deceptive album, containing chunks of aurally stimulating micro–information. Its bulk reveals a pair of musicians trying to escape from the prison of stereotypes, in search of a common jargon that might not be fully developed yet but sure enough shows encouraging signs for a future without sanctimonious attitudes and worn–out clichés.
♠ Santos Silva’s technical formation on the trumpet — she has been playing it from the age of 7 — is the understructure justifying poetically commonsensical sketches. The notes she emits are incisive, yet perennially gifted with a profound awareness of implied melodies. By using the “extraneous” components of vibration while anatomising her instruments, a rearrangement of many issues concerning the relationship between audible emission and muteness is warranted. Draksler represents a sober counterpart, offering a right balance of contrast and alternative intuitions to the partner’s explorations. The fragmentariness of certain atonal spurts on the piano keyboard — in conjunction with the stratifications of string noise, bowed tones and percussive gestures coming from within the instrument in tracks such as “You Persevere” — constitute an education of sorts for listeners versed in habitual “progressions”. After a few spins the question marks disappear, aural environments and resonating essences equally suggestive in the textural economy. The intimate sincerity of an acoustic meeting and the sweet–and–sour shades of an unusual palette are finely rendered in about forty minutes. ♠ https://touchingextremes.wordpress.com/
ABOUT
♠ Susana Santos Silva is a trumpeter, improviser and composer from Porto, Portugal.
♠ She holds a Master Diploma in Jazz Performance ‘2010 from Codarts, Rotterdam, where she worked with Eric Vloeimans, Jarmo Hoogendijk and Wim Both.
♠ She holds a Graduate Diploma in Jazz/Trumpet ‘2008 and in Trumpet ‘2004 from College of Music and Performing Arts in Porto, attending the last year of the course at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in the class of Prof. Reinhold Friedrich, where she also had baroque trumpet lessons with Prof. Edward Tarr.
She is a member and co–founder of the Porto based jazz musicians association Porta-Jazz and it’s label, Carimbo.
With Coreto, an ensemble of musicians from this association led by João Pedro Brandão, she recorded in 2012 the first album of the label, ‘Aljamia’. Two more were released after that, ‘Mergulho’ and ‘Sem Chão’.
♠ In 2011 she releases her first album as a leader of her own Quintet, ‘Devil´s Dress’ on Tone of a Pitch Records. With this band she played 12 Points Jazz Festival, Dublin in 2011.
♠ In 2015 she releases her second album as a leader, ‘Impermanence’ on Carimbo Porta–Jazz.
♠ Her other main projects include LAMA, a Rotterdam based trio with portuguese bassist Gonçalo Almeida and canadian drummer Greg Smith, ‘Oneiros’ (2011), ‘Lamaçal’ (2013) feat. Chris Speed and ‘The Elephant’s Journey’ feat. Joachim Badenhorst (2015), all released on Clean Feed Records, a duo with swedish bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg, ‘Almost Tomorrow’ Clean Feed 2013, a duo with the slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler ‘This Love’ Clean Feed 2015, a duo with drummer Jorge Queijo ‘Songs from my Backyard’ Wasser Bassin 2013, a collaboration with the belgian trio De Beren Gieren, ‘The Detour Fish’ Clean Feed 2014 and a trio with Torbjörn Zetterberg and the swedish organist Hampus Lindwall ‘If Nothing Else’ Clean Feed 2015.
♠ She is also part of João Guimarães Octet, ‘Zero’ Toap 2014, Torbjörn Zetterberg ‘Och Den Stora Frågan’ Moserobie 2014, ‘Om Liv & Död’ Moserobie 2015, and Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, with whom she recorded ‘Portology’ featuring Lee Konitz, ‘OJM Invites Chris Cheek’, ‘Our Secret World’ featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel, ‘Amoras e Framboesas’ featuring Maria João, ‘Bela Senão Sem’ featuring João Paulo Esteves da Silva, ‘Jazz Composers Forum’ and played with Mark Turner, Rich Perry, John Riley, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Bob Berg, Rick Margitza, Perico Sambeat, Conrad Herwig, Ingrid Jensen, Joshua Redman, Dan Weiss, John Hollenbeck, Theo Bleckman, Jordi Rossi, Guillermo Klein, Steven Bernstein, Darcy James Argue, Maria Schneider, Jim Black among many others.
♠ She was a member of the European Movement Jazz Orchestra, with whom she played in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Egypt. The orchestra recorded ‘EMJO Live at Coimbra’, released in 2011 on Clean Feed Records.
