#Ellen Beier

[picturebookshelf]

Young Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter (1991)

Text: Anne Benjamin -- Art: Ellen Beier

[riffsstrides]

Michael Wollny

Nachtfahrten

ACT Music, 2015

Michael Wollny, piano

Christian Weber, bass

Eric Schaefer, drums

The imaginative and fluently skilful German pianist Michael Wollny covered music by Alban Berg, Edgard Varése and the Flaming Lips on his last album, but the 14 tracks here are mostly his own work or that of his superb trio with Christian Weber (bass) and Eric Schaefer (drums) – save for the odd excursion into the Twin Peaks soundtrack or the music of medieval master Guillaume de Machaut, and a piece by Wollny’s former teacher Chris Beier, whose piano-playing was undermined by a neurological condition. Nachtfahrten – “night journeys” – is a more shaded, melodically sparing venture than its predecessor Weltentraum, with Beier’s enforced retreat into essences and understatement a key inspiration, but its layering and fine details are just as fascinating. Schaefer’s Motette No 1 springs ingenious improv from a rocking vamp, Beier’s White Moon is a beautiful melody enhanced by a steady, Mehldau-like manner. Schaefer’s Ellen has the kind of pop-ballad feel that Esbjörn Svensson might have given it and Au Clair de la Lune wanders wistfully amid pinging cymbal sounds and sparse drum rolls. They are one of the world’s great jazz-driven piano trios, and Nachtfahrten takes nothing away from this assessment.

John Fordham in theguardian.com

[picturebookartists]

ELLEN BEIER

Marius carries Gavroche out of the Battle,

from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

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