Wolfgang Haffner – ‘Life Rhythm Live’

It’s often said that Siggi Loch – and his successor Andreas Brandis – regard the roster of their ACT Music label as an extended family, and the number of artists recording primarily or exclusively for the label seems to bear that out. Drummer-composer Wolfgang Haffner is one such artist, reflected in his status as one of the pillars of the label’s intergenerational supergroup 4WD. I’m possibly not alone in thinking that his recent projects have suffered somewhat in their pursuit of blockbuster production values, but his NuJazz inspired Shapes (2006) and Round Silence (2009), the expansive piano trio music of Acoustic Shapes (2008) and the three-part Kind Of… series all deserve a place in any serious collection of contemporary jazz.

This double album is loosely related to last year’s Life Rhythm, the recordings coming from a German tour in November 2024. Joined by Sebastian Studnitzky (trumpet), Arto Mäkelä (guitar), Simon Oslender (keyboards) and Thomas Stieger (bass), the more stripped-back configuration affords the musicians space to stretch out and explore. Save for Mäkelä all of the musicians are long-term collaborators, and it’s the Finnish-born guitarist’s incendiary post-fusion chops that so often light the blue touch paper. Although the bulk of the tracks come from Life Rhythm, several old favourites are also peppered across the 90-minute programme.

Opening with the title-track, the complex gyrating theme and Oslender’s pitch bending keyboard settings recalling Chick Corea’s Elektric Band. “Simple Life” from the 1999 album Music features strong solos from Mäkelä and Studnitzky, “Nacho” is smooth and atmospheric, while “Leo” sees the ever impressive trumpeter soloing at length. The calm oasis of “Silence And Sound” is followed by “Joy Of Life”, Oslender switching to piano, and the disc closes strongly with the driving rhythms of “Desert Move”, Studnitzky touching on Hassell and Miles as he reaches for his FX rack, and “Homerun”, where Mäkelä really rips it up.

Disc two opens with Oslender’s “On A Roll”, his bluesy piano mining a deep soul-jazz groove. “Dom”, from 2012’s Heart Of The Matter, finds Mäkelä a more than worthy substitute for dedicatee Dominic Miller, while “Star”, propelled by Steiger’s driving bass-line, catapults Studnitzky into another Miles-ian mode. The jazz-funk of “Keep Going” signals the start of the party, the audience clapping to every beat, and as the band enters the home straight “Here And Now” builds to a massive crescendo. It is followed by encore performances of “Open Land” and English singer-songwriter John Miles’s “Music”, a not so unlikely stadium-jazz anthem full of dramatic twists and turns.

For my tastes the pared-back production and the sheer energy of these live performances make this one of Haffner’s best releases for some time. His famously relaxed grooves, vibrant tone colours and winning melodic hooks are all here, and 50 years after his first professional engagement with Albert Mangelsdorff it’s a work that tells you much about his career trajectory in the intervening years.

from https://ukjazznews.com