Kurt Ellenberger Trio - Songs from Far West (CD)

All Music Guide

Pianist Ellenberger, a native of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, traveled to Appleton, Wisconsin to record this CD at ~the Lawrence University Chapel for distribution by a label based in The Netherlands. Go figure, but sometimes it takes a circuitous route to get your music out. He wrote five of the seven compositions, with musical support from bassist David Dunn drummer Dane Richeson. A consistent quality throughout suggests Keith Jarrett's elongated/meandering/introspective artistry. Meditative rather than flashy, it is a by-product of Ellenberger's idiosyncratic but lovely phrasings musings. It's also clear this music was recorded in a church. Ellenberger builds blocks waves of sound within a Jarrett-like construct from a mid-tempo framework. "Herr Mann's Fell'd" continues the steadily streaming rhythms flowing piano, rather ECM-ish. "Internal Presence" goes deeper slower, "Sorcerer's Apprentice" picks up to an easy swing, "Far West" is the most pronounced rhythmically with swing samba patterns. The pianist tackles Duke Ellington's "In A Sentimental Mood" with reverent respect as if gently blowing fluffed seeds off a dandelion. The surprise is a reading of Paul Hindemuth's "Nobilissima Visione" as Ellenberger captures the sober, crystalline shards of light so typical of Hindemuth's neo-classical with jazz inferences concept, quite warm effusive. This is not swinging jazz in the traditional sense, but a marker for the kind of improvisation so well defined by Keith Jarrett, currently being explored by Brad Mehldau. We'll see where Ellenberger takes it from his perspective.

- Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide