Manu Katche – Unstatic (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 50:42 minutes | 918 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | ©

Manu Katché returns with a new studio album, ‘Unstatic’, for an enhanced formation of a bassist, Ellen Andrea Wang. We know the importance Manu Katché places with each of the bass players he has collaborated with. This is also clearly a return to basics, since the role of the bass was not entrusted to a specialist of the instrument but to the organ of Jim Watson during his two previous records !
The material on “Unstatic” is comprised of eleven originals written by the leader, all of them played in what has now become familiar as the ‘Manu Katche style’. Katche’s way with a groove and ear for a good tune remain undimmed and the core group sound is expanded by the presence of guest trombonist Nils Landgren who appears on five tracks.
Landgren features on the opening track, simply titled “Introduccion”, a seductive rhumba that finds Katche working in harness with no fewer than three guest percussionists in the shapes of Abraham Rodriguez Mansfarroll, Joel Hiereezuelo Balart and Esteben Sotolongo Zapata. Landgren makes a significant contribution on trombone alongside Watson on acoustic piano.
Emmanuel Manu Katches family roots can be traced back to Africas Ivory Coast, although he was born near Paris. He began his musical education at the age of five when he began piano lessons, but he switched to percussion at 14. Katche studied classical percussion at the Conservatoire National Superieure de Musique de Paris. After his graduation, he began to develop his own unique style, grounded in jazz and his African roots. This release, in contrast to his 2014 quartet album, includes double bassist Ellen Andrea Wang. The addition of this timbre creates an incredible soundscape. The eleven titles on this release were all written by Katche, proving his skill as a composer.
„Something of a return to form by Manu Katché. His music may be relatively undemanding but it’s far from vacuous and there’s some excellent writing and playing throughout this album.“

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Manu Katché – Third Round (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 44:36 minutes | 875 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

There’s a bit of the old rock drummer in Mr. Katche’s snappy rimshots on Keep on Trippin¦ and on the funky Shine and Blue. But the album also provides plenty of proof of his talent for writing elegant tunes, which he then washes in color with his signature work on the cymbals. Under his hands, a cymbal can tell a story, provide a counterpoint to a melodic line, or become an extension of the harmony.

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Manu Katché – The Scope (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 36:06 minutes | 398 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anteprima

Manu Katché went to the Conservatoire but his musical origins are to be found in rock music. Even though the drummer extraordinaire has listened to a lot of jazz music, he hasnt played that much of it. The case gets even harder to crack when you listen to Katchés tenth album, The ScOpe, where he digs deep into the roots of groove music all the while incorporating the modern sounds of machines. The album cover designed by Arno Lam appropriately pictures Katché sideways an African profile he says- and indeed Africa is the underlying musical theme of the whole album. But this sensual statue is highly flammable if you consider that Manu Katché also knows about dancing he practiced it as a kid, goes out dancing in clubs and after all, you need all four limbs to play the drums he himself remarks. The drums are then naturally at the center of The ScOpe, an electro album with both a carnal and a celestial touch a sort of frenetic spasm lingering on with pleasure and revival. The album comes to complete, rather than strictly break with, his past discography that of an expert musician who has been solicited by Sting, Peter Gabriel and Véronique Sanson among others. I have built the tracks around the drums, and it is no wonder Ive always played that instrument my dads from the Ivory Coast. I wanted to see people move, dance and sing the gimmicks when they listened to it.

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Manu Katché – Playground (2007)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:10:13 minutes | 711 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

Playground is the spiritual successor to drummer Manu Katché’s auspicious ECM leader debut: Neighbourhood. Auspicious, because said debut practiced just the communal sort of sharing it preached. The lineup here replaces saxophonist Jan Garbarek with the multi-talented Trygve Seim and adds to its ranks trumpeter Mathias Eick—neither strangers to one another since their appearance on Iro Haarla’s Northbound. Rounding out the cast are two thirds of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio (bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Wasilewski himself at the keys), as well as guitarist David Torn. Aside from the latter’s ambient contributions to its bookends, the album luxuriates in the all-acoustic interplay of Katché’s simple yet potent tunes.

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Manu Katché – Neighbourhood (2005)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:57 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

Neighbourhood is an astounding, if subdued, meeting of minds. Like other ECM projects of its ilk, this congregation feels as if it arose out of a fundamental and inescapable desire to create music for the sheer enjoyment of it. There is no showing off here. This is laid back, burnished, melt-in-your-mouth jazz perfect for a quiet evening or a rainy afternoon. That being said, this is a far cry from what might elsewhere derogatorily pass for “smooth.” In spite of its overall delicacy the album is not without solid grooves (how can we not bob our heads to the piano-driven ride that is “Number One” or to the swinging horns of “Take Off And Land”?), effectively concise solos (cf. Garbarek’s gorgeous outburst in “Good Influence” and titillating turns from Wasilewski and Stanko in “Lovely Walk”), and enough stellar moments overall to turn any depressing day into a blissful mental excursion. The ensemble plays us out beautifully with “Rose.”

As the brainchild of Manu Katché and producer Manfred Eicher, Neighbourhood is essentially a rhythmic enterprise. Katché’s percussion work provides the crowning motifs to which his compatriots are each a shining jewel. Multiple listenings reveal new nuances of texture and interaction every time. A very fine but impermeable thread connects these musicians and Katché never dominates, waiting in the wings as his motifs take shape of their own volition. The title of the sixth cut says it all: “No Rush.” Take your time with this one and it will reward you greatly. Just press PLAY and you’re there.

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Manu Katché – Manu Katché (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 52:13 minutes | 729 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

Eponymously-titled album from Manu Katché. On his fourth ECM disc, Manu’s unique drumming sets the scene and direction, with compositions and arrangements radiating outward from its rhythm-patterns. His strongly propulsive yet relaxed groove is unlike any other drummer’s, and it lifts up the soloists. Personnel in the ever-changing Katché band currently includes Norwegians Nils Pettter Molvær and Tore Brunborg, first heard together on ECM in the band Masqualero in the 1980s: they still play most attractively together. British keyboardist Jim Watson also makes a strong showing with minimalistically-insistent as well as lyrical piano and thick, swirling organ. Recorded March 2012 in the South of France, and issued on the eve of a major European tour.

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Manu Katché – Live in Concert (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:05:56 minutes | 808 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music

The first live album and ACT debut of the worldwide reknown drummer: A great night at the Parisian New Morning full of intensity, spirit and magic.

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