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Reviewed: Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus | Achim Kaufmann

Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus with Andrea Parkins: Flip Side (Lumo Records LM 2024-16)

This is my kind of album – an eclectic mix of styles, from song-forms to free playing, but with a unity of musical purpose that’s rare and enthralling. The basic trio is Lina Allemano (trumpet), Dan Peter Sundland (electric bass) and Michael Griener (drums). This is the trumpeter’s Berlin-based power-trio Ohrenschmaus (translation: “A feast for the ears”). Andrea Parkins (accordion, objects, electronics) guests on three tracks that are improvised by the band. Other tracks are composed by Allemano; in the case of The Line, jointly with Sundland.

The Canadian trumpeter splits her time between Berlin and Toronto. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Allemano moved to Toronto in 1993. She’s educated in classical and jazz trumpet and is a master of extended technique. She’s a session musician on many albums and film and TV soundtracks.

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The first two tracks are free, and it would be hard to tell that Signal is composed while Sidetrack is improvised. The sharpest disjunction is between the beautiful ballad Heartstrings, and the free improvisation Sideswipe featuring Andrea Parkins, on accordion for the first time – followed by the haunting, melancholic Stricken. This is a dirge with arco bass solo and simpatico percussion. The album concludes with the furious free outing Sidespin, with Parkins.

Flip Side’s changes of mood and style are vertiginous but compelling. Allemano’s trumpet is broadly in the modern Miles Davis tradition, with frequent use of Harmon mute, as at the start of Stricken. But her emotional range is broad, her compositional invention – in every sense, as “desk-composer” and improviser – fertile. This must have been a hard project to bring off, but Allemano succeeds admirably. She is an artist deserving of wider recognition, whose work I will be looking out for. Hear some here – https://linaallemano.com/ohrenschmaus

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Achim Kaufmann/Michael Moore: Kaufmann & Moore ’22 (Ramboy # 40)

Achim Kaufmann/Kalle Kalima: Ilmonique (TYXart TXA 24193)

There’s no more beautiful sound in jazz than Michael Moore’s fluffy clarinet – especially as heard here, on the gorgeous Andrew Hill ballad LaVerne, which as I recall is dedicated to his wife. It’s found on the duo album Kaufmann & Moore, which is a gem. Equally compelling is Kaufmann’s duo release Ilmonique, with acoustic guitarist Kalle Kalima.

The pianist is based in Berlin. He was born in 1962, and his work covers both tonal and freer areas of improv. I first heard him live at an uncompromising Newcastle gig with Olie Brice in 2014; in contrast, I recall, the album Later from the same year used song material very creatively, mixing influences from Ellington to Dylan. “I haven’t recorded material by iconic composer/songwriters much elsewhere – except a Michael Moore duo CD of Herbie Nichols pieces”, Kaufmann explained to me some years back. “Performing solo live, I often like to include a Monk or Nichols piece though, or some of my own pieces”.

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These duo albums help to rectify that imbalance. They feature compositions by Andrew Hill (on Kaufmann and Moore) and by the participants themselves (on both albums). The originals on Kaufmann and Moore also seem to show some debt to the American master – but maybe that’s a matter of the musicians being moved in the moment, as they improvise, by playing Hill’s work. The material on both albums ranges from more abstract – the slow, dissonant opening of Factorials on Ilmonique, for instance – to melodic, as on Laverne. But it’s all song-based, with nothing like the free improv I heard from Kaufmann and Brice.

The guitar-piano duo format is an unusual one – the Bill Evans/Jim Hall sides are a classic, but it’s not common. Ilmonique reminded me of duos between Andy Laverne and John Abercrombie that I reviewed many years ago. But on returning to them, it’s clear that the playing of these excellent musicians – sadly John Abercrombie is no longer with usis more “in the tradition”, less open than Kaufmann and Kalima – though still excellent. Also, though Kalima plays mostly electric guitar, here he’s on acoustic, which contrasts with the Jim Hall/Bill Evans and Abercrombie/Laverne recordings. 

There’s little to choose in quality between these two superb albums. My preference for Kaufmann and Moore is based simply on my liking for the sound of reeds over that of acoustic guitar. Both are essential listens.

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