Benjamin Lackner Quintet

The worldwide favourable reviews apply to Lackner’s album »Last Decade« (2022), his first for the label ECM. Born in Berlin in 1976 and having spent 13 years living in the US, its success suddenly catapulted the artist into the premier league of jazz musicians with (also) German roots. At the same time, it is already his ninth album that is sparking so much enthusiasm.

Lackner had already been releasing his music on records for 20 years. Early on in his career, the singing of his lines attracted attention: what he played sounded deliberate and anything but verbose. Piano guru Brad Mehldau taught Lackner privately for a while. Mehldau’s embellishing is unmistakable. »Last Decade«, however, appears as the redemption of the old motto by Goethe »Mensch, werde wesentlich« [Human, become true to your essence]. No sound too much, condensed emotion in a few, meticulously placed notes. With Mathias Eick (trumpet), Manu Katché (drums) and Jérôme Regard (bass), world-class artists also assisted Lackner.

This spring, ECM return to the studio in the south of France. The material that Lackner intends to bring on his autumn concert tour will be recorded there. Of the original quartet, Mathias Eick has stayed with him, but the new band is rounded off as a quintet with a second top wind player: the American saxophonist Mark Turner, already on the Elbphilharmonie’s wish list for a long time, joins in, with Linda May Han Oh also one of the currently popular young bassists. The Frenchman Matthieu Chazarenc has been associated with Lackner since their early New York trio days and is his chosen drummer for this line-up.