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Manu Katché: Third Round

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: ECM Records
Released: 2010.03.19
Time:
 44:31
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] Swing Piece (M.Katché) - 4:54
[2] Keep On Trippin’ (M.Katché) - 5:34
[3] Senses (M.Katché) - 4:13
[4] Being Ben (M.Katché) - 4:22
[5] Une larme dans ton sourire (M.Katché) - 2:26
[6] Springtime Dancing (M.Katché) - 4:10
[7] Out Take Number 9 (M.Katché) - 2:08
[8] Shine And Blue (M.Katché) - 4:53
[9] Stay With You (M.Katché/K.Lyle) - 4:30
[10] Flower Skin (M.Katché) - 4:23
[11] Urban Shadow (M.Katché) - 2:58

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Manu Katché - Drums
Tore Brunborg - Saxophones
Jason Rebello - Piano, Fender Rhodes
Pino Palladino - Bass

Jacob Young - Guitars on [2,6,10]
Kami Lyle - Voice on [9], Trumpet on [9,10]

Manfred Eicher - Producer
Nicolas Baillard - Engineer
Gérard De Haro - Engineer
Gildas Boclé - Photography, Video Stills
Arne Reimer - Cover Photo

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2010 CD ECM Records - ECM 2156
2010 CD ECM Records - 273 2131

Recorded in December 2009 at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines.



Intensified commitment to the French-African drummer’s programme of “beautifully mutated grooves and jazzy themes” (to quote The Guardian) distinguishes Manu Katché’s third ECM album. Inside an all-new line-up, bassist Pino Palladino nonchalantly reinforces the groove element – he and Katché have much shared history as sessioneers – and helps the pulses of Manu’s tunes to dance. Pianist Rebello has both delicacy of touch and energy to burn, and saxophonist Brunborg, currently playing at a peak, solos passionately on Katché’s melodies. Guest guitarist Jacob Young shades and colours a handful of pieces, while Kami Lyle adds innocent vocals to “Stay With You”. Recorded in the South of France in December 2009 and issued on the eve of a major European tour, “Third Round” is poised to be one of the season’s jazz hits.

ECM Records



It would be beyond cute to suggest that Manu Katché marches to the beat of his own drummer. Still, in a career spanning three decades and regularly crossing over between pop, jazz and world music, the French kit-meister has demonstrated a unique propensity for groove and a distinct (and refreshing) avoidance of the "look at me" pyrotechnics so often encountered with drummers this talented. Since releasing his first album as a leader for ECM in 2005, Katché has consistently surrounded himself with fine improvisers, including trumpeter Tomasz Stanko
and saxophonist Jan Garbarek on Neighbourhood (2005), and the younger, but no less distinctive Norwegians, saxophonist Trygve Seim and trumpeter Mathias Eick for Playground (2007). In both cases, however, while there was plenty of solo space for the front line—as well as fellow rhythm section mates, pianist Marcin Wasilewski and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz—Katché's concise writing focused on memorable melodies and compelling grooves, resulting in two of ECM's most eminently accessible and stylistically cross-over albums ever.

If anything, Third Round capitalizes on the strengths of its predecessors while honing, even further, Katché's keen sense of economy. With an entirely revamped lineup this time around, only one of the album's eleven tracks breaks the five-minute mark, and only seven exceed four minutes. In performance—and Katché is on a lengthy world tour in support of the album, though with a different touring group than heard here—it's a certainty that he'll let the music stretch out a bit more. But on the album, Katché's intuitive sense of never overstepping the boundaries of what makes a song memorable—and these are songs, with a pop-like sense of construction, despite pianist Jason Rebello (Jeff Beck, Sting, Peter Gabriel) bringing a far more sophisticated harmonic language to the date—is as acute as it's ever been.

Sure, "Outtake Number 9" seems to fade out just as it's getting started, with über-session bassist Pino Palladino (Jeff Beck, Paul Simon, John Mayer) lithely combining deep, in-the-gut root notes with more delicate harmonics, and Katché as upfront as he gets on the disc (and that's not much). But with ECM's ever-strong instincts in sequencing, it acts almost as a palate cleanser between the light and appropriately titled "Springtime Dancing" and ultimately even more buoyant "Shine and Blue," where Tore Brunborg
's tenor doubles with Rebello's acoustic piano for a singable, equally dancing melody, following a rubato intro completely dependent on its performers' ability to listen...and respond.

