Bands
Based in Vienna
Original Jazz & Contemporary Music
FREEMOTION
Original Jazz & Contemporary Music
New CD out !
Edith Lettner´s Freemotion “Taking Off”
Edith Lettner – alto & soprano sax, duduk
Gerhard Franz Buchegger – piano, keyboards
Alexander Lackner – upright bass, electric bass
Stephan Brodsky – drums, percussion
English:
Edith Lettner is an unique and versatile musician and composer who plays alto and soprano saxophone as well as the duduk, an Armenian woodwind instrument. She is known for her performances of African and Middle Eastern music as well as Jazz and improvisational music, where her primary interests and exceptional musicality lie.
For years she had envisioned an open musical landscape for creative ideas without stylistic limitations. She realized that vision in Vienna in 2005 when she founded Freemotion, her own quartet of remarkable, like-minded musicians dedicated to playing all original compositions.The result has been the ever evolving creation of groovy, melodic and varied jazz, which at times sweeps dramatically through a broad spectrum of emotions and sound imagery, but just as frequently imparts pure, simple joy in the creative flow of sound and rhythm. Theirs is complex music; harmonies are simultaneously juxtaposed with atonal melodies and solos, and rhythms vary over a wide spectrum both within and between compositions in what Lettner describes as original “groove creations” influenced by African and minimal music and hip hop beats and swing. But make no mistake, complexity does not come at the expense of accessibility; this is a music of universal enchantment, appealing equally to the finely tuned sensibilities of the long-time jazz aficionado and the general appreciator of good music regardless of genre.
Lettner, who is well known in the New York jazz scene, composes most of the group’s music, although she regularly brings in compositions from the other band members, whom she thinks of as “sound artists”: Gerhard Graml (upright & electric bass), Gerhard Franz Buchegger (piano & keyboard) & Stefan Brodsky (drums & percussion) are widely known and respected musicians in Vienna. This is a tight band. It has to be given the complexity of the music nested within a governing spirit of Free Motion which opens up plenty of space for improvisation and dynamic interaction.
Deutsch
freemotion ist ein offenes musikalisches Spielfeld für kreative Ideen ohne stilistische Begrenzungen. Gespielt werden Eigenkompositionen der Bandmitglieder, die den Musikern viel Freiraum für Improvisation und dynamisches Zusammenspiel lassen. So entsteht sehr abwechslungsreicher Jazz, der mal ein breites Spektrum an Emotionen durchläuft und mal einfach pure Freude am kreativen Umgang mit Klang und Rhythmus wider-spiegelt. Atonale Melodien und Soli stehen dabei gleichwertig neben harmonischen Klängen. Die komplexen Kompositionen enthalten eine Vielfalt von Rhythmus- und Groovekreationen, die manchmal von Afrikanischer Musik, Minimal Music oder Hip-Hop-Beats inspiriert sind- auch Swing findet da seinen Platz. Die Saxophonistin und Komponistin Edith Lettner, die seit einiger Zeit halb in Wien, halb in New York lebt, spielte Anfang des Sommers mit ihrer Band Freemotion eine neue CD ein Freemotion- Taking Off, Label: artdialogue 007) In dem 2005 von ihr gegründeten Bandprojekt freemotion vereint sie Klangkünstler, die alle auf einen reichhaltigen Erfahrungsschatz aus Jazz und Worldmusic zurückgreifen können. (siehe Beiblatt „Musikerinfos“)
Edith Lettner´s Freemotion “Taking Off”
Liner notes by Steve Dalachinsky
“Our jazz compositions are influenced by a pretty eclectic range of music.” – Edith Lettner
And so it is with moods and textures that vary from swing to African tinged melodies, the composer duties [being] shared with Lettner who said: “I invited the other members to contribute some of their own compositions.”
The CD has an appropriate title: Taking Off. And that’s exactly what this quartet does from the first note onward with well integrated ensemble and solo work, Lettner’s horn always fronting the group though she never imposes her will upon the other players, giving them equal time to solo. The music is complex yet compact and right there. Filled with so many moods and colors. Comping, swinging, juxtaposing ideas, sounds, feelings.
Lettner has this unique, trippy inside revelation of sound energies. Bright. Happy yet suddenly filled with dark auras and restraint and the other members follow suit with perfect (h)earing and harmonies. She has a tight full melodic sound/tone . . . Clarity and density.
