Quartier du Faisan isn't merely a compilation of stylistic curiosities but a clear stance on modern orchestra music, an eccentric version of an alpine big band. Perhaps this isn't jazz at all — but without the slightest doubt it is a hymn to jazz. Max Nagl says his music comes about intuitively, he listens, and he picks and chooses to structure it into something that has been unheard of so far. To him, all that matters are colours, iridescent exceptions, surprisingsounds. Thus, jazz is a pool of ideas, a stimulus, a source, no more and no less.
(Tilman Urbach, www.jazzloft.com, 2006)
The ambitious Austrian composer and alto saxist Max Nagl never rests and seems to have another project in mind whenever we hear from him. With upwards of a dozen discs as a leader on different labels, we never know what to expect, except for something interesting. On 'Quartier Du Faisan" Max uses some ten musicians, only a few of whom we know: Franz Hautzinger on quarter-tone trumpet, Josef Novotny on piano & electronics and Achim Tang on double bass. Mr. Nagl is a gifted and pretty diverse composer, his music involves the different worlds of jazz, from older to more modern styles. He keeps the five horn players (2 alto saxes, 2 trumpets and 1 trombone) here on the toes by writing tight, swinging lines with adventurous harmonies. "Bycykell" has an infectious drunken swagger, with some groovy organ and a great bluesy alto solo from Clemens Salesny. The band had the good fortune to develop during their six-month stay at the Porgy & Bess Jazz Club in Vienna, you can hear this in their tight and spirited tunes. All of these fine horn players get a chance to stretch out and pull off some fine solos throughout. One of the highlights is getting a chance to hear microtonal trumpet hero, Franz Hautzinger, play some astonishing more normal jazz solos. Jozef Novotny's electronics add just the right amount of eeriness to keep things from getting too normal. The thing that stands out most is Nagl's great writing and arrangements, which are excellent from beginning to the end.
(BLG, www.jazzloft.com, 2006)
You could say that the Max Nagl Ensemble puts an exciting contemporary spin on classic-sounding material. Or you could say the group takes contemporary material and gives it a universally accessible classic sound. Either way, you'd be right. This is an extremely flexible and versatile outfit that's hard to pin down, and so fun-loving and spontaneous that you stand little chance of ever being able to do so.
Named for the area of Vienna in which the group performs, Quartier du Faisan is an extended demonstration—in the same way a magic act is a demonstration—of how the players navigate and conflate these two worlds divided by an ever-shifting temporal line. The disc squeals out of the starting gate with "Beduinenwalzer," which takes the waltz (in the loosest sense of the term) and makes it simultaneously more exotic, more raucous, and more glitzy. Moments of start-stop, wailing reeds give way to velvety big band swing, with each transition sounding as if one is passing through a bejeweled curtain. Many of these songs evoke visual images—listening to "Beduinenwalzer," I pictured a band of foreigners traversing the desert, parched and exhausted. Suddenly they come upon a grand white tent. Parting the flaps, they reveal some magical musical oasis, twice as lavish on the inside as it appears from without, and a white-suited band is swinging away for a Jazz Age crowd.
Like "Beduinenwalzer," "Bat Chain" has moments that are exaggerated for comic, absurdly lascivious effect. My mental image here is a Jamaican fusion/funk band with legendary Afros trying to give a rhythmic jump-start to the clientele at a burlesque house. But even for a live track, it runs on far too long and goes a bit limp and aimless, despite some sit-up-and-take-notice solos.
The Ensemble works well at any pace, though, not just when romping and stomping. "Dunkelziffer" opens with thirty seconds of an electronic mosquito buzz before introducing a tender arrangement. However, the buzz continues for another full minute before reappearing as harpsichord-like accompaniment, illustrating one of the group's drawbacks: its thirst for modest experimentation can introduce elements that some will regard as refreshingly challenging (the "contemporary" set) and others will consider irritating (the classicists). "Patient," for instance, stays noisy and abstract longer than it needs to, yet this might establish avant creds in the circles where such things matter.
Imagine Nagl asking himself a question like this: what would Benny Goodman's band sound like if it was playing a gig at a Mexican wedding? Then he and his group set about distilling the hallmarks of the sounds they aim to mix. But while the final composition comes awfully close to caricature, there is too much genuine love for these various musical styles to seem sneeringly postmodern. In a sense, the music on Quartier du Faisan shares quite a bit with the best cartoons. It's a clever, often original and lighthearted depiction of an unlikely scenario that delights in all the possibilities of its medium, and above all, always maintains a broad appeal. (E.J. Ianelli, All About Jazz, April 2006)
(...) On Quartier Du Faisan, Nagl's international, talent-loaded tentet jumps from edgy new jazz ideas to cheesy big band swing to organ soul jazz—and more—with ease and great skill. The paradox, one that Europeans regularly pull off, is that the resulting music has a jokey, joshing around quality and a solid bottom of dead-serious dedication to craft at once—a feat rarely seen on this side of the pond. The music is enjoyable and, though mostly derivative, it borrows with wit and charm. (...)
(Ty Cumbie, All About Jazz, April 2006)
The bottom left corner of the CD sleeve says File under: Jazz/Free improvisation. In the liner notes we read that this style could be called Viennese 'new alpine music'.
Listening to Quartier du faisan, you soon realize that anything may turn up — hints and bits of Slavic polka, rumba or your local hockey arena’s organ. The first 'tune' on the CD, “Beduinewalzer”, is a waltz that blasts off in 5/4 time (an anti-waltz, really). “Bat Chain” (a relative of Captain Beefheart’s “Bat Chain Puller” from the 70s), throws us some Medeski, Martin and Wood sounds, a Louis Armstrong-style throaty trumpet and an insolent-tongued trombone.
“Patient” starts pretty and quiet with a glimmer of darkness. When the steady striking of the cymbal stops, we are in a surrealist zone, outside time. The trumpet screams and whinnies. A night mare? A snort and a snore. Stick returns to cymbal. Instruments weave crescendoing sounds and an infectious reggae groove develops. Soon we are on a wildly accelerating carousel accompanied by circus horns.
“Breakstone Variations II” is inspired by Anthony Braxton, one of Max Nagl’s stated heroes. “Falarm — Delirium Clemens” starts with overblown brass and shaken shells reminiscent of Mingus, but that’s just the beginning. There’s also a touch of 60s Bluenote styles, some New Orleans shuffle, insane intensity and again, the circus.
I would describe Quartier du Faisan as carefully composed but free-spirited music that allows room for improvisation in the best jazz tradition. It’s the product of an anarchic musical imagination with a sense of humour.
(Joyce Corbett, www.thelivemusicreport.com, February 2006) |
