Jazz'n'Spirit - Dirk Piezunka (tenor & soprano saxophone, bass clarinet), Martin Flindt (concert & western guitar) and Jens Piezunka (double bass & vocals) - have taken on ecclesiastical Renaissance and Baroque music. US Jazz, more or less from its birth, the "invention" of Jazz, has re-worked spiritual and gospel melodies. There is hardly a similar tradition in European Jazz: Jacques Loussier's swinging Bach or the "Swingle Singers" in the 1950s & 1960s, and a few isolated individual recordings (especially at Christmas) - and not a lot more. However, European Renaissance and early Baroque music - to which the trio mostly reverts - with its wonderful melodic clarity, beauty and at times brittleness, is an ideal starting point for a Jazz improvisation / classical music dialogue. Jazz'n'Spirit have set about the task convincingly.
A note from the artist:
We are more than pleased with the tremendous public response to our first CD production CONTINUUM, which has been a real acknowledgement of our work. We have had a great deal of positive feedback and the recording is included in the German Record Critics' list of best titles. We would like to offer our heartfelt thanks for all this support. Our initial success is very motivating, but could be seen as a liability. Now we are faced with making the new production SECUNDO equally successful. We do not want to disappoint the growing expectations of our audience. In these new pieces and arrangements we also want to show Jazz'N'Spirit's musical development. It is a real challenge! This directly affected the preparation and choice of music for the very intensive rehearsals and the two days of recording in the Marienmünster Abbey. We have grown even closer as an ensemble; have become livelier and »jazzier« in our arrangements, without forgetting the contemplative moments, or loosing sight of the unique magic of the Renaissance and Baroque chorales and secular songs. The result is twelve pieces, which attempt to bridge Jazz and early-music on the one hand, notation and improvisation on the other; and which capture the special atmosphere of the moment.