Sendecki & Spiegel - Two In The Mirror (2019) [Hi-Res]

As the name implies, the album “Two In The Mirror” points out that two highly profiled Jazz musicians whose success mirrors far beyond Germany’s borders have found one another and joined forces in an intriguing and unanticipated dialog. Vladyslav Sendecki is viewed as one of the most vibrant and creative pianists on the European Jazz scene. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung praised him as a “master of emotion who spawns gripping musical virtuosity.” In New York, the Village Voice named him as one of the 5 currently most significant Jazz pianists in the world. Al Jarreau’s endorsement: “Vladyslav Sendecki is highly ranked among the great pianists of the last 100 years, with Herbie, Chick and Duke and Jarrett.” On the flip side of the coin, for 15 years Jürgen Spiegel has been the driving rhythmical force and sensitive audiophonic painter in the Tingvall Trio, highly acclaimed worldwide and meanwhile, alongside Till Brönner, regarded as a “figurehead” for German Jazz in an international context. What’s more, over the last few years Jürgen Spiegel has also made a name for himself as producer for a variety of music and video projects. These days the two of them who have made Hamburg their home hooked up in the studio for a duo project in an out-of-the-ordinary piano/drums constellation. Poetry meets dynamics, virtuoso talent with a fine-tuned tête-à-tête, freedom with exchanging emotions.

In a compositional sense, both musicians are reflected in the dialog. On the opener “Meanwhile in Heaven” composed by Jürgen Spiegel the drummer readily surprises with an elegiac moment of convocation before “Wroong” sets the focus on decidedly dynamic dualism. On “A New Day”, a composition by Vladyslav Sendecki that testifies to this pianist’s poetry and playing in equal measure, it soon becomes clear how organically the two musicians mesh like gears, carrying the listener along in a melodic flow that repeatedly has ingenious twists ready and waiting. The title tune “Two In The Mirror” displays pure energy and gives an inkling of how live concerts will equally be carried by the spirit of musicality, spontaneity and their joy in playing. An intense, face-to-face talk that’s hard to turn away from while effortlessly dissolving the frontiers between Jazz, classical and World Music.

Jürgen Spiegel, drums, percussion
Vladyslav Sendecki, piano