Jazz as innovator. As progressive historian whose architecture comes in all forms. The foundation for the intermingling of all musical languages, be it African, European, American or that which has not yet been found and/or named.
With this CD Lettner and company bring disparate genres of Jazz together, providing evidence for the proven and yet to be proven. Here we are steeped in daring yet practical decisions. The artist alone with his or her river to cross and the artist who jumps right in. Lettner and the others are not afraid to take the leap. Listen. Challenge yourself. Absorb. Then take that leap with them.
Steve Dalachinsky – Berlin September 2017
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DownBeat Magazine Review
When it comes to incorporating various ethno-musics – particularly those culled from the African and Middle Eastern diasporas, respectively-then recontexualizing them through the lens of modern jazz and asserting a definitive voice, Edith Lettner has few peers.
The Austrian alto and soprano saxophonist accomplishes the lofty artistic pursuit with graceful ingenuity, as she fronts her longstanding combo, Freemotion. She wields a grainy, vigorous tone on saxophones, and often favors searing melodies that brim with braying and growling dissonance. And while the compositions on Taking Off undoubtedly tilt toward the avant-garde, the music still can swing hard.
It’s on Lettner’s “Treibholz/Driftwood,” the disc’s final cut, however, that it seems as if all of the band’s powers coalesce. Recorded live in Vienna during 2016, the episodic composition features Lettner play ing the duduk (an Armenian double-reed instrument) and alto, as the rhythmic pulse continuously morphs while the ensemble crafts alluring melodicism, virtuosic showmanship and surging emotional warmth.
-John Murph – Downbeat Magazine, July 2018
TRAVEL DIARIES
Beate Reiermann-guitar
Edith Lettner- alto & soprano saxophone
Beate Reiermann and Edith Lettner were both influenced and immensly inspired by their travels, international studies and projects with outstanding musicians from all over the world, whom they met on the road and in Austria.
After numerous stays in Africa and Armenia, Edith Lettner has been commuting between Vienna, New York and Western Canada for several years. Beate Reiermann lived in Venezuela for one year and since then she has been travelling mainly in South America and Spain, where she studied flamenco and is constantly expanding her skills in this field.
In their joint duo project TRAVEL DIARIES, Edith and Beate play their own compositions, which reflect their diverse musical experiences and provide a colorful basis for improvisation and dynamic interaction. Elements of African, Latin American and Spanish music as well as sounds and rhythms from the Middle East, Anatolia and the Caucasus have sneeked into the jazzy diary entries – like scents that have got stuck in their luggage. They trigger the creativity of the two extremely agile and passionate musicians.
Projections of expressive, abstract paintings by Edith Lettner during the concerts of TRAVEL DIARIES reinforce the feeling of having been abducted on an enchanting, not exactly defined journey.
EDITH LETTNER & AFRICAN JAZZ SPIRIT
World Music / Jazz
Baboulaye Sissoko- kora, vocals (Senegal)
Edith Lettner- alto & soprano saxophone (Austria)
Julia Siedl- keyboard, piano (Austria)
Cheikh Ndao- bass (Senegal)
Karim Thiam- percussion (Senegal)
Mame Birane Mboup- percussion
Robert Castelli- drums (USA)
Mixing jazz and African music is an irresistible challenge, one deeply rooted in history, but surprisingly tricky to handle. Edith Lettner and African Jazz Spirit have managed a beautifully balanced meeting of genres. Signature flourishes from Baboulaye Sissoko’s ancient kora (African harp) meld seamlessly with Julia Siedl’s jazz piano riffs. Lettner’s saxophone converses easily with Sissoko’s kora flights and also his distinctly Senegalese vocals—the timeless voice of the griot. Bassist and project co-founder Cheikh Ndao holds down supple and solid grooves throughout. The integration of rhythms is also excellent in these performances, as jazz waltz morphs into West African 6/8 time, animated by crackerjack Senegalese percussion and spot-on trap drumming by Robert Castelli. Lettner’s own compositions reveal impressive intimacy with West African rhythmic and melodic sensibilities. Trust Your Way is both a reconnection of long-ago musical DNA, and a brave step into the future.
