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• Concert Reviews
• Snake Dance
• Silberne Lachtränen
• Memories of a Swan Song

Making fragile melodies sparkle

A trio led by Berlin saxophonist Henriette Müller performed at the well-attended Zehntscheuer hall in Münsingen - full of urgency, yet relaxed....

With absolute concentration and clarity, saxophonist Henriette Müller, bassist Simon Pauli, and Johannes Bockholt on a mini-percussion set made Müller’s fragile melodies sparkle... The silence between the rhythms comes alive, and the audience respires with the music. Müller plays the saxophone with an unusually academic yet warm tone that flows into perfectly improvised passages.

The roles change constantly among who leads with melodies and who dictates changes to the rhythm. The two other members of the trio also get a chance to display the full range of their skills: Simon Pauli strokes and plucks the electric bass in accentuated fashion up into the highest ranges, and his frequent extemporaneous runs are always harmonious and surprising. Johannes Bockholt performs with every bit as much energy and circumspection on the drums.

Although the three musicians deliberately refrain from technical fireworks, band leader Henriette Müller, in particular, compels the audience to listen attentively. As if the program, consisting entirely of her own compositions, did not require any effort, the three musicians go about their work with a good-natured ease and striking dexterity. Tuning in finely, with a vivid sound and intelligent dynamic nuances, Henriette Müller leads while the others follow with perception and sensitivity.
In "Silberne Lachtränen" and "Allegria ma non senza tristezza", a simple rhythmic structure begins to vibrate at the core and carries the music forth. A fragment of a motif, placed with precisely the right weight, changes the course of affairs. With a fine sense for the balance of sound, the three achieve an almost hallowed concord.

Nearly imperceptibly, the individual instruments emerge from the aggregate of the group only to re-submerge; as if of a single mold, they summon fine nuances, letting the sound dive down into jazzy regions in modulations of contemporary chamber music.

Spell-Binding Musical Odyssey

First-class duo: Saxophonist and composer Henriette Müller and bassist Simon Pauli in concert at the Versöhnungskirche in Ulm-Wiblingen.

Jazz, New Music or New Age? Never mind. An unconventional concept, an unconventional duo: Demarcations of style and the boundaries between composed and improvised music simply fade away. Born in Ulm, Henriette Müller doesn’t fit a single cliché. Where else do you find a soprano and tenor saxophonist who has remained rooted in jazz since taking her master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1994, and not only performs worldwide but also follows her own personal quest as an outstanding composer?

She crafted all of the pieces on the new CD "Silberne Lachtränen" ("Silvery Tears of Laughter"), which the duo from Berlin is presenting on their tour of Swabia. Anyone expecting acoustic escapades based on the title of this CD, however, was on the wrong track. Those who love the soundscapes of Jan Garbarek or Michael Riessler, on the other hand, were served beautifully in Wiblingen’s Versöhnungskirche by the fine duo and its first-class standard of chamber music.

In the lofty acoustics of the church, the delightful union of the two instruments evolved in a marvelous manner, with the window panes clinking in fortissimo and the low-end resonance even generating a tactile sensation. Such works as "The Wheel" invite one to listen, relax, enjoy, and sense an inner tranquility, as does "Meer-Frieden" ("Peace of the Sea"), which might just as well be read "mehr Frieden" ("more peace") on account of its meditative quality. Yet this music is much too exhilarating for one to simply sit back and drift off. No psychedelic, sedative sing-song here, but rather an audio feast displaying its most charming features, redolent of tango, in "A Little Cuckoo".

Simon Pauli is an acclaimed accompanist for pop, jazz, and world music artists, yet he is not one to race up and down the fret board. Instead, this low-key and subtle expert enjoys sophisticated experimental effects such as in "Snake Dance", yet never loses his sensitive musical identity. Partly in dialogue, partly in contrasting independent melodic lines or captivating solos, these two musicians revel in their spell-binding odyssey.

Drawing unstinting applause throughout the two hours leading up to the encore piece "West 25th", an homage to New York, they wove a lyrical depth of emotion and driving rhythms into a jazzy, avant-garde yet tonal tapestry, creating a résumé of cutting-edge expressive power.

"Her saxophone playing has a delightful clarity where juicy outbreaks as well as a down-to-earth lyricism both have their place...She can suddenly change from dreamy soft sounds into wild yearning screams."

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"Snake Dance" is the third album by the Berlin composer and saxophonist Henriette Müller. Her pieces consistently blur the borders between "new music", world music and jazz.

Henriette Müller - "Snake Dance"

Together with Marika Gejrot (violoncello), Simon Pauli (e-bass) and Johannes Bockholt (percussion), Henriette Müller (43) embarks on a sophisticated musical journey. While the title song with its Oriental locutions does indeed sound as if she wants to charm snakes with her soprano saxophone, pieces like "Explorations" and "’Khar Rnga" radiate a veritably meditative frame of mind.

Many a soft-fragile cello passage might just as well originate from a Shostakovich string quartet, but time and again Müller’s compositions also draw their vitality from Pauli’s and Bockholt’s rhythmic counterpoint. "Snake Dance" is an album of intimate sounds and a profundity that one encounters only rarely these days. Not something to be listened to in passing.

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Harmony and dissonance are two musical terms that normally preclude each other. With her second album (after "Memories of a Swan Song"), Henriette Müller has succeeded in reconciling opposites. It is difficult to describe directly how her ten titles, reminiscent of chamber music, converge and diverge harmoniously. The first CD still featured a post-Coltrane style to a large degree, excessive and marked by free-jazz motifs, whereas "Silberne Lachtränen" ("Silvery Tears of Laughter") is of a considerably more refined nature. Her saxophone modulates a landscape of lyrical story lines and sound formations with an almost spoken quality. The rest is provided in reserved to contrasting manner by Simon Pauli’s bass structures and Johannes Bockholt’s percussion. Much of what is considered jazz is missing. But it is not New Music either, for it incorporates too many rhythms and influences based on different global shades of sound. But this is precisely the tension out of which the music of Henriette Müller is articulated.

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"Everybody dreams about it, Henriette Müller did it: She studied for two years in New York, graduated with a Masters of Music from Manhattan School of Music and at the same time conquered a place at the toughest scene of the world - engagements at the Five Spot, the Knitting Factory and at the Guggenheim Museum (with star drummer Jim Black) give evidence of it. Her debut CD is a résumé of this time...Henriette Müller proves to be a mature musician with a voice of her own. Her smooth, slightly removed soprano saxophone playing with soft articulation and periods of long open musical development provide an attractive charm...Her tenor sounds slightly rougher and brings more robust accents into her finely built compositions."

"Müller is blessed with something rare - an individual voice. On both soprano and tenor, she explores deep chasms of sound and abstract melody. On "Crazy Cradle", for example, Müller uses the percussive head as a base from which to sway the melody from side to side, never quite settling for the obvious. On "Searching For a Place To Be", she plays a simple but gorgeous melody that drifts over the rolling rhythms of bassist Peter Herbert and drummer Jeff Brillinger. The resulting effect ist truly trance- inducing and quietly intense...this is a stunning debut."

"Each song is a filigree of sound textures...woven from unconforming melodic threads. Playing primarily soprano, but also tenor saxophone, in a style that does not belong to any particular school, Henriette Müller produces a subtle pure tone with an unobtrusive quality even in the preferred high register. She develops a highly personal style with a superior technique and a very lyrical concept of melody and knows how to present it exceptionally well with her unpretentious but imaginative compositions."

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