Press Andy Herrmann Quartet
The very best of jazz at the Villa Eugenia, with the Andy Herrmann Quartet’s ‘The Child in Me’
When Andy Herrmann plays the keys of his piano, he turns his innermost outwards. With eyes closed, he feels for what moves the soul, dives deeply into the cosmos of human feelings and translates what he finds there into sounds that are woven together into multi-facetted compositions. The Villa Eugenia hosted Andy Herrmann and his project ‘The Child in Me’ on Wednesday evening, following his invitation from the Foundation.
The Freiburg-based pianist is no stranger in Hechingen. As Joachim Wien, Chairman of the Villa Eugenia Foundation, stresses, Herrmann had already played at the Villa five years earlier – at that time still with his trio, which was nominated for the New German Jazz Award in 2010. The trio has meanwhile become a first-class quartet which includes, in addition to Herrmann, Norbert Scholly (guitar), Arne Huber (bass) and Fabian Rösch (drums).
As the title of the music project implies, Andy Herrmann’s rhythmically incisive jazz pieces, infused with animated harmonies, trace the childhood of their creator. “We are only playing my own compositions here, developed from childhood memories,” the pianist stresses.
Sparkling and light sounds, borne on a whirring gripping groove, characterise works such as ‘The First Date’ or ‘Game’, which examine the innocence of childhood play. A distinctive wealth of ideas can be seen in all Herrmann’s compositions, so that they each have an individual complexion due to his great finesse and slight accents at just the right places – and are played by the four musicians with almost dreamlike ease.
Sounds create and stage-manage a sequence of pictures to form scenes that embody the lightness of a child’s being, but that are again and again permeated by melancholic passages. ‘The Child in Me’ expresses a search that has accompanied Andy Herrmann through his life: “The search for the immediacy of childhood; the desire to return to childishness.” The eponymous piece therefore starts with a melody that reminds one of a nursery rhyme before the man and the music are doomed to become adult until, at the end, the childlike carefree sound regains the upper hand. Created using musical intuition, whose inner driving force is childish curiosity that wants to penetrate everything down to ground level, that drives to unknown places, and leaves space for the imagination on every journey. The melodic sequences and harmonies are almost lyrical, appearing fragile but releasing their inner strength when heard.
Tonal cumulus clouds form during pieces that intone the forces of nature, the rain pulsing and pattering on fields in the countryside, and gusts of wind plunge with the intoxicating power of changing tempi. Swirling notes draw the listener into the undertow of water, passing through every key, intoned energetically by the quartet and spiced up with individual phrasing.
The four musicians demonstrate their impressive abilities in every single piece, captivating with their multi-layered and differentiated style of playing and an unmistakeable virtuosity. Rooted in the tradition of jazz, but sprinkled with modern grooves and almost childlike playfulness, they gave the audience at the Villa Eugenia a sound experience par excellence.
Press reviews & reviews of Sincerity
“With his buttery-soft tone, U.S. guitarist Mike Moreno dominates the sound on pianist Andy Herrmann’s new album. The quartet is completed by bassist Arne Huber and drummer Jochen Rückert. The seven well-balanced and tasteful compositions that Herrmann wrote for Moreno oscillate between sustained melodies and a sometimes cool, sometimes dreamy modern jazz, which is constantly supplied with new momentum by the grippingly acting rhythm duo. In the rhythmically intricate “Hambuscht” Moreno provides elegant brilliance, while Herrmann proves to be a peak performer with a rapid solo. The highlight of the album, however, is the stormy “Deltakron”, in which the quartet merges into a tightly playing unit that knows how to extract new, surprising facets from the nervous theme again and again”.
More Press reviews
The quartet around Munich-based pianist Andy Herrmann with guitarist Mike Moreno, double bassist Arne Huber and drummer Jochen Rückert is based on international New York-style jazz and European elements, with their complex harmonies and unconventional chord progressions. From the artistic point of view, it is roughly in line with Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays and Aaron Parks. “Sincerity” – sincerity – is the title of the latest work. And this title keeps what it promises, namely honest sound, solid, understandable and accessible to all. The compositions are written by Andy Herrmann himself, and each one has its own color, is cohesive and coherent. The musicians involved in the project by no means have a shadowy existence, rather they enjoy their specifically assigned roles. The guitarist Moreno’s role is particularly significant, as he runs through long, substantial improvisation sequences and gives the work an unmistakable, fresh character. Sincerity” was recorded in May 2022 at the Loft Studios in Cologne under the direction of Christian Heck.
» Luca D’Alessandro / Jazz’N’More ®
Press reviews & reviews of The Child In Me
“Andy Herrmann is an amazingly versatile pianist with a lean whiplash touch, nimble pianistic eloquence, and an ever-precise equitable balance between sense and sensibility, rationality and intuition, reflection and spontaneity: simultaneously resolute, clear and graceful. “He expanded his trio into a quartet with guitarist Norbert Scholly for this album. But the ensemble is not standardised to the lowest common denominator, but dedicates itself with commitment and devotion to their music-making together: the band plays full of detail and finely attuned to one another, fusing to form a single entity from which the soloists emerge naturally.”
» Piano News ®
More Press reviews
„A sensual journey through childhood memories, expressing images and moods – so says the press release of Andreas Herrmann’s current release “The Child In Me”. The piano veteran, who has been nominated for numerous jazz awards, manages to successfully convey these very impressions with his new quartet by means of melancholy melodies and varied harmonies.“.
» Concerto ®
„The eight songs on “The Child In Me” are infused with a touching serenity and at the same time a pensive melancholy that makes the music very catchy despite all its complexity“.
» Jazzthing ®
“The scene needed just such an unconstrained combo jazz album.”
“An instrumental album that is grandiose and offers compositions and playing of great ability.”
“Andreas Herrmann achieves his goal of creating an impressionistic album with bravour”.
» All About Jazz