Griot
Worldmusik-Jazz-Cross-over Trio
Griot is an modern jazz trio rooted in world music, consisting of American saxophonist Peter Epstein, German multiinstrumentalist Gernot Blume and the American percussionist Julie Spencer.
The musical chemistry between these three composers, who combine their diverse vocabularies, creates a brilliant and fascinating sound.
Each of these musicians has developed an individualistic expressiveness, which becomes audible in organic-rhythmic and intuitive improvisations at the nexus between surprising sound textures and soaring melodic phrases.
Griot explores new jazz possibilities in the hands of three open-minded concept musicians, who make music – at times explosively, at times meditatively – but inescapably with heart and soul.
Peter Epstein
„… He plays soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone to the limit of their expressive ability.“
HiFi
„Epstein makes astonishing statements … and has created a unique modern sound.“
All Music Guide
Gernot Blume
„…Wonderful music“
Joachim Ernst Berendt
„…Music of great intricacy and beauty“
Glen Moore, Komponist/Bassist, Oregon
Julie Spencer
„…A major new voice who displays true brilliance of mind, spirit, and soul“
Jazz Times
„… Extraordinary artist“
Klaus Muempfer, www.jazzpages.com
incantation - The new CD from Griot
The international world music jazz cross-over trio features German multi-instrumentalist, Gernot Blume, American saxophonist, Peter Epstein, and American multi-instrumentalist, Julie Spencer with 63 minutes of original compositions and improvisations on their latest cd, „incantation”, featuring alto and soprano saxophones, harp, piano, bass, mandolin, marimba, drums, percussion, and voice.
The highly developed multi-stylistic personalities of these three creative artists coalesce artfully in the new cd, which Epstein, Blume, and Spencer recorded on July 16, 2008 in Germany for Rector Records, following a tour of performances in Germany and Poland.
The music of Griot is imbued with a rare kind of authenticity in which intimate musical moments are unselfconsciously shared – between the artists, and offered to the listener in that shared space between hearts where music lives. „incantation” spans a horizon from peaceful introspection to fireworks of emotion, full of spiritual intensity, inviting and inspiring. It is a world of its own.
Epstein embraces the listener with his warm and intensely personal sound on soprano and alto saxophones, the fluidity of his soaring improvisations, and the surround-sound effect of his circular breathing. Spencer’s ethereal voice seems to float weightlessly, while the undulating rhythmic textures and melodic phrasing of her piano, drum, and marimba playing are radiant with expressive sensitivity. Blume’s fine touch on the harp creates a feeling of expansive dimension, complementing his wide range of experimental timbres on the bass and mandolin, and facile array of rich colors at the piano. The result of these three virtuosic musicians of Griot in musical dialog on „incantation” is spellbinding.
The cd’s ten compositions, composed by Spencer and Blume, give space for creative group improvisations in which the musical thoughts of the players seem transparent to each other, through seamless interplay. With an extremely diverse program, Spencer and Blume display confident ease taking turns at the piano, and smoothly traveling between all the other instruments they use in their unusual brand of world music jazz cross-over. The degree of breadth and unassailable integration of cultures, styles, and experiences that are immediately noticeable in Griot’s common language has been called outrageous and breathtaking. The extension of such astonishing musical, compositional, and improvisational facility into a remarkably unique sound is a deft accomplishment that Griot achieves almost effortlessly. It also testifies to the deep and long immersion of Epstein, Blume, and Spencer, in the musical cultures of West Africa, Indonesia, and North India at the California Institute of the Arts, where they met.
Traditionally a griot is a musician born into a family of storytellers in West-Africa and recounts history through song and poetry. In this fascinating recording, jazz, free improvisation, Western contemporary composition, and the traditional music of West-Africa, India, and Indonesia, are fluid points of reference, which create a new kind of griot aesthetic – that of travelers between different worlds. And in „incantation” the listener has the pleasure of traveling along.
Colorful layers of transforming sound dialogues
Concert of the Jazz ensemble Griot in Kirkel, June 24th 2008
By Andreas Seger
Mr. Erwin Irmisch, director of the educational center of Kirkel did not exaggerate when he promised the audience modern jazz of the highest caliber in his announcement of the jazz trio Griot this past Tuesday.
The ensemble had its very first public performance in this formation, consisting of saxophonist Peter Epstein, multi-instrumentalist Gernot Blume and percussionist Julie Spencer, although the American Peter Epstein and Bingen based Gernot Blume have worked with one another since their shared study times at the California Institute of the Arts twenty years ago. In 2006 the duo CD Griot, a live concert recording from 1999, resulted from this collaboration.
Now Griot appeared for the first time as a trio – with American Julie Spencer, the artistic partner and wife of Gernot Blume. Before the musicians entered the stage, Mr. Irmisch explained the meaning of the name Griot. A Griot is in the widest sense an African storyteller, who passes along old songs and myths as a kind of living library. The eight pieces presented by the three artists with great virtuosity and utmost sensitivity were very lively and diverse. Following initial and quickly solved technical sound problems the energetic and at the same time harmonious interaction unfolded, characterized by colorfulness and rich variety. Peter Epstein played soprano and alto saxophones, Gernot Blume could be heard on piano as well as mandolin, celtic harp, and bass, and Julie Spencer proved to be brilliant on drums, marimba, piano, various percussion instruments and voice. The compositions, all penned by Blume and Spencer, move in the spaces between modern jazz, free improvisation, world music and Western contemporary music.
They were musical stories of great breadth – just like those told by a griot. „Truth“, the first of the evening’s pieces, was dominated by drum set, while „Falling Leaves“ made leaves appear dancing in the wind in the manner of a kind of classical program music.
The third piece was outstanding: „Exodus“. After a long piano intro a unison duet of Peter Epstein’s alto sax and Julie Spencer’s voice unfolded. Later in the piece she also plays marimba to the drone of the saxophone – an impressive sound collage. Gernot Blume explained that music from India in particular had influenced his composition.
Eastern European sounds were evoked in „Hungarian Dreams“, a very picturesque and playful piece in the classical tradition, almost a sonata for soprano saxophone and piano, with sparse interjections of the marimba and a very traditional major chord at the end.
One of the concert’s most impressive moments took place in „Love“. Gernot Blume played mandolin, later bass, Peter Epstein alto sax, and Julie Spencer, at first on marimba, switched the sides of the stage as in a trance and sat down at the piano in order to re-enter the composition built in a 10/8 and 11/8 meter.
In „Pilgrimage“ Blume switched to the celtic harp, while Julie Spencer vocalized again with her bell-like clear soprano voice. „Dances“ is a piece in 7/4 meter, with a touch of folk music, taking the listeners into Eastern European realms, and with the evening’s last piece, „Incantation“, Griot returned to its origins, when composer Gernot Blume took lessons in African drumming during his world music studies, and let himself be influenced by these experiences – almost a completely improvised piece.
In all this colorfulness and diversity of sound textures, there was an underlying theme that connected every aspect of the concert: the three musicians’ incredible joy of playing, which transformed the shifting sound dialogues into a sublime listening pleasure for the audience.
