Stuttgarter Dauner approaches legendary status as one of Germany’s most inventive pianist-composers – check out The Oimels, May 22 MPS iTunes releases. Here the quartet jumps onto a bouncy Take The A Train, riding on to Dauner’s own Waltz for a Young Girl with luscious soprano and piano solos. On Ellington’s Take The Coltrane the band rides out on a modern blues. Swiss pianist Elsie Bianchi was popular throughout the 50’s and 60’s as pianist/pianist (MPS’s The Sweetest Sound from the August 28 iTunes releases). Her Baron Lazor features a relaxed, swinging blues, while she interprets What Is This Thing Called Love with a bluesy flair and some hip quotes. Dieter Reith co-wrote the music for 1972 Munich Olympics and worked with the likes of Stan Getz and Art Farmer. On Willow Weep For Me he rhapsodizes in trio on the melody before injecting a Latin lilt with the addition of timbales and bongos. Rieth’s Goofin’ Each Other displays his prodigious talent: this guy can play! ‘Waldi’ Heidepriem was a force in the South German music scene; with tightly knit arrangements and Impressive trumpet and sax solos on Cole Porter’s You Do Something To Me and Jimmy Heath’s Big P, his quintet shows off the high quality of play in mid-60’s Germany. An enlightening listen to some of the best young German players of the era.
