LP, 180g Vinyl, date of release: October 26, 2018

The compo­si­tions of Alex Wignall with the sound of this phan­ta­stic piano trio is so thril­ling, you don‘t want to stop listening. It‘s like watching a 3D movie. That‘s why his self given genre „Cinematic Jazz“ could not be a better fit.

Alex Wignal – Piano
Joshua Roberts – Drums
André Nendza – Double Bass

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Melody to harmony to rhythm

Alex Wignall’s sense of melody can already be clearly heard on his previous album: “Solitude” focused on ballads from the stan­dard reper­toire of jazz, and the heart of a ballad is undoub­tedly its melody, which is then freely and imagi­na­tivey harmo­nized and orchestrated. On his trio album “Waiting For August” Alex Wignall now also shows his great rhythmic versa­ti­lity. Together with his excel­lent trio musi­cians André Nendza on double bass and Joshua Roberts on drums, he moves powerfully and dyna­mi­cally through five original compo­si­tions and two new inter­pre­ta­tions of pieces from the synth-pop area (“Twice” by Little Dragon) and from film music (“Chim Chim Cheree” from the film Mary Poppins). You meet a trio that is open to many musical direc­tions and has found its own clear language: exci­ting, virtuoso and colourful without getting lost in cryptic allusions.

Already in the first seconds of “Waiting for August” it becomes clear that Alex Wignall is a highly virtuoso pianist who is at eyelevel with clas­sical pianists in terms off luency and sensi­tive control of touch. The inter­ac­tion of the trio – charac­te­rized in parti­cular by a close rhythmic interlo­cking and jointly created arcs of tension – is also virtuoso. The compo­si­tions are highly memo­rable and invite you to listento them several times. Very poetic, sparingly orchestrated moments contrast plea­santly with complex rhythmic patterns and expres­sive solos over ever­more intense vamps.

Another special high­light of the album is that it allows you to expe­ri­ence how close speech and music are. Alex Wignall tran­scribed the speech melody from an inter­view with jazz trom­bo­nist David Baker before arran­ging it for his trio and playing in sync. The content of the inter­view is also deepened in a musical way, as the trio trans­forms language fluently into music: The groovy final loop “melody to harmony to rhythm” even becomes, in a certain way, “language to melody to harmony to rhythm”.

The sum of this album is greater than its indi­vi­dual parts. The upbeat mood, the fresh ideas and the self-confi­dent calm­ness of the musi­cian Alex Wignall, who carefully pene­trates deeper and deeper into the secrets of music, creates an inter­play of melody, harmony and rhythm that culmi­nates in really good music.
(Olivia Trummer)

An inter­view with Joshua Roberts & Alex Wignall