Simply recording jazz standards without frills - you have to dare to do that at a time when everyone is shouting "higher", "further", "louder" and "weirder"..." ...says drummer Jens D?ppe about "Time Remembered" - the new album of the Martin Schulte Trio and hits the nail on the head. After three longplayers with mostly own compositions, the highly acclaimed, award-winning guitarist and bandleader now presents an album that consists mainly of standards of legendary jazz musicians like Bill Evans or John Coltrane. It was mainly his stays in New York (2009-2010) and Barcelona (2003-2004) in which Schulte dealt particularly intensively with jazz classics. "In both cities I knew very few musicians at the beginning, so I visited many sessions. In the USA, standards are the common language on which people communicate," explains Schulte and adds: "I quickly noticed that especially the young jazz musicians in the USA have a very familiar, natural relationship to standards. How they cultivate and uphold this tradition impressed me," recalls Schulte. Together with Henning Gailing on double bass and Jens D?ppe on drums, the guitarist did not want to press the pieces into new arrangements, but left the originals largely untouched. It paid off. The recordings sound as relaxed as they do refreshing and authentic. "Simply serving first-class black coffee instead of coffee with sugar and milk foam, garnished with cocoa powder - that was our plan for the arrangements of the pieces", explains the Cologne-based band philosophy in the studio. In addition to standards such as "26-2" (John Coltrane), "Darn That Dream" (Jimmy van Heusen) or "All Or Nothing At All" (Arthur Altman), the trio also presents three original compositions by Schulte, which impressively underline his qualities as a songwriter.