Banning Eyre, Senior Editor for afropop.org
Collaborations – Austria
ALLESANDRO VICARD & EDITH LETTNER
Improvised Music
Edith Lettner- alto and soprano saxophone, duduk
Alessandro Vicard – double bass
For some years now Alessandro Vicard and Edith Lettner have met again and again to live out their mutual penchant for improvisation-creation in the moment. The musical background of the two cosmopolitan musicians ranges through world and classical music, jazz, experimental music and complex compositions. They display a rich instrumental vocabulary for improvised communication full of temperament and humor.
The instruments double bass, saxophone and duduk merge into a warm sound and make for a combination of strong, vibrant grooves and lyrical melodies that lead the two musicians into playful rhythmic sequences, eloquent discourses and always surprising experiments.
Alessandro Vicard is the founder of the annual RARA Festival for Improvised Music in his hometown Palazzolo in Sicily, where Edith Lettner participated in 2015 with the support of the government of Lower Austria. In 2018 RARA was a guest at the Festival Wien Modern and Edith Lettner was one of the featured artists.
Alessandro is also an innovative composer and his first opera was performed in Vienna in June 2019.
PHONE3PHONE
Creative Jazz
Stephan Brodsky – marimba, percussion
Edith Lettner – alto & soprano saxophone
Jovan Torbica – bass
Alexander Strohmaier – percussion
Phone 3 Phone is an Austrian ethno-jazz band founded in 1993 by Stephan Brodsky. The band, centered around the warm sound of Brodsky’s marimba, is well known in insider circles for their unconventional music. Their multi-layered original compositions combine influences from Africa, Asia the Caribbean blended together into polychromatic sound mosaics. Their jazz is subtly removed from the mainstream – sovereign, sometimes minimalist. always personal and singular, and yet groovy, appealing, intoxicating to all.
Collaborations – New York
VOYAGERS
World Music
Yacouba Sissoko – kora
Banning Eyre – guitar
Edith Lettner – alto & soprano saxophone
Yacouba Sissoko is a Master Kora player from the Djely griot tradition. He was born in Mali. His grandfather, Samakoun Tounkara, began teaching Yacouba when he was 12 years old. Yacouba attended the Institut National des Arts du Mali in Bamako. After his graduation, he played with artists like Taye and Oumou Sacko, Haja Soumano, Djallou Demba, Ami Koita, Fantani Koure, Kandia Kouyate and l’Ensemble Instrumental du Mali. From 1993 to1998 he was performing all over the world with the Ensemble Koteba, the 45-piece band of Souleymane Koli. He has traveled to almost every nation on the African continent, as well as most of Europe, Canada, the US and Australia. He is in demand as one of the best kora players in the world, playing with jazz, Latin and R & B bands as well as traditional African ceremonies. As leader of his own band Siya, and member of the groups Super Mande Yacouba continues to play and record with many famous musicians, including the groups Source, Tamalalou, Fula Flute and Yacande. Absolutely outstanding are his collaborations with jazz violinist Regina Carter and singer Bobby McFerrin.
Banning Eyre is an author, guitarist, radio producer, and Senior Editor at Afropop.org. He has been researching and learning African guitar styles for over 20 years, including a seven-month apprenticeship with Malian guitar master Djelimady Tounkara. Eyre has developed an original composition and performance style that incorporates traditions from Mali, Congo, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and beyond, along with his own background in American fingerstyle guitar. He plays on four Thomas Mapfumo albums and his book on Thomas Mapfumo and the contemporary history of Zimbabwe will come out on Duke University Press in 2015. Eyre also played on a track on Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate’s Kulanjan (Hannibal 1999), which was voted Folk Roots “Album of the Year” in the UK. He performs with the band Timbila, and with various musicians playing African music in New York City.
Edith Lettner has played with numerous African musicians, mainly in Austria, Senegal and New York (e.g. Martino Attangana, Mandingo Ambassadors) for more than 20 years. In Senegal she worked with many great muscians – unknown and famous as well – such as Baboulaye Sissoko, Suleymane Faye, Orchestre National du Senegal, Thione Seck and Mansour Seck, best known for his collaboration with lifelong friend Baaba Maal. Edith has played with several kora players from the Griot tradition. 2010 she founded her own project African Jazz Spirit in Dakar/ Senegal, playing her own compositions and the compositions of bassist Cheikh Ndao. 2012 the group recorded it ́s first CD „Trust Your Way“ at the renowned jazz club Porgy & Bess in Vienna.
