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Manu Katché: Manu Katché

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: ECM Records
Released: 2012.11.07
Time:
 52:12
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): Manfred Eicher
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.manu-katche.com
Appears with: Petet Gabriel, Jan Garbarek
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Running After Years (M.Katché) - 6:23
[2] Bliss (M.Katché) - 4:22
[3] Loving You (M.Katché) - 4:38
[4] Walking By Your Side (M.Katché) - 5:31
[5] Imprint (M.Katché) - 5:19
[6] Short Ride (M.Katché) - 4:05
[7] Beats & Bounce (M.Katché) - 8:28
[8] Slowing The Tides (M.Katché) - 5:36
[9] Loose (M.Katché) - 5:28
[10] Dusk On Carnon (M.Katché) - 2:20

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Manu Katché - Drums, Piano Solo on [10]

Jim Watson - Piano, Hammond B3 Organ
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet, Loops, Floor Toms on [9]
Tore Brunborg - Tenor & Soprano Saxophones, Floor Toms on [9]

Manfred Eicher - Producer
Gérard de Haro - Engineer
Romain Castera - Engineer
Sascha Kleis - Design
Monika Rokicka - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2012 CD ECM Records - ECM 2284

Recorded March 2012 at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines.



The man better known as drummer to Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, and Simple Minds, Manu Katché leads a double life as a restless, serious jazz musician and composer. “Restless” comes to mind on the eve of his fourth record for ECM, simply titled Manu Katché, because once again, he’s shuffled the lineup to shake up his sound.

By dispensing of a bassist, bringing in British pianist/organist Jim Watson and an old band mate in electronica jazz pioneer trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, Katché intentionally altered the dynamics of his sound — even more than he usually does — but also retained the core, which he identified as his lone holdover from Third Round, Norwegian saxophonist Tore Brunborg, as well as his drumming and his compositions. Although I would also include another mainstay, producer Manfred Eicher.

With no conventional bass, often replaced by the mushier bass pedals of a Hammond B3 organ, Katché put himself out of his usual comfort zones, altering his strategy for playing his drums, assuming a role that’s further up front than on the prior ECM’s, especially on “Running After Years,” “Bliss,” “Walking By Your Side” and “Loose.” He thrives with this airier sonic construct, and you can hear all his minor African inflected touches, utilizing his entire kit. Molvær’s synthesized horn and his loops are right at home in this sparser soundscape, too. “Bliss” states this case, as Molvær’s electronically harmonized trumpet paired with B3 over Katché’s tribal beat creates a uniquely first world-third world marriage.

As a composer, Katché also strives for melodies, not just tones and timbres, and he gets Brunborg and Molvær to combine to illuminate them in colorful, lyrical ways on such songs as “Loving You,” “Imprint” and “Short Ride.” Molvær’s effects gracefully fill up sonic space on “Walking By Your Side,” expanding the song both sonically and harmonically, while Brunborg’s Garbarek-isms connect the listener to the earlier Katché records and the classic ECM sound.

Watson is no mere bystander there to give Katché bass pedals to interact with; he plays Jimmy Smith to Brunborg’s Stanley Turrentine on “Short Ride,” a rare swinging tune from Katché, and his fills are killer. For “Beats & Bounce,” Watson plays a funky, low register riff on piano that Katché knots tightly to his steady beat, and Watson’s piano solo is firmly in the pocket. After a false ending, Watson reappears to play the same riff on the B3, and Molvær grooves on top of that sleeker groove. “Slowing The Tides” puts Watson’s B3 in a slower, gentler mood, and Katché uncorks a snaky as hell rhythm for “Loose,” working it around the organ like the world class pro that he is. He caps it with his only drum solo on the album. Katché was a pianist before he became a drummer; on the closer “Dusk On Canon,” he plays a short solo piano piece, with a composer’s approach to the piano.

A self-titled album often signals that the artist is signing his signature on that record, but Manu Katché only makes clear that Katché is trying to avoid being defined too specifically. Generally speaking, this is an exceptional drummer who’s a fine composer and a capable bandleader. And, he’s got a different and definite musical vision for each album he makes. The vision in this instance of no bass player but adding an organ player and a technologically savvy trumpeter succeeded because in the end, it’s still a Manu Katché record.

S. Victor Aaron - October 25, 2012
Copyright © 2015 Something Else!



Peter Gabriel has just finished up the 25th-anniversary tour of his blockbuster album So. Manu Katche, the drummer who provided the driving beats for "Sledgehammer" and other songs from that record, was right there with Gabriel, helping him celebrate.

Katche has been a sideman for lots of musicians — from Sting to Joni Mitchell to Tears for Fears — and he's been busy putting out his own albums, as well. His fourth comes out Tuesday, called simply Manu Katche.

Katche grew up in the suburbs of Paris, the son of a Haitian French mother and an Ivorian father. He started studying piano when he was 7, and eventually went to the Paris Conservatory to study classical percussion and the timpani. Katche says that helped him approach the drums with an ear for melody.

"I'm tuning those drums like a timpani player," he says. "I'm really aware of the melody of the sound. Even on the cymbals, it's not just bashing the cymbal; I used splashes with different tones. For me, it's mainly the approach of the harmonies and melodies and sounds on the drums."

On the new album, Katche worked with Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer.

"He sings into his trumpet," Katche says of Molvaer. "He's got like a little microphone on the top so you hear him playing a note, and all of the sudden you hear his voice inside the notes, 'cause he's kind of looping the sound. He's really into effects and stuff. It makes it pretty much unique and very original."

Katche says he feels most fulfilled when a composition he hatched alone is brought to life by a full band.

"All of the sudden, you have those amazing talented musicians who are just going to play it," he says. "You just listen and think, 'Wow, this is just beautiful.' And how privileged I am to have someone playing what I wrote on my little corner in France on my piano, and all of a sudden it sounds just amazingly beautiful."

October 28, 2012
© 2014 NPR



Eponymously-titled album from Manu Katche. On his fourth ECM disc, Manus unique drumming sets the scene and direction, with compositions and arrangements radiating outward from its rhythm-patterns. His strongly propulsive yet relaxed groove is unlike any other drummers, and it lifts up the soloists. Personnel in the ever-changing Katche band currently includes Norwegians Nils Pettter Molvaer and Tore Brunborg, first heard together on ECM in the band Masqualero in the 1980s: they still play most attractively together. British keyboardist Jim Watson also makes a strong showing with minimalistically-insistent as well as lyrical piano and thick, swirling organ. Recorded March 2012 in the South of France, and issued on the eve of a major European tour.

Amazon.com



Auf seinem vierten Album für ECM, schlicht "Manu Katché" betitelt, gibt der Franzose mit den afrikanischen Wurzeln den Rahmen und die Richtung mit seinem unverwechselbaren Schlagzeugspiel vor, wobei seine Kompositionen und Arrangements förmlich aus den Rhythmus-Mustern herausstrahlen. Sein kraftvoll vorwärtstreibender und dabei doch entspannter Groove unterscheidet sich von dem aller anderen Schlagzeuger und trägt die Solisten in neue Höhen. Zur Besetzung der Katché-Band gehören derzeit auch die Norweger Nils Petter Molvær und Tore Brunborg, die in den 1980er Jahren in der Band Masqualero erstmals auf ECM zuhören waren. Der britische Keyboarder Jim Watson beeindruckt gleichermaßen mit seinem minimalistisch-beharrlichen, und doch lyrischen Klavier - wie auch mit seinem süffigen, wirbelnden Orgelspiel. Aufgenommen im März 2012 in Südfrankreich, erscheint "Manu Katché" am Vorabend einer Europatournee.

Amazon.de



"Katché selbst zeigt im neu formierten Quartett - ohne Bass, aber mit Hammond-B3 - wieder Sinn für eingängige Melodien mit Song-Appeal..."

Stereo, Dezember 2012



Since joining ECM for Neighbourhood (2005), Manu Katché has carved out a very specific niche for himself at a label whose purview continues to broaden—with this French-Ivorian drummer, perhaps surprisingly so. Contemporary? Yes, Katché has fashioned a nearly four-decade career as a superb groove-meister, whether in the rock world with artists Sting or Peter Gabriel, or with more decidedly jazz-centric artists like saxophonist Jan Garbarek, on Dresden (ECM, 2009), or keyboardist Herbie Hancock, on his (admittedly more pop-oriented) The Imagine Project (Herbie Hancock Music, 2010). But with his now four ECM recordings defined by accessible grooves and singable melodies, they're still absolutely players' recordings, and certainly nowhere near "smooth jazz" sphere to which some folks attribute them.

Manu Katché follows Third Round (2010), but returns to the slightly longer song lengths of Playground (2007), allowing his quartet, which brings back Third Round's Tore Brunborg, more maneuvering room. The saxophonist first appeared on the international stage with ECM and Masqualero, the now-legendary Norwegian quintet, led by bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Jon Christensen, that also included a young Nils Petter Molvaer, here making his recording debut with Katché. The trumpeter has garnered significant attention, beginning with the paradigm shift of his electro-centric, pan-cultural 1997 ECM debut, Khmer, through to the present, his current trio continuing to bust down borders of orthodoxy, style and culture on Baboon Moon (Sula, 2011).

Manu Katché represents, then, a reunion of sorts for Molvær and the equally busy Brunborg—whose star has been on its own ascendancy for recent ECM work with pianists Ketil Bjornstad (2010's Remembrance) and Tord Gustavsen (2012's The Well). Katché rounds out his bass-less quartet with British pianist/organist Jimmy Watson, for a program that ranges from the post-bop swing of "Short Ride" and soulful, tom-driven vamp of "Bliss" to the modal funk of "Beats & Bounce," and "Loving You," a ballad at its core but possessing, with Watson's intervallic-leaping Hammond, considerably more forward motion.

Molvær expands Katché's soundstage, for the first time, with his technology-driven approach; harmonized, with copious reverb and other effects, the trumpeter's solo on the propulsive "Walking By Your Side" is a sonic tour de force, though he adopts a more burnished, acoustic tone in the front line melodies with Brunborg on tracks like "Short Ride" and "Loose," but with an immediately recognizable embouchure.

As ever, Brunborg solos with effortless aplomb, weaving melodic yet change-aware lines through Katché's writing, while Watson demonstrates similarly unfettered imagination on piano, whether it's on the soft ballad, "Loving You" or "Beats & Bounce," where he channels his inner Herbie Hancock.

Katché rarely solos, though when he does near the end of "Short Ride," it's quickly clear that he's got plenty of jazz chops to spare. Katché made the right decision to leave more space on Manu Katché, because it would be an absolute mistake to constrain a quartet this good to just three or four minutes. Still, not a note is wasted with what may be his best group yet. Manu Katché may be ECM's most vital, booty-shaking record ever—and live, this group must be positively nuclear.

JOHN KELMAN, October 29, 2012
© 2014 All About Jazz
 

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