Your Sunday Morning Jazz Album: Clemens Christian Potzsch – “People and Places”

 

Sunday morning is when the serenity comes down.  Sunday morning is the cocoon from the heavy exhaustion of too much Saturday night fun.  Sunday morning is when the city agrees to use its inside voice.  Sunday morning is when a hush settles in over the land.  It is a time for sitting still and listening to quiet music and silently praying the aspirin and coffee do something to stop your head from exploding.  Drama and stress are strictly forbidden on Sunday morning.

Your Sunday Morning Jazz Album is just for you, for times just like these.  If you possess the freakish compulsion to get-up-and-go when the clock strikes Sunday morning, this music is not for you.  Go and listen to a Spotify EDM playlist or something.  But whatever you decide, just do it quietly and far away from those of us who appreciate the true solemn nature of a Sunday morning.


Pianist Clemens Christian Pötzsch is part of the cast of two of the scenes more exciting, innovative ensembles:  Masaa, with its blend of Lebanese, French & German vocals and European straight-ahead jazz, and Sawa, a convergence of Arabic folk, modern jazz and chamber music.  His 2016 release People and Places proves that the Leipzig-based musician is a talent even when performing all by his lonesome.  And, more specifically, this solo recording of Pötzsch on Fazioli piano captures all the qualities necessary for a Sunday Morning Jazz Album.

It’s all about the melody.  On pieces like “See” and “5210,” the melodies are brief, vivid flashes that achieve beauty by weight of their accumulation, much in that way the brilliance of a starry night is so much greater than its individual components.  But then there’s tracks like “For Fathers” and “Auenwald” where the melody is sharp and clear as day right from the first notes, and shines a bright path to their final destination.  But no matter what form the melody takes, this music is comforting and thoughtful and leads to the kind of tranquility that rejuvenates the spirit at a time when it needs it most.

You need this album today, right now.

  • Artist-Title:  Clemens Christian Pötzsch – People and Places
  • Personnel:  Clemens Christian Pötzsch (piano)
  • Proper Use:  1) Staring out the window as the rising sun transforms the darkness to stunning shades of oranges and pinks and yellows and blues, 2)  Soaking in a hot bath and remembering that the hangover will dissipate eventually, or 3)  A soundtrack for YouTube videos of trains traversing the mountain passes of Switzerland.

Released in 2016 on Two Rivers Records.

Listen to more of the album on the label’s Bandcamp page.

Music from Leipzig, Germany.

Available at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon

And here’s a lovely video for the song “For Fathers.”  We’ve featured it previously, but it speaks to the heart of a Sunday Morning Jazz Album, so here it is again…