Nighthawks

March 28, 2012

Live in Hamburg: Release 30.03.2012

Nighthawks

Live in Hamburg

(CD&DVD)

Herzog Records

Distributor: Edel

Cat. No.: 901027 HER Release date: 30th March 2012

What stay-at-homes and couch potatoes have long suspected has finally been confirmed: Nighthawks, the Cologne/Hamburg-based outfit that has been delivering high-class product in the jazz improvisation-lounge genre for the last 13 years, are also an outstanding live act: Dal Martino and Reiner Winterschladen are not only experts when it comes to faultless studio productions but also highly gifted musicians who, above all, simply want to get on the stage and play. What could possibly make a more suitable setting than the understated grandeur of the stage at the renowned Blohm + Voss shipyard with its panoramic view of the Hamburg harbour? The new CD/DVD by the duo has not only captured the magic of the music but also the unique atmosphere of the surrounding Hamburg harbour.

At last a live CD/DVD, about time too! Those who have followed bassist/producer Dal Martino and trumpet-player Reiner Winterschladen since their early days know only too well that they are capable of delivering much more than mere studio albums, wonderful as they may be. As a duo, Nighthawks have already been doing that for the last 13 years.

They have made 5 albums in this time, all of them little masterpieces in the burgeoning ‘lounge-jazz’ genre. In the zone where melody meets depth, a relaxed vibe takes on that inspirational sparkle and everything fits from the first note to the last, from the sophisticated arrangements to the great timing and the on-the-nail, thrilling solos. Live in performance, we witness the level of power they possess, how they are able to effortlessly switch from jazz to jazz-rock. As always, Reiner Winterschladen’s trumpet playing acts as the jazz-infused anchor, one resting deep on the riverbed of the Elbe.

The decision in 2005 to present their project on the stage was merely a logical step following on from their musical roots, the old Can school. Can, the krautrock celebrities from the 70s, were improvisational gamblers, masters of the art of ‘instant composing’ and spontaneous communicators of the language of rock music. This is a tradition that the Cologne band 'Trance Groove’, where Martino and Winterschladen got to know each other 20 years ago, had been carrying on. It is also something that the two musicians continue to do today especially at their Nighthawks gigs. “The studio and the live aspects are two different things for me“, says Dal Martino, “playing live I love the moments when the whole becomes greater than the sum of the individual parts. When the music really takes off in ways that couldn’t have been composed or arranged. When the unexpected happens”.

And something unexpected really does happen: Some of the gems from the Nighthawks oeuvre, tracks like ‘Motorcycle Hongkong’, ‘Casino’ or the atmospheric ‘Hornflakes Diner’ are there in all their original splendour. Though recognizable by their structures, the songs also come across totally different, absorbed in the moment, transported by the mood the players find themselves in and the meandering journey they are taking as they become immersed in the music. Some of the musicians are down there so long you wonder will they ever come up for air: aside from the card-carrying jazzer Reiner Winterschladen (also known for the permanent position he holds with the NDR Big Band), the core members include Jürgen Dahmen, Markus Wienstroer and Thomas Alkier, all of whom are highly gifted musicians. Thomas Alkier on drums and Dal Martino on bass, are responsible for the cool grooves. The guitarist Markus Wienstroer provides the colourful sounds and the virtuosity, while Jürgen Dahmen, with his tastefully distorted Fender Rhodes, gives a wonderfully exuberant performance, even managing to play a brilliant percussion solo on ‘Hard Nights Day’ (on the DVD, by the way, he plays standing up). All in all, an evening with the Nighthawks makes for an exploratory musical journey as well as a fantastic occasion to dance your shoes off.

The musicians were not the only ones involved in this wonderful show. As we all know, a concert will never be a success without a great audience.

Dal Martino comments: “The Blohm + Voss shipyard in the harbour is a really special location. People arrive by boat from the city or walk through the old tunnel below the Elbe. The audience there is wonderful, standing in the chilly mist, not missing a note of the concert. They’ve seen a lot but they're still hungry for more.”

Not forgetting the river Elbe, the harbour, Hamburg itself. The live footage of this delightfully atmospheric Nighthawks concert at the Elbjazz Festival in May 2011 manages to capture the perception of the concertgoer in the act of turning, dancing and looking all around.

In the hands of the director Christopher Klemme, the viewer feels like he’s actually there, with the shimmering lights, the giant cranes, the gentle waves of the Elbe river and the magnificent twilit horizon swirling by. Only the Nighthawks could have delivered the soundtrack to this journey!

Line-up:

Reiner Winterschladen – trumpet

Dal Martino – bass

Markus Wienstroer – guitar

Oliver Jäger – keyboards

Thomas Alkier – drums

Jürgen Dahmen – Fender Rhodes, percussion

Directed and edited by Christopher Klemme

PR:

Hanns-Christian Gerth & Rüdiger Herzog, phone: +49 (0)40/55616444

h.gerth@herzogpromotion.com & r.herzog@herzogpromotion.com

Herzog Promotion | Spritzenplatz 12 | 22765 Hamburg | phone +49(0)40/55 616 444