Quarterly Critic’s Choice
The best and most interesting new releases of the previous three months are awarded a place on the Quarterly Critic’s Choice. Evaluation criteria are artistic quality, repertoire value, presentation, and sound quality. From 2014 onward, the Long Lists are stored directly with each Quarterly Critic’s Choice.
NEW: Long List 3/2024, published on 5th July 2024
Jazz
Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite
CD/LP/Digital, Patois Records PRCD0029 (direct distribution)
100 years ago, jazz giants such as King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke first played into a recording cone for the Gennett record label. The arranger Brent Wallarab has now written an extended four-movement suite for orchestra, along with trumpeter Mark Buselli and inspired sidemen. Pioneering themes and improvised motifs, spun with contemporary wit, remind us of the origins of jazz, but also prove their timeless validity and inspiring power for the fresh, imaginative big band of today. For the jury: Marcus A. Woelfle
Jazz
Joachim Kühn New Trio: Komeda
Joachim Kühn New Trio & Atom String Quartet: Jazz At Berlin Philharmonic XIV: Komeda. ACT 9972-2 (Edel)
Released under the simple title »Komeda«, the album documents a deeply emotional, large-scale homage to Krzysztof Komeda, the pioneer of new European jazz. Pianist Joachim Kühn, a friend in his younger years, and later an admirer of the visionary who died tragically young, looks back on Komeda’s compositions and at the same time takes them as an opportunity to explore new musical territory – in fascinating solo improvisations, with his New Trio and in a successful symbiosis with the Atom String Quartet, who play with virtuosity and soul. For the jury: Bert Noglik