A Rose E `er Blooming is a musical embodiment of prayer.
It serves the spirit of medieval sacred german melodies and lyrics with the freedom of improvisation and a well balanced variety of piano and composing techniques. Thomas R?ckert combines the original melodies with musical structures from different genres.
On this CD you find aspects of jazz, gospel, folk, classical western contrapunct and - yes- indian and african traditional music. They blend sweetly with the historic german muse spirit in service of the sacred. Dive in.
Producer Ralf Kemper is himself a 2010 Grammy Award winner for Best Instrumental Record and Best Producer Of The Year at the Latin Grammys for Arturo Sandoval's "A Time For Love". His film "Jimmy Scott: I Go Back Home" premiered at the prestigious SXSW Festival, was presented by Quincy Jones at the 50th Montreux Jazz Festival and has won several awards at international film festivals.
The recordings took place at the Riverside Cologne Studios by Ralf Kemper on the Steinway D concert grand piano.
- “He is a true master of subtlety, a pianist that has no need to show off. Not his aesthetic, not his feel for romanticism and melancholy nor his fragile dabbing of tones. Thomas Rueckert is a master of his trade” - Jazzthing
- “Thomas Rueckert’s playing lives primarily off of his individual signature, which has an almost laid-back charm yet also seems to burst from within with intensity” (Jazzpodium)
- “It is always a blast to be able to talk - even rave - about true discoveries. And when that happens within the fully saturated sector of modern, tonal Jazz pianos, the surprise is even greater”; “Remarkable is his immanent, extensive understanding for the Jazz tradition and the possibilities of its expansion” (Jazz’n more / Switzerland)
LINKS:
https://www.thomasrueckert.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8TviErrmaFA5lG_vHPdYhA
https://www.facebook.com/thomas.rueckert.3
http://www.eden-river-records.com
VIDEOS:
- “Early Shepherd / Ihr Hirten erwachet” https://youtu.be/JUVFuTK4xSY
- “Rose2 / Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” https://youtu.be/DfVecy3iBbc
About Thomas R?ckert:
The jazz pianist Thomas R?ckert (* 1970 in W?rzburg) comes from a musical home, where he practiced dealing with music and his instrument the piano at an early age. He started piano lessons at the age of 7 and added saxophone and percussion lessons at the age of 16. At the age of 17 he had his first piano students, and later also music students and took over the further education of trained musicians. So he decided for the piano and started in 1990 to study at the Musikhochschule K?ln with Rainer Br?ninghaus and John Taylor, which he finished with the postgraduate degree "Konzertexamen". In 1999 he lived as a freelance musician in New York. He experienced his stay in the metropolis of jazz as inspiring and moving. The New York experience was also reflected in his first own studio albums, which were produced with his trio between 2002 and 2006: "Debut" on JHM records (2002), "Dust of doubt" on Pirouet Records (2004) and "Blue in Green" on Pirouet Records (2006). At the same time, Thomas R?ckert appeared in television and radio productions, among others for the WDR, and made guest appearances at the Istanbul Jazztage, the Hildener Jazztage, the Audi Jazz Festival in Cologne and numerous other renowned festivals. Tours abroad have taken him as far as Baalbeck in Lebanon.
Important for him was the collaboration with Lee Konitz, whom he learned to appreciate as a jazz icon. But he also works with other musicians and bands like the WDR Bigband, Mark Johnson, Greg Hutchinson, Donny McCathlin, Greetje Kauffeld, Mark Murphy, Kevin Mahogany, Tony Lakatos, Randy Brecker, Adam Nussbaum, Ack van Royen, Jay Anderson, John Goldsby, his trio partners Reza Askari, Fabian Arends and last but not least with his brother Jochen. In short, he is not only a sought-after musician with his trio, but also as a sideman.
In addition to his work as a jazz pianist, R?ckert teaches at the Folkwang Musikhochschule in Essen, the Musikhochschule in Osnabr?ck and the Bergische Universit?t Wuppertal. "Don't play what you know" - Thomas R?ckert has audibly internalized this guiding principle of Lee Konitz. Here improvisation becomes an adventure beyond concepts and clich?s. After all, Thomas R?ckert is by no means concerned with superficial virtuosity, but rather with exploring new energetic sound dimensions, exploring space and expansiveness, energy and tranquility. Each time, a denser, sometimes lighter fabric of colors and lines unfolds before the listener's ears, reminiscent of Morton Feldman, Debussy, Skriabin, Arvo P?rt or Bill Evans.
