Live album | Jazz drummer Joe Hertenstein invites you to the Seventh Supper

One of the reasons to listen to jazz is the drummers . "Come one, come all," the drums sing. For a brief minute, wood, skin, and brass intertwine, beckoning, then, sure enough, bass, trombone, and saxophone make their entrance. Another minute, and the saxophone soars. Short, sharp figures, the trombone responds, later a break, the trombone snarls, the excitement builds.

Another argument for listening to jazz is this record: »The ^7th Dinner LIVE« is a quartet recording by drummer Joe Hertenstein with Ray Anderson on trombone, Michael Moore on alto saxophone and clarinet, and bassist Michael Formanek. The recordings were made last autumn during a two-week European tour at the Institut Français Berlin, the Alte Gerberei St. Johann in Austria, and at the Jazz & Wine of Peace Festival in Cormons, Italy.

"The ^7th Dinner LIVE" is one of the not-so-rare jazz albums where the drummer is the bandleader: Max Roach's "We Insist! Freedom Now Suite," a classic of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the USA from 1960, is one example. A later example is Sven-Åke Johansson's "Six Little Pieces for Quintet," a fine example of free jazz without the elbows, released in 2000, as is Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra with "Family," a 2023 homage to Sun Ra, Charles Mingus, and Albert Ayler. Here, freedom is not about blind rage, but rather the practice of people who listen very carefully to one another.

Joe Hertenstein grew up in the Black Forest as Jörg. He couldn't get used to the umlaut and so, as a teenager, became Joe. New York was his home for a long time, but now he lives in Kreuzberg. The word "anarchy" makes him sit up and take notice; democracy is more palatable, he suggests. Anyone who talks to Hertenstein encounters a musician who isn't fazed by the daily news; on the contrary, purism and dogmatic rigidity aren't his thing.

Hertenstein grew up surrounded by Beethoven, punk, and doom metal until, at 19, he encountered the music of Charlie Parker. Hertenstein was blown away. Three decades later, he's still enthusiastic about jazz pioneers like alto saxophonist Parker and pianist Jutta Hipp : "Alles Jutta" (All Jutta) is the title of one of Hertenstein's five compositions on "The ^7th Dinner LIVE." He underpins the robust melody with a clever groove, and the quartet concludes with a flourish.

In between, Ray Anderson's trombone playing oscillates between scorn and sorrow, and with good reason: Jutta Hipp from Leipzig, a swing kid and, after the Second World War, a hope of European jazz in the USA, was a musician courted by men and then abandoned. This is something to consider for anyone who automatically equates jazz with solidarity.

Reflection remains essential. A slow piece like "Ballad for Paul & Poo" isn't the worst accompaniment: brush drums, lyrical saxophone, the bass reminiscent of a pendulum, and the trombone initially sounding like a string instrument. With tapping signals, "Fourdance" enters more abstract territory, full of moments that demand attention and culminating in a rather abrupt timpani roll.

Michael Moore introduces his composition "Providence" on the clarinet, the most straightforward piece on the album after some discussion among all involved. Joe Hertenstein, Ray Anderson, Michael Moore, and Michael Formanek shy away from neither groove nor edginess. The guests at this seventh supper are audibly ecstatic. Yet another argument in favor of jazz: it can create a good mood without pretending it's on special offer.

Hertenstein, Anderson, Moore & Formanek: »The ^7th Dinner LIVE« (Fundacja Słuchaj), available via https://www.joehertenstein.com and https://joehertenstein.bandcamp.com/.