Post Scriptum

Personnel: Claudio Puntin (clarinet); Wolfert Brederode (piano); Mats Eilertsen (double bass); Samuel Rohrer (drums).
Recording information: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines (05/2010).
Photographer: Keke Keukelaar.
Dutch pianist Wolfert Brederode, on his second formal quartet outing (following 2007's Currents), leads his compatriots, clarinetist Claudio Puntin, bassist Mats Eilertsen, and drummer Samuel Rohrer, in a selection of thoughtful, classically influenced jazz on Post Scriptum. The instrumentation may suggest the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond, but if Brubeck represented a brand of "college jazz" in the 1950s and `60s, this is strictly graduate school stuff. Brederode and company are on the right label with producer Manfred Eicher's ECM, since they are playing very much in the ECM school of cool European jazz. That's apparent immediately on the appropriately named opener, "Meander," which finds Puntin making like a more laid-back yet freer Desmond in a Brederode composition that will suggest new age to many listeners. Those tendencies continue throughout the disc, although the playing tends to be a little too complex and unpredictable for the new age tag to adhere firmly. The tempos are mostly slow, sometimes extremely so, but "Inner Dance," as its title indicates, has a real rhythm provided by Eilertsen and Rohrer, who otherwise imply beats rather than actually playing them. This is music for the more adventurous jazz listener who is willing to consider improvisatory playing that brings in ambient and contemporary classical aspects. ~ William Ruhlmann