2010 may well be an overdue breakout time for Brunborg, who has already appeared on two other ECM discs this year, both by Norwegian pianists—Tord Gustavsen
's Restored, Returned and Ketil Bjornstad's Remembrance. Here, however, he's as succinct as he's ever been, with a tone approaching that of Garbarek's, but a little less tart, a lot less dry, in particular on the dark ballad, "Senses." Katché also recruits another Norwegian label regular of recent years, Jacob Young, who contributes some warm, electric guitar work on the bright, backbeat-driven "Keep on Trippin,'" as well as some refined and tasteful acoustic work on the elegant "Flower Skin," which also features guest trumpeter Kami Lyle and, in its harmonic ambiguity, the same deeper-level reference to pianist Herbie Hancock that has, at times, imbued all three of his ECM discs.

Lyle also sings on the unexpected vocal track, "Stay With You," which she co-wrote with Katché. A slightly countrified ballad, but more Norah Jones
than Hank Williams, Lyle's sweet, somewhat fragile voice fits perfectly with the delicate structures that Katché creates here and throughout the disc; his playing and tone always beyond assured, but his rhythms somehow constructed in ways that would almost certainly fall apart in the hands of a less capable drummer.

Despite writing music that rarely shines a direct spotlight on his playing, it's impossible to ignore Katché's inherent charisma. Even when he's doing little more than creating a soft pulse with but a single stick on a lone cymbal, there's little mistaking who's behind it, and when he simmers with polyrythmic intensity beneath Rebello's arpeggiated pianism on "Spring Dance," he doesn't need to solo to demonstrate his full capabilities.

Third Round features another first for Katché; on the dark, late night closer "Urban Shadow," he sits out completely, letting his evolving voice as a writer speak for itself, with Young's reverb-drenched, volume pedal-driven guitar setting a smoky context for Rebello, Brunborg's spare but evocative tenor and Palladino's equally simple but note-perfect support. It's a serene close to an album that's accessible and groove-driven enough to attract some of the contemporary/smooth crowd, but with more than enough compositional richness and improvisational depth—despite its inherent restraint—to appeal to those who need more meat on the bones.

JOHN KELMAN, June 15, 2010
© 2014 All About Jazz



Auf “Third Round” geht Manu Katché mit einer völlig umbesetzten Band in die dritte Solorunde.

Mit seinem lässig eleganten, elastisch federnden Gang hat Manu Katché etwas katzenhaftes, das einen auf Anhieb fasziniert. Dasselbe kann man auch von dem schwerelos tänzelnden Schlagzeugspiel des schlaksigen Franzosen sagen. Stets subtil groovend und auf dezente Weise funky, hat er in den letzten 25 Jahren Alben von Pop-Ikonen wie Peter Gabriel, Sting und Joni Mitchell, aber auch jazzigen Produktionen von etwa Jan Garbarek eine markante Leichtigkeit und Transparenz verliehen. Auf seinen beiden eigenen ECM-Alben “Neighbourhood” und “Playground” wartete Katché, wie der britische Guardian anmerkte, mit “wundervoll mutierten Grooves und jazzigen Themen” auf. Nun geht der Schlagzeuger und Komponist auf “Third Round” mit einer neuen Band und zwei Gästen in die dritte Solorunde.

