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Carolyn Breuer 2019
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Press photos 2015
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Press Information
CAROLYN BREUER‘S “SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER!”
VOLUME ONE – FROM JAZZ TO FOLK AND BACK AGAIN
NOTNOWMOM Records / Amazon.de / cdbaby.com
Release: March 2015
LIVE: CD Release – March 08, 2015 – Ampere, Munich
The Jazz saxophone player Carolyn Breuer is striking a new path with “Shoot The Piano Player” by leaving her old ways of traditional Jazz, with a piano as the sole harmony instrument, behind. In the last couple of years she became more and more interested in Blues, Rock and Folk, which led to finding a new sound.
“I was bored with my CD collection and was hoping to find inspiration in my boy friend‘s collection”. After discovering Steve Earle, she wrote the song “Wintered”, which appeared on her last CD and found herself on a journey back into her own past. “ The acoustic guitars reminded me of the seventies and my childhood and the zeitgeist of those days, the anti-authoritarian education and all the communities I grew up in. The political discussions and all this music, heaps of music of all directions. I can vividly remember the larger-than-life Jimi Hendrix poster in our apartment. In my later life I was so focused on Jazz that I kind of forgot all these different sounds.”
So the idea was born to record a whole new album with acoustic guitars to unchain herself from the comfortable, but limited situation of a classic Jazz quartett. That‘s where the pun “Shoot The Piano Player” comes from: “The guitars gave me the freedom and possibility to play songs I couldn‘t have played with a piano-dominated quartett.” Despite the jazzy chord progressions, the rhythm guitar is mostly playing a folky fingerpicking style, arranged and performed by Christian Sudendorf who also transcribed “Wintered” for guitar.
The first song to be rehearsed for the new line up was “Electric Ladyland” by Jimi Hendrix (on the CD accompanied by Hermann Breuer on the Hammond B3 organ). Carolyn Breuer knew she needed a lead guitar player who does not come from the Jazz scene and found the right sideman in Peter Schneider, a fine Blues and Rock guitarist who became famous for playing with Ike Turner and other International and German Blues and Pop stars. Peter Schneider‘s bluesy approach and Carolyn Breuer‘s Jazz saxophone complete a perfect Ying and Yang circle. Uli Lehmann is playing the upright bass and Shinya Fukumori is a well educated Jazz drummer.
The main task was to transcribe the Jazz tunes, written by Carolyn Breuer on the piano, for the two acoustic guitars. With a little help from her father, Hermann Breuer, the piano voicings were arranged for guitar in fingerpicking style, like on “Mimo Is Back” (with Ralf Hesse on flugelhorn), “Sax And The City” (with Tim Collins on Vibes) or “Dear Joni“, dedicated to Joni Mitchell.
A genuine and unique band sound was created. Lots of rehearsals were necessary to finally reach that goal. Another piece the band worked hard on was Joni Mitchell‘s own “Last Chance Lost”. With “Nature Boy” they gave credit to a beautiful Jazz standard. In “Ramtown Blues” (with Bobby Stern on the blues harp) Carolyn Breuer faced a rather difficult task, most Jazz musicians try to avoid: soloing over a classic 12-bar Blues.
“Zwischenspiel” is a poetic and elegiac little folksong and “59 Rue d‘Orleans” (with Adrian Mears on the trombone) gives credit to the history of groove-orientated New Orleans Jazz.
As a happy Carolyn Breuer sums up: “In a certain way this CD is a journey back to my childhood.”
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Press agency
Uwe Kerkau Promotion
Hammermühle 34
51491 Overath
E u.kerkau@uk-promotion.de
W www.uk-promotion.de
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Press information (PDF)
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Reviews & Interviews
Portrait @ Jazzdimensions
+ Portrait auf Jazzdimensions.de
Interview by Roger Willemsen
CB: I don’t sell my music through my looks. The CD does not provide a certain image of me. The cover image is an elusive one, it helps people to listen better. I was taught saxophone in the classic way, in the beginning no improvisations. And then one day after I asked my father: “Please teach me the standards”, he started to accompany me on the piano. We played nearly every day for about an hour at home. He jotted down the pieces and the scales for me …
+ Read the whole Interview