Berger ( Karl )

Karl Berger | Kirk Knuffke | Moon | No Business Records

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Karl and I met when we shared the bill for an “Arts for Art” night of music dedicated to Ed Blackwell. Karl was a longtime associate of Ed’s. There were two duets featured that night. Karl played duo with the great William Parker and I was invited by drummer Gerald Cleaver to play duets from the record “El Corazon” and other tunes in tribute to Ed Blackwell and Don Cherry. Karl of course played a ton with Don too! After this meeting Karl and I became fast friends. Karl invited me to teach with him at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock NY, and now I have 2 times. It was there that we played duo for the nightly Guiding Artist concert and the concept of this album was born. Playing with Karl is so free and natural. It is my sincere pleasure to have him as a friend and a musical brother. — Kirk Knuffke Continue reading →

Karl Berger | Werner Hasler | Gilbert Paeffgen | No Business Records

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The electrified acoustic trio combines several worlds. Stories are told here in the jazz idiom: starting from a basic groove is stressed about this and also improvises with nesting and rhythmic themes. The compositions are mainly played on scales from division of the octave harmonic structures and parallelisms, scales, supposedly inspired by such contrasting worlds as well as the oriental Maqamwelt of natural horns in the Alps region. The trio moves also because of the natural inclusion of electronica outside “world music” sound is ethnocentric and exoticism of the young new century – in which bits and bytes a supporting role-play required. The clash of purely electronic and acoustic sounds of the trio receives a new topicality and urgency. Continue reading →