Jonas Sorgenfrei's title of his debut on the Swiss label UNIT could also be interpreted, in view of the year 2020, as an optimistic-metaphorical motto of the current time. We move on, thick-skinned against the adversities of life, but thin-skinned in the music, highly concentrated in the interplay and with an absolutely independent sound on the pulse of our time.

 

Jonas Sorgenfrei has put careful thought into the artists with whom he can share, explore and transform his musical visions. With Wanja Slavin and Rainer Böhm, he has won two of the most outstanding soloists within the German scene for his debut, both being blessed with an unmistakable sound on their instrument, a widely developed, intrinsically unique improvisational language and a mastery of phrasing and timing that can be referred to as "hors du commun." The dark, enriched bass sound of Matthias Akeo Nowak, together with the fine-nerved, extremely agile but never obtrusive, wonderfully pulsating playing of bandleader Sorgenfrei, provide the foundation on which the two outstanding soloists take off with inspiration. The band sound remains warm, earthy and full of depth in its multicolored and atmospheric compositions, which often oscillate between written-out and freely improvised passages; the interplay — tight, pristine and organic.

 

To this day, the fascinating and magical aspects of what truly create an exceptionally iconic jazz combo are the strong, independent personalities that fuse as one, producing an unmistakable complete and overall sound. With his debut, Jonas Sorgenfrei succeeds in doing something that many jazz musicians are denied all their lives: he welds four people together to form a unit to which one listens spellbound and one which will make the international scene sit up and take notice.

Ursus Bachthaler, ©2021,   (english)