“Smile” is the name of the new album by Martin Weiss and the David and Danino Weiss Quartet. And it also begins with the song of the same name, the most famous composition by Charlie Chaplin. A choice that perfectly describes the character of the album in several respects. First, because the piece, later made famous by Nat King Cole and today played as a jazz and pop standard by countless performers, dates from 1936. The time when Django Reinhardt invented the only original European style in the classical era of jazz: the Gypsy Swing, also called Jazz Manouche or Hot Jazz. Then, because “Smile” with its highly emotional mixture of melancholy and consolation fits exactly the ambivalence of Gypsy Swing. And finally, because the piece comes from the film “Modern Times”, which deals precisely with the interface between tradition and departure, which is now also the musical focus of Martin, David and Danino Weiß.
Listen to the music: https://glmmusic.de/SmileWeissWE
More informations: https://www.glm.de/en/product/martin-weiss-david-danino-weiss-quartett-smile/
At its best, a music album is a journey, for the musicians as well as for the listeners. Like hardly any other subject, music offers the chance to get from here to there and from yesterday to tomorrow without preconditions or borders, with one’s thoughts as well as one’s feelings. As a universal world language, it can take everyone with it. The adventure is all the greater when the tour guides come from different genres, but freely and impartially seek a common path. Like the avant-garde bassist Anthony Cox, the groove-oriented jazz pianist Cornelius Claudio Kreusch and the classical guitarist Johannes Tonio Kreusch. On their new album, the three now invite you to check into the “HOTEL CASABLANCA” as the basis of a remarkable expedition.
With the CDs “Dialogues” and “Tangos & Canciones,” guitarist Johannes Tonio Kreusch and violinist Doris Orsan revived the rarely heard duo of violin and guitar. While the spectrum there ranged from classical romanticism to the Caribbean musical cosmos to modern music, they initially concentrate on Argentinian sound worlds in their new throw “Libertango”. For a good reason: the album not only celebrates their pas-sion for this music, it is based above all on the many friendships they have cultivated with musicians from this field.
It’s amazing that no musician comes to mind right away who has already processed this image: The balcony as a creative culmination point, as a place of encounter, of exchange with familiar as well as new people, which at the same time “excites contradictory feelings,” as singer Laura puts it: “The feeling of being at home and the feeling of being exposed to the outside world. The feeling of freedom coupled with the feeling of being in a safe place.” A powerful metaphor for the mind of a musician. And a perfect anchor for an album: “Sunset Balcony” is the name of Laura’s new work, “created in her mind on balmy evenings on a sunset balcony, alone or with loved ones, thinking about our place in the world or even just what we want to cook for dinner,” as she reports.
Groove and fresh timbres from Jazz Guitar, Fender Rhodes Piano, Bass and Drums.