A microtonal meeting of the minds starring Matt Garrison, Philipp Gerschlauer, David Fiuczynski, Jack DeJohnette and Giorgi Mikadze
Matt Garrison has been ahead of the curve for his entire life. The son of Jimmy Garrison – John Coltrane’s last bassist who worked on the iconic A Love Supreme album – Matt was born into a musical dynasty that saw him surrounded by some of then world’s greatest jazz musicians. These included drummer Jack DeJohnette, who also appears on this new release for RareNoiseRecords. Mikrojazz is a joint project led by German saxophonist Philipp Gerschlauer and guitarist David Fiuczynski. Joined by DeJohnette, Garrison and keyboardist Giorgi Mikadze, the group set out to explore microtonal music, which employs intervals smaller than a semitone. For Fiuczynski (aka Fuze), the collaboration was marked by a connection that was apparent from the outset. “Just as there are jazz and classical snobs and uptight indie rockers, there are many divisions in microtonality,” he said. ‘I’ve had plenty of micro-snobs turn me away because I was injecting a groove element into microtonality. But Philipp was stunned at how I was using grooves and I was intrigued by his work with a very high order of microtones – 128 notes per octave and untempered – amazing! So we joined forces.”
Fiuczynski and Gerschlauer dive headlong into the microtonal pool on Mikrojazz and are ably supported by DeJohnette, Garrison and Mikadze. As an added visual treat, each track is paired with expressionist paintings by the likes of Georg Grosz, Emil Nolde and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. “I love painting in general, but particularly expressionist painting,” says Fiuczynski. “We’ve paired paintings with our music in a very intuitive manner, based more on emotions than literal or direct connections. It’s literally a personal expression of our music and art.”
Regarding the music heard throughout Mikrojazz, Fiuczynski continues: “I would like to think that Western microtonality is an evolutionary extension of 20th century music, and since our 12 note per octave musical language is becoming exhausted and repetitive, I think microtonality is a very natural and necessary development. I think this record will really change the way people hear and listen to music.”
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