Dafna Naphtali & Edith Lettner
Dafna is an award winning New York based, singer-instrumentalist-electronic musician. She composes & performs experimental, interactive electro-acoustic music drawing on a wide ranging musical background in jazz, classical, rock and near-eastern music. Edith met her at an ensemble performance in Brooklyn in 2017 and they immediately realized they wanted to work together. Their collaboration was an ideal match as it fit in perfectly with one of Dafna’s long-running projects, live sound-processing of voice and acoustic Instruments as a performable “instrument”; for example as Edith plays her saxophone, Dafna can capture her sound and immediately loop it back in real time in all sorts of creative ways. In March 2018 they recorded a studio session at New York University, which they plan to release on CD in 2019.
delight
jazz both old & new
Donald Smith- vocals, piano
Warren Smith – vibraphone, drums
Edith Lettner – alto & soprano saxophone
Gerhard Graml – bass
Leopoldo F. Fleming – percussion
Never has a jazz ensemble been more aptly named, for Delight is the experience it unfailingly engenders. All five band members are seasoned musicians who know how to make great music and make their music great. Whether performing a standard or a newly composed tune, they launch themselves into the groove, stay there and bring the audience with them.
Warren Smith – percussion, drums, vibraphone
Edith Lettner – alto & soprano saxophone, duduk
Ras Moshe Burnett- tenor saxophone & flutes
DIALOGES & TRIALOGES
Improvised Music
Warren Smith – percussion, drums, vibraphone
Edith Lettner – alto & soprano saxophone, duduk
Ras Moshe Burnett- tenor saxophone & flutes
The CD “Dialogues live @ ShapeShifter Lab Brooklyn”, contains the live recording of a performance by Warren Smith & Edith Lettner in February 2014.
It is often said that music can transcend all boundaries. While coming from quite diverse backgrounds, with Warren born in
USA in 1934 and Edith born in Austria in 1964, the duo’s rapport comes through eloquently in their music.
World renowned percussionist Warren Smith was a mainstay and co-founder of Max Roach‘s M‘Boom ensemble and leader of the Composer‘s Workshop Ensemble, a New York based composition and performance ensemble. Smith is a master of all things percussive, from the vibraphone and marimba, to the drum set, timpani, and gong, among other instruments.
One of his earliest major recording dates was with Miles Davis as a Vibraphonist in 1957. He has worked with many great musicians and singers such as Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, Gil Evans, Charles Mingus, Tony Williams, Nina Simon, Aretha Franklyn, Van Morrison, Quincy Jones, Count Basie and Carmen McRae and many others. In the 1970s and 1980s Smith had a loft called Studio Wis which acted as a performing and recording space for many young New York jazz musicians, such as Wadada Leo Smith and Oliver Lake.
Improvised music is a passion of saxophonist and duduk player Edith Lettner. She has played with musicians from all over the world and she thrives on unusual performing situations. She improvises not only with musicians, but with artists of other genres such as dancers, visual artists and poets. Her own paintings and drawings are the results of an improvisational process.
Another CD release with improvised music “Aanderud/Hecht/Lettner – Live In Vienna 2011” is showcasing her spontaneity and improvisational skills; it contains the recording of a performance with the Mexican jazz musicans Mark Aanderud and Hernán Hecht whom Edith met for the first time in her life at this concert.
Warren Smith and Edith Lettner also welcome guests to perform with them, such as NY based poet Steve Dalachinsky, saxophonist and flutist Ras Moshe and dancer Anne Bassen. During Warren Smith ́s residency at The Stone in Feb. 2015 they performed with singer Katja Cruz and drummer Howard Curtis .
Edith also looks for opportunities to combine projected visuals of her art work with her live musical improvisations: while the musicians are playing inside the projections their improvisation is inflluenced by the visual impressions.
Ras Moshe was born in Brooklyn and he started studying music in
public school, with his father and his grandfather. Although he is
trained in earlier forms of “jazz”, his preferred mode of improvisation
is in the later or “free” developments of the music. Ras has also been
writing and reciting poetry since childhood. He believes in the positive
effect his music will have on social and personal change. “He has a
great smile and a heart of gold. His quiet demeanor is misleading
because when he plays, he explodes with excitement.“ Don Minasi,
All About Jazz
CONTACT
edith.lettner@gmail.com
+43 699 123 60207