Back with a newly formed quintet, gathered together for a particularly fruitful 2024 session in Southern France, the German-American pianist Benjamin Lackner now presents a different side of his composer-approach that should go a step further in exposing Lackner as a force to be reckoned with in the contemporary jazz world. Trumpeter Mathias Eick is the sole returnee from Lackner’s debut Last Decade and heard here in striking dualism with Mark Turner’s idiosyncratic saxophone dialect, forming a key-characteristic of the interplay that permeates Spindrift. The horn-duo and pianist are joined by the nonpareil bassist Linda May Han Oh and French drummer Matthieu Chazarenc, who was part of Lackner’s trio before the pianist’s tenure with ECM.
“I spent the last two years writing nearly 100 tunes and experimenting with two or three voices in each song,” Lackner outlines the process that led to new material. “I would write the tune, record a demo version that same day and then let it rest for a week before deciding on whether it was a keeper or not. The closer we got to the recording the more I started editing my list down and I showed up in the studio for the recording with about 20 songs. We chose the nine we deemed the best for the session. I was really blown away by how the musicians approached the music with such openness and spontaneity, despite a lot of the music having been far more written out than on Last Decade.“
Accordingly, as with the debut record, Spindrift is exclusively made up of Lackner originals, save “Chambary”, which was written by his long-time friend Matthieu Chazarenc. Throughout, subtle fanfares meet thoughtful lyricism in a programme that always puts melody and ensemble chemistry first. Saxophone and trumpet take the lead, forming their own little ensemble section, and contribute elegantly interwoven lines and striking solos to an especially harmonious group sound. The one rare exception to the double-horned-frontline appears at the top of this set in the title track. Here Mark Turner leads as the sole horn, driving the whirlwind of a tune to emphatic heights. The brisk opener segues into gentler terrain on “Mosquito Flats”, a flowing and infectiously melodious mid-tempo groover, prefaced by elegant rubato interplay.
Soft lyricism and lush harmonies ensue, guided by understated piano improvisation on “More Mesa”, a flowing pulse and melancholy fanfare on “Chambary”, before “See You Again My Friend” finds trumpet and saxophone in yearning euphony – Eick with his unmatched tender embouchure blowing in haunting juxtaposition with Turner’s brasher tone and oblique lines. Searching melodies and an idiosyncratic treatment of space and time dress “Murnau” in the gloomy guise of a lament, whereas “Fair Warning” becomes increasingly endowed with a driving impulsion as time passes, propelled by Mark Turner and Mathias Eick’s more muscular soloist exchanges.
The darker tendency of some of the pieces can be traced back to the themes that guided Lackner in the writing-process, as the pianist felt forced to contemplate the obvious political turmoil, worldwide and specifically in the US, which dominated the past couple of years. “I seek solace in music and the process of composing is a form of meditation for me,” notes Lackner. “There may be bleaker undercurrents on this album, coloured by underlying sadness, perhaps even fear. But I do hear hope in there as well.“
“Anacapa”, another deeply lyrical offering with horns entwined, sits on the soft back-beat of a cymbal stroke, before “Ahwahnee” – named after the region around Yosemite – opens the space for a ruminative, almost conversational rapport between the two horns, drums and bass – the piano is barely audible here, contributing atmosphere only. With “Out Of The Fog” – “symbolising a journey from confusion to clarity” (Lackner) –, Spindrift concludes on an introspective note that emphasises the group’s seamless understanding and the album’s unique mood. Recorded at Studios la Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines in 2024, the album was produced by Manfred Eicher.
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The Swiss daily Weltwoche’s Peter Rüedi called Benjamin Lackner’s debut for ECM “a ‘classic’ jazz album in the broadest sense and as such a non plus ultra in the difficult art of simplicity. A masterpiece which, in an almost hypnotic melodic maelstrom, dispenses with all soloist ‘artistry’ and spectacular artistry in favour of a highly integrated sound and intimate exchange of ideas.” Last Decade followed a string of trio records on other labels, and saw Lackner in the company of Mathias Eick, bassist Jérôme Regard and Manu Katché on drums performing “a thing of thoughtful and often dusky beauty, poetically realized”, to quote Downbeat’s Josef Woodard. Reviewing Benjamin Lackner’s ECM-debut Last Decade for Stereophile Magazine, Thomas Conrad noted that “ECM released some fine albums in 2022, but few are more beautiful”.