“Diesmal wollte ich etwas wirklich anderes machen”, verrät Katché. “Sobald man elektronische Texturen einbringt, um die Musik zum Fließen und Schweben zu bringen, kommt auch alles andere in Bewegung.” Schlüsselfigur in der neuen Band ist der walisisch-italienische Bassist Pino Palladino, mit dem Katché zuvor schon bei etlichen Popsessions zusammengespielt hatte. Palladino war 1992 auch auf dem Solodebütalbum des Schlagzeugers dabei und begleitet ihn als Session-Partner in seiner populären Arte-Musiksendung “One Shot Not”. Zu dem eingespielten Rhythmustandem gesellen sich noch der norwegische Saxophonist Tore Brunborg, unverkennbar ein Schüler Garbareks, und der britische Pianist Jason Rebello. Erweitert wird das klangliche Spektrum außerdem durch das flüssige Gitarrenspiel von Jacob Young und die gedämpften Trompetentöne von Kami Lyle. Die aus Boston stammende Musikerin, die in unseren Breiten noch relativ unbekannt ist, stellt sich in einer Nummer zudem als Sängerin vor, wobei sie einen ein wenig an die junge Joni Mitchell oder Rickie Lee Jones erinnert. “Als ich dem Rest der Band vor der Aufnahme die Demos und ihre Noten präsentierte, erkannten sie manches Eigene wieder”, meint Manu Katché. “Es ist nicht so, dass ich versucht hätte, ihre speziellen Stile zu imitieren. Es war einfach so, dass gewisse Passagen ihnen wie ein Handschuh passten.”

So kitzelte Manu Katché auf “Third Round” aus seinen Spielpartnern das Beste hervor und kann vieles von dem, was bei seinen Tourneen mit Sting und anderen Popgrößen sowie den aufregenden “One Shot Not”-Sessions herangereift ist, zur vollen Blüte bringen.

Amazon.de



Third ECM album by French-African drummer Manu Katché, following the best selling 'Neighbourhood' and 'Playground'. 'Third Round' features a completely revised ensemble line-up, but is faithful to a group concept that The Guardian described as "beautifully mutated grooves and jazzy themes", with all participants elevated by the physical presence of Katché's beats and drum patterns. Once again, all music is written by Manu, and his insinuating melodies testify to parallel lives in pop and jazz. The album was recorded in the South of France with producer Manfred Eicher.

A drummer renowned worldwide for his collaborations with pop singers from Sting and Peter Gabriel to Youssou N'Dour, Manu Katché is seen regularly throughout Europe with his Arte channel jam music TV show "One Shot Not". He's a star of the first magnitude in France, and has also - since his affiliation with ECM began - become a force to be reckoned with in jazz. His ECM debut 'Neighbourhood' won the Album of the Year prize of the German record critics amongst many other awards. Additionally, his participation in Jan Garbarek's projects, including the widely-praised live album 'Dresden' has underscored the singularity of his drum approach.

Welsh-born bass guitar legend Pino Palladino has played with Eric Clapton, the Who, Jeff Beck, Paul Simon, Chaka Khan and many other major figures in rock/pop/soul. Jazz and blues and associations range from BB King to Roy Hargrove. Pianist Jason Rebello, once described by UK critic Stuart Nicholson as "probably the finest young jazz musician this country has produced", has played with Gary Burton and Branford Marsalis, and his 1990 debut album was produced by Wayne Shorter. Norwegian saxophonist Tone Brunborg is well-known to followers of ECM from his work with the band Masqualero to the current Tord Gustavsen Ensemble. Guesting are Norwegian/American guitarist Jacob Young, and American singer/songwriter/trumpeter Kami Lyle who adds vocals to "Stay with You", for which she also wrote the lyrics.

Amazon.com



For his third ECM recording, the French jazz, rock and pop drummer Manu Katché brings in Jan Garbarek-inspired saxophonist Tore Brunborg and British pianist Jason Rebello – Katché and Rebello are old hands from Sting's band, and electric bassist Pino Palladino and the drummer have worked together for 25 years. That degree of collective familiarity and virtuosity ought perhaps to have produced more startling results. Third Round often sounds tonally graceful (usually when Brunborg is playing), and Katché's unjazzy mixture of crunching rocker's backbeats and abstract-percussionist's cymbal effects are as effective here as ever. But the themes drift to the point where minimal-melody gets close to insubstantiality, and in the rather coy Springtime Dancing, the quaver of singer/trumpeter Kami Lyle's single gospelly vocal, and the inconsequential groove of Out Take Number 9, there's a hint or two of unreadiness about the materials. But the All Blues-like feel to the opening Swing Piece is compelling, guitarist Jacob Young energises the buoyant Keep on Trippin', and the Scandinavian-cool of Shine and Blue makes it one of the most striking tracks. The gifted Katché has rightly made a significant mark, but Third Round feels a bit like it's treading water.

John Fordham, 18 March 2010
© 2015 Guardian News and Media
 

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