JÖRGENSMANN VOLQUARTZ TOKAR KUGEL
Theo Jörgensmann – alto clarinet
Ove Volquartz – contra bass clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute
Mark Tokar – double bass
Klaus Kugel – drums, percussion
About the musicians:
Theo Jörgensmann, who did much for the Renaissance of the clarinet in the 80.s, captivates with a music that has soul, and that “pursues an unusual and polished chamber music equilibrium. He has a sound with high specific gravity”. One can easily get excited about a music that, in spite of “soul” does not simply “disregard” reason, but rather retains a “floating balance between control and feeling “. – Peter Niklas Wilson
Ove Volquartz is Saxophonist and clarinettist, originally from the free improvisation (jazz) scene, as evidenced by his work with African-American musicians as well as the European avant-garde. Concert tours, festival appearances etc. have taken him all over Europe and as far as Africa.
In his playing, Volquartz goes far beyond the vocabulary of jazz, quite naturally and organically incorporating the sound and creative possibilities of new music.
„Mark Tokar plays double bass with concentrated absorption and utter openness to the act’s contingent events, showing an unwavering focus from which the will of enclosing devotion and wisdom in a single entity transpires.“ – Massimo Ricci, touchingextremes
„Mark Tokar’s larger-than-life tone and impeccable intonation is front-and-center …“ – John Vincent Barron, Jazzreview.com
„I’ve praised the qualities of both Kugel and Tokar before … Both men are extremely precise instrumentalists with a shared musical vision of sculpting jazz into a more universal musical language.“ – Stef Gijssels, Freejazz-stef
„Klaus Kugel is one of the great contemporary European drummers, and plays all over the kit with a sharp hard pulse.“ – Carl Pearson, Jazz Director, WFHB Bloomington, IN, USA
„Kugel is a model drummer“ – Francis Davis, USA
“Drummer Klaus Kugel is one of Central Europe’s most articulate modern jazz drummers … he treads the boundary between inside and outside playing in a particularly incisive way; always listening and never getting caught up in his own considerable chops.” – Dave Wayne, AAJ, USA