Cécile Verny Quartet - Of Moons and Dreams (2019)

It always sounds a little different when jazz musicians play 'songs'. The music Cécile Vernys and her band has nothing superficial, is nothing that would be forgotten after a single listen immediately. Songs like "Kissing The Moon", "My Steps Their Beat" or "The Power To Be" just touch, get stuck. For one thing, because of the sound. Every nuance is meticulously set, every single tone from the keyboard well considered, each cymbal hit inserted exactly. In these songs there is also space for Bernd Heitzler's double bass solos, in these songs Andreas Erchinger is allowed to spin pirouettes on the piano, Lars Bender is allowed to swing on the drums while hammering crisp funk into the skins.

The relaxed nonchalance that surrounds the band's 17 compositions, the combo's confident coolness, the understatement that has become accentuated - that's the difference. Pop can be so good when played by jazz musicians. It is also amazing that the band was able to transfer the intensity and the sizzling tension of their concert appearances completely without any problems to the comparatively sober atmosphere of the recording studio.

A very special chapter are the lyrics. First of all, they are perceived because Cécile Verny sings them. The voice of this great singer, who so confidently marks the interface between Jazz, Pop, Rhythm'n'Blues and Soul, must have simply been heard. With "I Heard An Angel Singing" and "The Garden Of Love" there are again, as usual, settings of poems by the English poet William Blake, plus "There's no way back" with a text by the Swedish poet Åsa Ericsdotter and "Mon Avenir S'est Envolé", based on Bach's Goldberg Variation No. 15. If you consciously perceive the text, you will soon realize how subtly the music is tuned to it. "Krakatoa Moon", "Kissing The Moon" or "New Moon" are - not only because of the already announced by the album title main theme "moon" - prime examples that a song is only then round and conclusive, if both individual aspects in it to unite to a big whole.

The "Cécile Verny Quartet" has existed for three decades now. If you work together in such a long time in a solid band, you know each other in-and-out. However, it would be a miracle if each band member did not personally develop and discover new things for themselves. In this regard, there has always been consensus within the band. To preserve traditions, if they are useful, but also to explore new areas without fear of contact. Retain his personal style, but also develop as a musician, composer and arranger. And finally, what has probably already become a habit after all these years: putting one's own talent at the service of the common cause.