Reinhold Schmölzer iz jazz drummer, arranger, composer and conductor who played drums at seventh festival "Freeing" in Morten Ramsbøl trio with Jacob Karlzon (piano LINK) and Morten Ramsbøl (doublebass LINK) 7.7.2019. at Music academy in Belgrade. He also held arranging masterclass as part of the festival's program. Concert was supoported by Danish Embassy in Begrade and masterclass by Austrian kultur forum.
Reinhold Schmölzer website Reinhold Schmölzer biography
The project "Give me 5" is our way of staying in touch with the jazz audience. It is the festival's jazz program for 2020/2021. As part of the project, artists that performend on the ''Freeing'' festival in previous years share the five albums that influenced their playing the most.
One of my first Jazz Albums I ever listened to and I am still fascinated. Listen to Ahmad Jamal´s approach of leaving space during solos and themes, plus the band members perfectly fit into that concept. As a drummer I find it somehow strange, that Vernel Fournier is so underrated. In my opinion he is one of those drummers, of whom the world should talk much more, as he is one of the brush pioneers out there. But not only this. He brought up one of the most iconic and interesting drumbeats in drum history: Poinciana
As a 4-5 year old kid I got CDs of my older brothers. Amongst AC/DC, Guns n´Roses they offered me Queen and I totally fell in love with this band. Since then I had the dream to become a drummer and I used to play along with the recoding on pillows (representing the drumset) back then. Of course playing like Roger Taylor is every young boys dream. Nowadays I am still fascinated by how timeless the band sounds. Not to talk about the historic songs they released.
In my opinion this album is a must have in every CD collection, as it is a historic record in many aspects. As many arrangers and composers, I personally am very much influenced by the work of Vince Mendoza - especially on this album. His colorful use of the orchestra accompanying Joni Mitchell (but not covering her) is outstanding. Furthermore the playing of the greats like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter or Peter Erskine is just epic.
In fact all Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra recordings and successor bands have a large influence on me as a drummer, as well as a arranger and composer for large ensemble. In my opinion this album is one of those, which is way ahead of its time. Recorded live in Village Vanguard in 1980, it still sounds as it was recorded yesterday. Not only the aspect of the very balanced and transparent well-engineered sound, but also the unique style of Brookmeyer´s writing and arranging, makes me listen to this record over and over again on a regular basis - not to forget the incredible playing of heavy instrumentalists as Dick Oatts, Rich Perry, Jim McNeely etc.
This Quintet recording is so fresh to my ears, because of its unique approach of interaction, composing and the ability to create an overall mood throughout the record. All tunes are very fluently and how the band members deal with playing „time“ is very, very interesting. Jakob Bro and Bill Frisell, both on guitar, are leading the music towards new soundscapes perfectly supported by Lee Konitz, Ben Street and Paul Motian.
