As for so many people, the two pandemic years were a challenging time in many respects for creatives like Cologne trumpeter, composer and arranger Christian Winninghoff, a member of the Jazzkantine and the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. Because jazz from the ivory tower was never his thing. His music has always sounded energetic and groovy, more suitable for the atmosphere of a densely packed, heated club than for a ventilated concert hall with a masked audience, possibly even arranged in a checkerboard pattern.
In the prescribed retreat – after what felt like half a life with concerts, shows and theatrical performances almost every weekend – so now a lot of time to concentrate on the essentials: Sound and expression! The goal: soul music. His compositions have always had fragile and lyrical moments and Christian’s fourth album CLOUD SOUNDS almost became a pure song or ballad album.
More infos: https://www.glm.de/en/product/christian-winninghoff-cloud-sounds/
Listen to the music: https://glmmusic.de/CloudSoundsWE

The great writer Gertrude Stein once said: “Jazz is tenderness and powerful violence.” A definition that has shaped the pianist Cornelius Claudio Kreusch already at the beginning of his career – and which now again perfectly applies to his new album “Eye of the Storm”. Whereby improvisation as the primal ground of these strong forms of expression is absolutely part of it.
The title of Giovanni Costello’s new album “In alto Mare” has never sounded so topical. After all, we have been “on the high seas” for some time now – in the sense applied to Corona and the world situation – and in troubled waters at that. At the mercy of the whims of nature and fate, but also set out for new shores and on a journey. All of which flows into Costello’s album, even if it shines primarily in Italian colors, because it depicts Costello’s career path and experiences all around: From Cantautori songwriting and jazzy crooner vocals to international pop and funk.
Canzoni della Bella Italia
The trio got to know each other intensively for the first time in 2017 during a short tour of Germany and Switzerland. Alex Riel invited Marian Petrescu and Joel Locher to come to Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen to play two double concerts together. For Joel Locher it was quickly clear that a live CD had to result from this.