Building bridges is what music is all about, from us to them from inside to outside, from the universe of sound back to the world we live in. But that is just one of the reasons Volker Goetze, the internationally acclaimed trumpeter and composer, born in Germany, at home in New York for the past 15 years, calls his new album "Bridges". "They just fascinate me", the 45 year old says. "Global citizens identify with them and in the process obtain an identity. There are many bridges I love including the road bridge in Saint-Louis over the Senegal river as well as beautifully constructed ones in Paris, London or the one in my birth town Cologne." Goetze is renowned for his ongoing collaboration with the Senegalese Kora virtuoso Ablaye Cissoko, with their album "Amank Dionti" a Top 20 success for the label Motma from Harlem, New York, in France five years ago. His main focus is to create an even more concrete, even broader fusion of West African traditions and those of jazz.
The references of this unique music are rather diverse: from rhythms that have found their way from Nigeria to Cuba and further on into the world, from the Funk-Jazz of the Brecker Brothers to grooves that have their roots in the Soul music of the Seventies, from supposedly simple blues from the Mississippi Delta or dances from the Gambia to tricky 7/8 rhythms. Above it all rises the spirit of improvisation in the collaborating musicians from three continents including Herbie Hancock's longtime drummer Richie Barshay, clarinetist Oran Etkin, and the Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu, known for his work with Dhafer Youssef New. "Having a chance to meet one of the finest Fulani flutists of West Africa and practicing the flute melodies on the trumpet, I wanted to compose a song for Ousmane Bah", Volker Goetze saysw. "All he owns is a blue shirt, pants and a couple of flutes. Music is all he has. In many ways I often admire his simple life traveling from place to place just making music. The rhythms of the song "Fulani Dance" are rooted in a Gambian dance called Kundum." Together these musicians expand the playing field of creative improvisation and find musical bridges, often over thousands of miles. The compositions, all new and at least written with Volker Goetze, are rooted in West African and contemporary New York jazz and create a unique intercultural music experience. In a very direct and musical way, they also celebrate the power of migration. "Immigration naturally involves creating a new canvas, a new face," says Volker Goetze, referring to the song title "Mask". "Torn by both cultures, the individual derives from an ancient genealogical past, represented here by the percussion music, his contemporary heritage and the new self he is building: the two masks. Borderless is an idea practiced by the migration of birds via the melodies played by the flugelhorn. Will we as humans ever be able to achieve it, or are we enslaved by our past, unwilling to accept?"
