New Arts International

- Music composed by Vincent Meissner

It’s hard to believe, but this is the music of a twenty year-old! This story starts at a chainstore in a town near where Vincent grew up in Central Saxony. As a youngster who wasn’t even playing the piano yet, he found some jazz CDs on the shelves. And this soon became the music he wanted to make his own and to get deeply involved with – to the point where what started as a passion became his life-goal. From Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck and Bud Powell, he went on to Paul Bley, Monk, Craig Taborn, Vijay Iyer. And German musicians too: Pablo Held, Achim Kaufmann, Joachim Kühn – and also Michael Wollny, with whom he currently studies in Leipzig. Vincent has continued to seek out and to immerse himself in the piano music of our time.

All of this shines through on his debut CD. There is no slavish imitation here, this is an astonishingly balanced statement of intent from a musician who understands what his predecessors have left him as the jumping-off point into his own expressive world. Honesty is the key for Vincent and his fellow musicians, rather than being revolutionary firebrands. These musicians have a clear sense of form, sometimes finding the humorous or euphoric, at others the melancholy or balladesque. Each of them has many different sides, and together they find surprises and many-hued timbres as they develop Vincent’s compositions through playing.

They experiment with complex shapes and rhythms, and yet we hear their joy in playing together, and an uncanny sense for unusual, memorable melodies. Vincent says: “When we play, each time it is as if we’re walking across a field finding different fruit to pick.” The field is also the area within which Vincent, Henri and Josef can move. There is exploration going on. There are connections and re-connections to be found as they shake up the material and put it back together in different permutations. Collages are developed from separate strands and ornaments. Mini-themes appear again and again in new forms. There is always a big picture, but the listener is also drawn in to uncover the detail, to follow the music’s many twists and turns. Sometimes it is wild and busy, at others sparkling yet concise, yet it is always moving. This is Young – even very young! – German Jazz at ist absolute best and most life-affirming.