Julia Kadel Trio (d) at Opus Jazz Club

When two years ago the Julia Kadel trio released Im Vertrauen (“Confidentially”) some of the album reviews almost read like film critiques. There was talk of images passing in front of the mind’s eye, sometimes as sketches, then again as a huge panorama. It was an unusual feedback for the first album of a young jazz trio whose members have not yet reached their thirties.

Julia Kadel and her two fellow musicians dealt with the laurels and the pressure of expectation that came along with them as laid-back and confident as their music sounded right from the start. They know exactly what they want: “As a trio we stick to our preferences of playing my compositions on the one hand and improvising freely on the other hand while, at the same time, developing playing concepts that are somewhere inbetween,” says Kadel. On their new album, Über und Unter (“Above and Under”), released in 2016 on the prestigious Blue Note label, they immersed deeper into this mixture and thus broadened its range audibly. “This time we have very different moods and sounds. We explored heights and depths and re-orientated ourselves repeatedly in this context. If you would draw an imaginary horizon,” Julia Kadel says, explaining the album title, “the things our music is talking about would be above and below this horizon. To me that is topic this time.”...

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When two years ago the Julia Kadel trio released Im Vertrauen (“Confidentially”) some of the album reviews almost read like film critiques. There was talk of images passing in front of the mind’s eye, sometimes as sketches, then again as a huge panorama. It was an unusual feedback for the first album of a young jazz trio whose members have not yet reached their thirties.

Julia Kadel and her two fellow musicians dealt with the laurels and the pressure of expectation that came along with them as laid-back and confident as their music sounded right from the start. They know exactly what they want: “As a trio we stick to our preferences of playing my compositions on the one hand and improvising freely on the other hand while, at the same time, developing playing concepts that are somewhere inbetween,” says Kadel. On their new album, Über und Unter (“Above and Under”), released in 2016 on the prestigious Blue Note label, they immersed deeper into this mixture and thus broadened its range audibly. “This time we have very different moods and sounds. We explored heights and depths and re-orientated ourselves repeatedly in this context. If you would draw an imaginary horizon,” Julia Kadel says, explaining the album title, “the things our music is talking about would be above and below this horizon. To me that is topic this time.”

For Julia Kadel and her bandmates, bassist Karl-Erik Enkelmannand drummer Steffen Roth, the compositions constitute sounds that are developed from images and experiences. “This time a great number of my pieces have a very distinctive history from which they specifically originated,” says the Berlin-based pianist. “I am influenced by many things. At the end of the day it’s not important to me how you call what I’m playing.”

Julia Kadel is convinced that “it would be too easy to think that jazz is too complicated and complex for ordinary music listeners. People can indeed listen with ‘new ears’ again and again and feel comfortable with any form of sound.” Since the release of their Blue Note debut album Julia Kadel and her trio played many concerts, in small clubs as well as at big festivals like the prestigious Jazzfest Berlin or the Überjazz Festival in Hamburg, and received an overwhelmingly positive feedback from the audience.

During their live performances the audience can witness the astonishing spontaneity of the three musicians which manifests itself not only musically, but also through physical interaction like the exchange of looks. Everybody can hear it, see it, and feel it, no matter what his musical background or orientation is. “I don’t want to claim that I want to understand my music to the core,” Julia Kadel says, “it is simply what I love and what feels good to me. It happens.”

Tickets are available for 1300 HUF on the spot, in the national JEGYPONT network of Interticket and at jegy.hu.

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