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| Kaja Draksler & Susana Santos Silva — This Love (November 3, 2015) |
♠
Location: Trboje, Ljubljana, Slovenia ~ Amsterdam, Netherlands ~ Porto, Portugal.
Genre: Free Jazz
Album release: November 3, 2015
Recording date: March 22, 2015
Record Label: Clean Feed
Duration: 40:04
Tracks:
01 Laurie 6:36
02 This Love 6:03
03 Hymn To The Unknown 7:34
04 Foolish Little Something 5:40
05 Forgotten Lands 6:16
06 You Persevere 7:57
Personnel:
♠ Susana Santos Silva — trumpet, flugel
♠ Kaja Draksler — piano
Credits:
♠ Tracks 1 and 6 by Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva, 2 and 5 by Kaja Draksler, 3 and 4 by Susana Santos Silva
♠ Recorded at Culturgest on the 22nd of March 2015 by Luís Delgado / Mixed and Mastered by Luís Delgado
♠ Produced by Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva / Executive Production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul / Design and artwork by Travassos / Inlay photo by Petra Cvelbar
Description:
♠ “This Love” is the first recording of a new duo capable to impress all the audiences Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva played to, and also the definitive statement that this project is something to develop further and further. From Slovenian origin, but living now in Amsterdam, Draksler is another woman pianist to add to that list of notables where we find Eve Risser, Sophie Agnel, Kris Davis and Angelica Sanchez. ♠ Combining classical and jazz motives, elements from the traditional music of her country and the study of the inner structures of Cecil Taylor’s improvisations, Draksler is a superb player, either revealing a special interest for subtleties and a strong rhythmic feeling. Active in both the mainstream and the avant-garde scenes happening in Portugal, trumpeter Susana Santos Silva confirms here, in a more intimate context, everything she did as a member of a band that already had Chris Speed and Joachim Badenhorst as special guests, Lama. Namely, her warm, tightly focused, lyrical and yet highly geometrical style. Everything they individually did until now seemed to announce this duet where they use nothing but their original music and original interpretation of it. This a totally creative record of the highest level as the duo can go from composition to improvisation just like that, using the appropriate tools as the music goes in a very natural and organic flow. And here it is, finally documented.
Website: http://susanasantossilva.com/
Website: http://kajadraksler.com/
Label: https://cleanfeed-records.com/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/kajadraksler
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drakslerkaja
ABOUT
♠ “This Love” is the first recording by the new duo of Kaja Draksler and Susana Santos Silva, and is set to delight audiences old and new and add to the critical acclaim that has greeted both musicians individually since they came to public attention just a few short years ago.
♠ Of Slovenian origin, but based now in Amsterdam, Draksler joins a list of notable modern female pianists that include Eve Risser, Sophie Agnel, Kris Davis and Angelica Sanchez. Combining classical and jazz motifs, elements from the traditional music of her country and the study of the inner structures of Cecil Taylor’s improvisations, Draksler is a captivating and adventurous player, brimming with ideas and as exciting to behold for the nuances of detail in her playing as for her strong feeling for rhythm.
♠ Active in both the mainstream and the avant–garde scenes in Portugal, trumpeter Susana Santos Silva confirms here, in a more intimate context, everything she brought to the band Lama (which featured Chris Speed and Joachim Badenhorst as special guests), namely, her warm, tightly focused, lyrical and yet highly geometrical style.
♠ To those who have followed these two musicians in the various configurations in which they have performed, there was probably a certain inevitability to their coming together as a duo, and now that it has finally happened the resulting album is as satisfying as anyone could have wished. This is a document of creativity at its highest level, capturing the duo communing back and forth between composition and improvisation, the flow so organic that one could be forgiven for forgetting that it takes musicians of exceptional ability, sensitivity and inventiveness to make music like this sound so effortlessly natural.
BY MASSIMO RICCI NOVEMBER 27, 2015
Clean Feed
♠ The beautiful black and white photo adorning the inside of the CD’s mini–sleeve portrays Santos Silva as if she was observing an ant colony, and Draksler thinking to something that only she knows, with an ironic half–smile. Both women are sitting on the grass in the picture; but there’s no hint of ineffectual staticity or vacuous rumination in This Love, in spite of the pseudo–quietude characterizing various segments. In fact, this is a pleasingly deceptive album, containing chunks of aurally stimulating micro–information. Its bulk reveals a pair of musicians trying to escape from the prison of stereotypes, in search of a common jargon that might not be fully developed yet but sure enough shows encouraging signs for a future without sanctimonious attitudes and worn–out clichés.
