A jazz CD at Sonoloco? Well, it’s not a commonplace thing, because we do not have any really good jazz writers here, I’m sorry to admit, but since GROB is such a vital, and frankly unpredictable, label (and unpredictability is something we treasure at Sonoloco!), we pick up the dormant thread (the dormant jazz thread at Sonoloco, that is…), and throw ourselves into this somewhat mellow (or is it?) environment.

However, it’s seems Sonoloco is not the only entity not so much naturally involved in the jazz idiom, since GROB itself says in its promotional text which accompanies the CD: “A jazz CD. Really. The first to appear in GROB’s program…” So there!

The group which calls itself Die Enttäuschung (The Disappointment) consists of internationally well-known Berlin jazz musicians. They released their initial phonogram six years ago, interpreting Thelonius Monk. This is their second release, recorded in 1997, but released in 2002.
The promotional text referred to above notices that Die Enttäuschung well manages to stay close to the radical nature of Monk’s music, while also turning it around on the spot, and I can see them shining their musical light down re-discovered or even undiscovered veins of this compositional act of Monk’s.
A quote from the promotional leaflet:

Yes, these words pretty much get to the core of the feeling of these jogging paths by the water of some big European city, like Stockholm, Amsterdam or… Prague. These are not smoky clubs or cellars; this is a soaring, well verbalized crew of modern musicians who know how to feed on a style and refine it, taking the idiom out of it’s restraining jazz clichés and serving it in fresh air and good sunshine, and afterwards they perhaps return to their Macintoshes and well-paid jobs at the forefront of modern life. It’s refreshing, lively, not at all threatening, very positive and life promoting. These guys could even be bird watchers, ornithologists right off the coast of migrant flybys of fall, their tubes raised towards the sky, the fresh air whistling through the cracks between their teeth. We like this set of tunes on Die Enttäuschung’s CD.

We are not jazz writers at Sonoloco, but we know a good thing when we encounter it. This Berlin crew paints the sky with the colors of Matisse and Mondrian, and we do watch the garlands of speedily moving tonal progressions in the wind that blows in from the sea!