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Christopher Dell THE WORLD WE KNOW Celebrating Bert Kaempfert With Ladi Geisler ACT 9449-2

1. Don’t talk to Me
2. Danke Schoen
3. A Swingin’ Safari
4. Strangers in the Night
5. Afrikaan Beat II
6. Wiedersehn
7. It Makes no Difference
8. Spanish Eyes
9. Africaan Beat I
10. I Can’t Help Remembering You
11. Over & Over
12. Love After Midnight

Christopher Dell - vibes
Ladi Geisler - guitar
Christof Lauer - saxophone
Carsten Daerr - piano
Oliver Potratz - bass
Eric Schafer - drums

In his sleeve note Christopher Dell says it is important for him to transfer the songs of Kaempfert into a contemporary context. In doing so he has transformed Strangers In the Night from a pleasant song with a happy ending into a mournful dirge.

Make no mistake these are all excellent musicians, but like many of the so called ‘contemporary’ school, they seem to have forgotten what jazz is about. The monotonous repeated rhythms on most of the tracks renders any concept of swing impossible!

No doubt the album will appeal to other fans of intellectual contemporary music, but the jazz content is small. The musical ability of the participants however is very high indeed, I wonder if they could swing if they wanted to?

Somehow I don’t think Bert Kaempfert would be impressed with what is said about his songs being ancient relics in the sleeve notes, or what Mr Dell and his colleagues have done to them.

Don Mather

 

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