groups & Ensembles

Susanne Ortner Trio : Last Stop Sehnsucht
Acoustifying music from disparate traditions

SUSANNE ORTNER – CLARINETS/SAXOPHONES
NAHUM ZDYBEL – GUITAR
JAMES SINGLETON – BASS

“SO MUCH TRADITIONAL JAZZ ASPIRES TO PERFECT SOLOS AND RECREATION FROM 1932;
THIS IS MUCH MORE EXCITING STUFF.”
Tom McDermott, Offbeat Magazine, February 2020

“DEEPLY MASTERFUL… ORIGINAL, SOMETIMES BREATHTAKING ARRANGEMENTS…
THIS IS A WONDERFUL, CREATIVE AND QUITE BEAUTIFUL ALBUM.”
Sammy Stein, Something Else Magazine, February 2020

Driven by an “addictive yearning” for deep connection this stellar trio, led by German born reed player Susanne Ortner, explores often overlooked 20th century repertoire from disparate traditions in an inside/outside kind of way – and with great sensitivity, communication, and fire. Nasty-silky-good.

New Orleans based German clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer Susanne Ortner is equally conversant in jazz, classical music, and various ethnic musics. The German Newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine states that she is “a musician par excellence, capable of moving you deeply“.

Her desire to find the similar in the different has lead to the exploration of a myriad of musical traditions, as well as to collaborations and international concert tours with numerous outstanding musicians – mostly in the intimate duo or trio format - such as the Susanne Ortner Trio with Nahum Zdybel (guitar), and James Singleton (bass), Belgium Gypsy icon Tcha Limberger, accordionist/pianist Alan Bern, 1. Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonics Noah Bendix-Balgley, multi-instrumentalist Vince Giordano, pianist Tom Roberts, and many others. She is the subject of the book “Living the Dream” – Für die Musik nach Amerika” (Wissner Verlag Augsburg, 2011), written by German Television journalist Helge Fuhst.

“THRILLINGLY ECLECTIC.... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. … TOP-DRAWER MUSICIANSHIP, RESPECT FOR TRADITION, AND UNYIELDING AFFECTION FOR THE ROOTS AND STYLISTIC VERSATILITY OF JAZZ. … ORTNER AND HER BANDMATES PERFORM WITH AS MUCH PRECISION AS PASSION.”
Jazz Corner, February 2020 - Full review

“…THE REAL THING, A SERIOUS MUSICAL EXPRESSION MADE DRAWING ON SEVERAL RELATED EARLY 20TH CENTURY IDIOMS …ORTNER, ZDYBEL, AND SINGLETON AREN’T JUST PLAYING THEY ARE BUILDING FIRES TOGETHER …A WARM INSPIRATIONAL SHIVER OF AN ALBUM.”
Joe Bebco, The Syncopated Times, March 2020 - Full review

Nahum Thelonious Zdybel is a New Orleans-based guitarist, improviser and composer restlessly shifting roles between innovative explorer of improvised musics, creative indie rock sideman, and ardent revivalist of early jazz styles and repertoire. Attracted to musical settings that are intimate and sincere, Nahum deploys a playful, hyper-sensitive approach to re-imagine material from disparate musical traditions as baffling combustions of spontaneity and subtle cleverness. Correspondingly at home amongst jazz tunes, free improvisations, original works, and early 20th-century american music, Nahum is an inventive improviser who regards with equal fondness and irreverence his relationship with early jazz, hardcore punk, and unstructured improvisation.

Composer/Double bassist/bandleader James Singleton has been ubiquitous on the New Orleans music scene for more than 40 years. He has performed, toured, and recorded in many styles from the earliest New Orleans traditions to R'n'B, Blues, all imagined types of jazz to punk rock and the avant-garde. The New Orleans traditions he most adheres to are invention, making it new, and making it deep.

Susanne Ortner (Germany/ USA) & Tcha Limberger (Belgium)

German born clarinetist and saxophonist Susanne Ortner and multi-instrumentalist Gypsy-Icon Tcha Limberger from Belgium are like Yin and Yang: Limberger's edgy guitar playing characterized by Gypsy Jazz stands in contrast to Ortner's lyrical sound. Susanne's rich and expressive tone is met by Limberger's net of sophisticated counterpoint on violin. Limberger's soaring voice is enhanced by Ortner's long deep notes on the Low-G clarinet. 'The intensity of their performance is palpable, one feels that there is a mystical understanding for each other, and as stated by German newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine, it is “unbelievable how the roles between the two instruments are being switched within a theme, how clarinet and violin hand each other theme and accompaniment - an interplay that continues within the improvisations... That way it is possible to create a tightly woven web of sounds. Limberger surprises by using his violin without further ado in a guitar-like manner for a Calypso tune, which creates the illusion of a ukulele. The charm of this duo feeds itself also out of the different musical approaches of the two instrumental voices: Limbergers edgy playing, characterized by Gypsy Jazz stands in contrast to Ortner's lyrical sound in way that cannot be possibly any better. . . . Due to the changing of instruments the two musicians heighten the myriad of facets once more. In this way the concert in the cinema in front of the bright red curtain transcends the high musical quality as well asthe impression of monumentality”.

