Concert Review: Franz Hackl’s IDO Quartet

Concert Review:
Franz Hackl’s IDO Quartet
Presented by Welcome To Harlem
Greater Calvary Baptist Church
Friday, October 8th, 2021

Trumpeter Franz Hackl and his star-studded IDO Quartet featuring Adam Holzman - keys, James Genus - bass and Gene Lake on drums took the stage of the Greater Calvary Baptist Church, as part of the ‘Welcome To Harlem’ series, directed by Craig Harris, and delivered a hard-hitting and intense performance. The music consisted of Tyrolean (Austrian) folk songs mixed and reinterpreted with music by Joe Zawinul, Miles Davis and Lew Soloff. In the program notes, Franz is quoted as saying: “Music is not a universal language, but it's universally understood. The great diversity of musical dialects goes straight to our hearts, and we don't judge it by how it looks.” The quartet indeed transcended the various influences that were present this evening and gave their own personal sound to all the music, with exciting grooves, solos and even some tender moments that for sure pulled on the heartstrings, as in Joe Zawinul’s immortal tune ‘A Remark You Made’.

During the performance, Franz made a comment that I thought described the show well, he said something to the effect that if the groove is great and the melodic content is played well, the music will speak to you. I agree, and even though in the middle of a tune the keyboardist Adam Holzman walked to the other side of the stage, to the bassist James Genus, to turn his page for him, seemingly trying to move to the next section of the tune that James was not joining in on, the loose vibe did not distract from the heavy grooves and brilliant playing by these wonderful musicians. The event was up in Harlem in a dilapidated church on 124th street, with moderate attendance, but still I overheard an audience member saying “This is for sure the best jazz concert that happened in Manhattan tonight”

    -  The Aesthetic Critic
 


 

 

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