Anne Mette Iversen Quartet +1 is an extension of Anne
Mette's longest running group: Anne Mette Iversen Quartet, featuring John Ellis
(tenor saxophone), Peter Dahlgren (trombone), Danny Grissett (piano), Iversen
(bass) and Otis Brown III (drums). Established in NYC in 2002, the musical
relationship and the improvisational rapport of its musicians have developed to
the supreme, as have their music and the compositions. This group voices a
musical ideal and aesthetic that Anne Mette has sought after for many years;
having found it, her seventh recording, Round Trip, feels like going full
circle. It expresses on several levels what is innate in the words "round
trip", and how we all strive to satisfy our longing to come, to be, to
find, and to have, a home.
Originally the meaning of 'round trip' was to return to the
starting point via a different road. Anne Mette explains, "when I wrote
the tune 'Round Trip', it was about a deep and heartfelt wish I had to return
to my two sons, who I had left in another country for a few days. As this album
and this music came about, 'round trip' then became a key idea for the album.
In the sense of coming home, it describes the feeling I have every time I play
with this group. It refers to the many (round) trips we have taken together
over the years, but also how much we have grown as a band, musicians and
persons, and how we, no matter where each one of us is placed in the world, get
together to make music and share our experiences. Even on a personal level I
see the many round trips in our journey through life and music." Round
Trip is simply jazz on a high level, a feeling of unity and togetherness that
can be otherwise hard to find. Highly recommended!
In 2012 Anne Mette moved to Berlin, and at the beginning of
2015 she formed a new group, The Ternion Quartet, which brings out a new side
of her musical personality. The group is front-lined by the two amazing horn
players: alto saxophonist Silke Eberhard (risingstar, DownBeat Magazine 2015),
and trombonist Geoffrey DeMasure (professor at The Jazz Institute of Berlin);
and it is brilliantly supported by Ms. Iversen herself and long-time friend and
colleague from NYC, German born drummer Roland Schneider. "This group is
to me what Berlin is all about. It is fresh, it is creative and it is giving
room to a multitude of inspiration and cultures. There is an element of total
freedom and there is an element of chance and risk-taking. Anything and
everything goes," explained Iversen.
The Ternion Quartet plays music that is energetic and fun.
Like fireworks; the music offers a tremendous display of colors and moods.
Rooted in the tradition of jazz, swing and improvisation, the compositions give
ample room for the virtuosic improvisers to express their creative personality;
and with the experience, maturity and flexibility of the musicians the music
can change direction on the fly and is constantly new, fresh and renewed again.
Compositionally the music is based on a linear and horizontal concept, allowing
the individual instruments' melodies to conduct the harmonic map, whenever that
is desired. The aim is for the full emotional spectrum of being human to be
expressed by these outstanding musicians and improvisers.
The Ternion Quartet has toured successfully in Spain
(December 2015), performs regularly in and around Berlin, and has been invited
to perform at Aarhus International Jazzfestival in Denmark, in July 2017.
Anne Mette Iversen is always quite busy composing, and not
always for her fantastic groups. In 2016 Iversen was Composer in Residence for
The Norrbotten Big Band, one of Sweden's leading ensembles, and she is
currently composing music for The Orchestra (DK), for a performance in
September of this year.
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