♠ Santos Silva’s technical formation on the trumpet — she has been playing it from the age of 7 — is the understructure justifying poetically commonsensical sketches. The notes she emits are incisive, yet perennially gifted with a profound awareness of implied melodies. By using the “extraneous” components of vibration while anatomising her instruments, a rearrangement of many issues concerning the relationship between audible emission and muteness is warranted. Draksler represents a sober counterpart, offering a right balance of contrast and alternative intuitions to the partner’s explorations. The fragmentariness of certain atonal spurts on the piano keyboard — in conjunction with the stratifications of string noise, bowed tones and percussive gestures coming from within the instrument in tracks such as “You Persevere” — constitute an education of sorts for listeners versed in habitual “progressions”. After a few spins the question marks disappear, aural environments and resonating essences equally suggestive in the textural economy. The intimate sincerity of an acoustic meeting and the sweet–and–sour shades of an unusual palette are finely rendered in about forty minutes. ♠ https://touchingextremes.wordpress.com/
ABOUT
♠ Susana Santos Silva is a trumpeter, improviser and composer from Porto, Portugal.
♠ She holds a Master Diploma in Jazz Performance ‘2010 from Codarts, Rotterdam, where she worked with Eric Vloeimans, Jarmo Hoogendijk and Wim Both.
♠ She holds a Graduate Diploma in Jazz/Trumpet ‘2008 and in Trumpet ‘2004 from College of Music and Performing Arts in Porto, attending the last year of the course at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in the class of Prof. Reinhold Friedrich, where she also had baroque trumpet lessons with Prof. Edward Tarr.
She is a member and co–founder of the Porto based jazz musicians association Porta-Jazz and it’s label, Carimbo. With Coreto, an ensemble of musicians from this association led by João Pedro Brandão, she recorded in 2012 the first album of the label, ‘Aljamia’. Two more were released after that, ‘Mergulho’ and ‘Sem Chão’.
♠ In 2011 she releases her first album as a leader of her own Quintet, ‘Devil´s Dress’ on Tone of a Pitch Records. With this band she played 12 Points Jazz Festival, Dublin in 2011.
♠ In 2015 she releases her second album as a leader, ‘Impermanence’ on Carimbo Porta–Jazz.
♠ Her other main projects include LAMA, a Rotterdam based trio with portuguese bassist Gonçalo Almeida and canadian drummer Greg Smith, ‘Oneiros’ (2011), ‘Lamaçal’ (2013) feat. Chris Speed and ‘The Elephant’s Journey’ feat. Joachim Badenhorst (2015), all released on Clean Feed Records, a duo with swedish bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg, ‘Almost Tomorrow’ Clean Feed 2013, a duo with the slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler ‘This Love’ Clean Feed 2015, a duo with drummer Jorge Queijo ‘Songs from my Backyard’ Wasser Bassin 2013, a collaboration with the belgian trio De Beren Gieren, ‘The Detour Fish’ Clean Feed 2014 and a trio with Torbjörn Zetterberg and the swedish organist Hampus Lindwall ‘If Nothing Else’ Clean Feed 2015.
♠ She is also part of João Guimarães Octet, ‘Zero’ Toap 2014, Torbjörn Zetterberg ‘Och Den Stora Frågan’ Moserobie 2014, ‘Om Liv & Död’ Moserobie 2015, and Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, with whom she recorded ‘Portology’ featuring Lee Konitz, ‘OJM Invites Chris Cheek’, ‘Our Secret World’ featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel, ‘Amoras e Framboesas’ featuring Maria João, ‘Bela Senão Sem’ featuring João Paulo Esteves da Silva, ‘Jazz Composers Forum’ and played with Mark Turner, Rich Perry, John Riley, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Bob Berg, Rick Margitza, Perico Sambeat, Conrad Herwig, Ingrid Jensen, Joshua Redman, Dan Weiss, John Hollenbeck, Theo Bleckman, Jordi Rossi, Guillermo Klein, Steven Bernstein, Darcy James Argue, Maria Schneider, Jim Black among many others.
♠ She was a member of the European Movement Jazz Orchestra, with whom she played in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Egypt. The orchestra recorded ‘EMJO Live at Coimbra’, released in 2011 on Clean Feed Records.
♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