Joe Hertenstein, HNH, with Pascal Niggenkemper and Thomas Heberer

HNH (Clean Feed 332) is the potent trio of Joe Hertenstein on drums and compositions, Pascal Niggenkemper on contrabass and Thomas Heberer on cornet and compositions. There are four works by Joe, four by Thomas, and four collective improvisations. There was a first album on Clean Feed a while ago. I have not heard that one as yet but I plan to. This HNH is a follow-up.

Clifford Allen wrote the liner notes for this album. He pretty much says it all about the history and objectives of the trio in its lifetime from 2007 to where it is now. I suggest you read that. For this posting I come forward to give you my impressions after a careful listening to the music.

Joe Herstenstein's drumming impressed me on the recently covered Blaise Siwula album and also as a member of the Curators a while back. You can look up the reviews in the search box above if you are curious.

This second volume of HNH, as most readers would expect, covers the latest interactions between the three, who since their arrival in New York from Germany have made a definite reputation as avant-free players of distinction.

The album nicely covers free and pulsating, composed and improvised, solo and collective inspirations with contrasting segments/numbers. Joe Hertenstein once again impresses me as a very musical drummer with the sort of conversational line improvisations of timbre and periodicity that are rarely encountered except among the best of the free percussionists. In this spacious trio setting his playing is very much the equal voice in the three-way dialogues at hand.

Pascal Niggenkemper is a bassist of finesse and thoughtful invention. He fills his space with the kind of bowed and pizzed richness that helps very much to make the totality of the music something special. And his wide spectrum of extended techniques makes him essential to the sound-design of the trio.

Thomas Heberer has become an in-demand cornetist on sessions and gigs these days. To hear what he does on this second HNH is to give you some very bright moments and a key to the way he channels avant and jazz tradition into his own original stream of development. He can line with a careful free lyricism or a soulful bursting forward depending on the work at hand and the implications of the dialogue of the moment. Muted, pure or burred, he is the master of control and expressivity.

The music in the end is tightly focused, free yet considered, exemplary of the art of avant improv today. Hertenstein, Niggenkemper and Heberer are making music of real importance, music gratifying to hear, exciting to experience, filled with singular artistry.

These are three of the best and their confluence is nothing short of auspicious on this set. Get to this one if you can. It's very worth your time!

Nu Band, The Cosmological Constant

Nu Band is a significant gathering of contemporary avant jazzmen, an all-star lineup, who dedicate their recent album The Cosmological Constant (Not Two 923-2) to the memory of Roy Campbell, a close musical associate and former band member who was taken from us so sadly and unexpectedly a few years ago. If I am not mistaken yesterday would have been Roy's 63rd birthday, so this posting is timely, though of course the NY jazz community's anguish over his loss does not diminish via such anniversaries.

Nu Band carries on with a fine set of originals and some first-rate avant improvisations. The current lineup features the cornet of Thomas Heberer (who also celebrated a birthday recently), the alto sax and clarinet of Mark Whitecage, the bass of Joe Fonda and the drums of Lou Grassi.

These four of course are seasoned masters who show us that their creative powers are anything but diminished with the passage of time. On the contrary. The originals serve to identify the band and set up their solowork. Heberer contributes two, Fonda three, Whitecage one and Grassi three. They stand out as very worthy fare and very conducive performance platforms.

All four players get equal billing, which fits with the high artistry of each and makes this a cooperative venture in the best sense. Each is an important force, an innovator on his respective instrument(s), and we hear that fully on this set. The solo routines give space to all four players in varying combinations.

Grassi and Fonda, as one might expect, are more than a rhythm section--they are equally articulate melodists with the frontline so that the distinction between the two often enough becomes moot. But when they elect to swing ahead in rhythmic fashion they do so with impact and authority.

Heberer and Whitecage work wonderfully well in tandem as well as via their solo selves. Everybody has an original leg-up on post-bop avant line rendering and as you might expect the hearing is a revelation as well as a solid gas.

There are no dull moments to this music--and that's as you would expect with such a gathering. It's a very fine example of a great band carrying on with subtlety and fire. Roy would have appreciated the tribute. We all can appreciate the here and now of the music on this excellent set!

Trumpeter Thomas Heberer's Trio on "Klippe," Solo Trumpet on "One" for "Clarino," a 2-LP Set

Trumpet stalwart Thomas Heberer is doing in his own way what a guy like Peter Evans is doing in the States. Making it new.

Heberer's double LP Clarino (No Business LP 31/32) gives you two aspects of his music: "Klippe," a chamber trio offering, and "One," a solo trumpet record. Joachim Badenhorst brings his post-Giuffre clarinet and bass-clarinet into the mix; Pascal Niggenkemper holds forth on contrabass. It's a program of free music that can be relatively placid or energetic alternatively, but in a pretty quiet way. It has the kind of modern dialogic interactions that have a modern classical ring to them. Yet the personalities of Heberer and Badenhorst especially give the sound the expressivity of "free jazz." It's very nice to hear and wears well after a bunch of listens.

For "One" Heberer goes it alone. He lays back more so than what Peter Evans does in this sort of context. Thomas gets a sound that reminds me of a weed wacker--something to do with a shift in the embouchure--and he uses that timbre along with a more clarion (yet soft) tone to good effect. It has a more tranquil approach than one usually expects, and that is not at all off-putting once one gets with the program.

An interesting free session, well played.