Marc Jufer Trio - Trip to the Center (2019)

Trips to the Center can be loud and exciting. If Marc Jufer ́s recent album production was a travel guide, of how to discover and dwell into the ventures of modern jazz, it would be full of unusual turns and twists. Jufer can take the listener to loud and exciting places or cool his ears with an elegant flair for melodies and space.
“Trip to the Center,” is his first album on the Berlin based label, QFTF, solidifying his stature as one of the brightest and most experienced voices in Swiss jazz. A number of things have changed in his band — Jufer re-casted his rhythm section and gives up on a harmony instrument— underlining his prominence as a composer and player.
Marc Jufer has both the vision and experience to know where and how his music should take place, sharing an experience of more than twenty years in the European jazz circle, “Trip To The Center” is his fifth album as a leader. The trio has been working on this album, in a single recording stretch over two days, with a powerfully alert bassist, Lisa Hoppe, and a sharp, supple drummer, Devin Gray. “Trip To The Center” lasts entirely of of Jufer ́s original compositions.
“Symétrique Ascendant” the opening song, an explicit showcase of the trio, involves some quicksilver tenor work, beginning with a fragmented melody, assigned in alternating spars intervals, before swerving into a powerful sound wave. And “Lou Sau Do Baou” employes dartlike syncopations of the sort that flatters the whole band. Jufer ́s improvisational style pierces the surface from the very first idea. Demanding heart and energy from himself and his bandmates.
The result is the work of a true visionary, with a sound that carries on the timeless energy of jazz, but does not fear to break with classic directions and keeps his eyes trained on the horizon.