Limberger and Ortner met at a late-night jam at the yearly Gypsy Swing-Festival Django in June in Northampton/USA, and ended up playing for hours. Tcha immediately noticed Susanne's beautiful sound, and they discovered that they both share apart from the music of Django Reinhardt a love and repertoire of the music of “the cradle of Jazz”, New Orleans. Limberger and Ortner draw the inspiration for their repertoire from a myriad of different sources. In the combination of clarinets/saxophones and guitar/violin/voice their repertoire spans unique arrangements from Django-tunes to grooving Jazz pieces of icons like Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong or Sidney Bechet, to hauntingly beautiful Romani-songs, from soaring Greek folk songs to playful early Calypso-pieces of Lionel Belasco.

Tcha Limberger

Since picking up his first instrument the guitar, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Tcha Limberger is one of a handful of world class musicians to have become accepted and respected in a style of music culturally not their own. His showcasing on the international stage of his Transylvanian Kalotaszeg Trio and Budapest Gypsy Orchestra, and his nurturing approach to teaching almost forgotten traditional musics has made him one of the most prominent and ‘important figures in folk music of the Carpathian Basin.' For this he has received unparalleled praise worldwide from professionals and public alike. Critics remarking on his achievements have claimed he is ’entirely made of music’, ‘The Polymath king of Gypsy music’, whilst musician colleagues refer to him as ‘the fifth element.'

Born into a renowned Belgian family of Manouche musicians, Limberger grew up in a world of the Gypsy swing style of Django Reinhardt, and over the years has collaborated with many of its leading performers, including the celebrated Fapy Lafertin. His eclectic musical tastes, interests and passions were formed from early childhood with his first solo concerts singing Flamenco whilst accompanying himself on guitar were aged just eight. He has an ongoing fascination and love for traditional music from the world over, for a long while leading a band of Belgian musicians playing music from Aimara, and the Quechua Indians of Bolivia. From thirteen he studied modern classical composition alongside the Belgian composer Dick Vanderharst with his composition debut for a dance piece by Les ballets C de la B called ‘Patchagonia’ directed by Lisi Estaras. Two current projects include a free improvisation guitar duo with classical guitarist Herman Schamp, and Limberger’s much celebrated all-string swing band Les Violons de Bruxelles.

Tcha Limberger studied the music of Kalotaszeg with his mentor the legendary Neti Sandor, and the Magyar Nota style of Budapest with celebrated primas Horvat Bela. Both contribute to his recognition as both an exceptional and enthusiastic teacher who frequently holds masterclasses and leads interactive workshops encompassing both jazz and Central European folk music. Until now though his performances with the Budapest Orchestra have earned him most notoriety, receiving from The Sunday Times the accolade ‘The Polymath virtuoso Tcha Limberger is the king of Gypsy music!’

REVIEWS:
Review #1 - https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/ | Review #2 https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/

VARIOUS DUOS AND TRIOS

DUO with TOM McDERMOTT (piano)
Piano wizard Tom McDermott and Susanne Ortner (reeds) perform beautiful melodies from the Bayou to the Seine, from the Danube to the Black Sea, from the Mississippi to the Amazon and beyond – in an at times highly virtuosic, at times hauntingly mellow way.

DUO with NAHUM ZDYBEL (guitar)
Susanne and Nahum explore in an innovative and highly sensitive way acoustifying music from disparate traditions.

DUO with MICHAEL WARD-BERGEMAN (accordion)
The great accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman is mostly known for having played in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, for his recordings with Taraf de Haidouks, and for his performances with Panorama Jazz Band. The repertoire of this duo spans from Russian waltzes, Eastern European folk melodies, Venezuelan waltzes, choros, Northeastern Brazilian forros, merengues ... to music originated right here in the cradle of jazz.

DUO with MARTIN MASAKOWSKI (double bass)
Playing in duo with Martin means not only exploring many different genres (especially from Eastern Europe, but also from Brazil, Venezuela, and of course New Orleans), but also different meters and rhythms, as well as sounds and textures. Bass, percussive instruments, clarinet, saxophone, cello, violin (due to his use of harmonics) - you'll hear it all in just one duo!

CHORINHO FOREVER – Brazilian choro ensemble (varying in size/instrumentation)

TRADITIONAL JAZZ TRIO with guitarist/bassist

SIDEWOMAN around town (New Orleans)