Life Rhythm Wolfgang Haffner

• 1 Life Rhythm 04:14
• 2 Balance 04:04
• 3 Joy of Life 05:10
• 4 Eternity 04:29
• 5 Desert Move 04:44
• 6 Second Nature 04:08
• 7 Open Land 03:58
• 8 Full Circle 04:01
• 9 Silence and Sound 04:01
• 10 Supernova 04:08
• 11 Home 04:08
• Total Runtime 47:05

Info for Life Rhythm

‘I keep thinking about how to lead a band from the drums in a way that gives the instrument a central role, but one which is more about shaping the music than displaying virtuosity,’ says Wolfgang Haffner. This way of working, a common thread throughout his career, is a key factor in ‘Life Rhythm’, his tenth album for ACT. Haffner may shun the virtuoso drummer/bandleader stereotype – and do so intentionally – but ‘Life Rhythm’ nonetheless has the drums at its very heart. Back in 2022, it was Wolfgang Haffner's very first solo concert at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps which set the process in motion that has led to this album. He remembers: ‘That was an insane challenge. I had a decision to make: was I really going to play a drum solo … for a full hour? Of course not! So what I did was to add a lot of percussion instruments that I could use melodically, looped passages played live, I worked with reverb and delays – basically it was as if I was in the studio, but on stage.’ This has led to Haffner taking the drum kit, the instrument which has been his close companion throughout his life… and re-thinking his relationship with it: whereas Haffner’s tunes normally originate from the piano, all of the tracks on ‘Life Rhythm’ have the drums as their source.

The consequences of this approach can be experienced right from the start of ‘Life Rhythm’: the title track has a driving groove in which drums rather than cymbals set the pulse. It is no coincidence that this groove has a clear echo of Phil Collins and his track ‘Take Me Home’. Collins, and the way he turns a drum part into a building block for his songwriting has always been one of Haffner's greatest inspirations. Each of the eleven highly concentrated, song-like pieces on ‘Life Rhythm’ opens up its own world of particularly musical drumming: ‘Balance’ has some gentle brushwork, in ‘Joy of Life’ it is a cymbal groove, for ‘Eternity’ there is the subtle use of electronics, and in ‘Silence and Sound’ less is definitely more. There is a reason why Haffner is able to transform this wide range of styles into a coherent whole, and that is because of quite how much of his career has been spent playing directly alongside the shapers of the music, Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek, Esbjörn Svensson, Albert Mangelsdorff...and many, many more. All of these collaborations have shaped Wolfgang Haffner's vocabulary on the instrument and his personality and individuality as a composer.

A versatile approach and the highest level of musicianship are also factors which Wolfgang Haffner has in common with his fellow musicians on ‘Life Rhythm’. At the core is his regular, completely ‘played-in’ trio with keyboard player Simon Oslender, also a drummer and a band leader in his own right, and Thomas Stieger, one of the most sought-after bassists on the German pop and jazz scenes. They are joined by trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky, Haffner's regular collaborator since his ACT debut ‘Shapes’, and Finnish guitarist Arto Mikälä, a real discovery with remarkable variety in his sound.

Haffner also welcomes some unique musical personalities to bring their own highly individual colours to the band: Nils Landgren has been a good friend and touring colleague for more than 20 years. Also appearing are saxophone icon Bill Evans, Sting’s guitarist Dominic Miller, Balkan beat star Shantel, the refined bassist Nicolas Fiszman, oud virtuoso Thomas Konstantinou and Bruno Müller, one of the finest of German jazz guitarists.

‘Life Rhythm’, says Wolfgang Haffner, ‘is not a repetition for me, but a continuation.’ With its warmth, power and clarity, the music has the distinctive hallmark which makes Haffner probably the most popular drummer/bandleader in Europe, known from his albums and from thousands of concerts in more than 100 countries. And at the same time it marks an evolution in his music. Indeed, perhaps one of the key factors behind Haffner's success is that his music will always contain elements of the familiar alongside the new, and that Haffner always brings the audience along with him to participate in the flow of his ideas – and also in the ‘life rhythm’ which he communicates so brilliantly, and instils in everyone around him.

Wolfgang Haffner, drums
Simon Oslender, piano & keyboards
Thomas Stieger, bass, sitar guitar (track 7)
Sebastian Studnitzky, trumpet
Arto Mäkelä, guitar
Nils Landgren, trombone (track 1)
Thomas Konstantinou, oud (track 5)
Shantel, additional production, electronics & mix (track 5)
Dominic Miller, acoustic guitar (track 6)
Bruno Müller, rhythm guitar (track 6)
Nicolas Fiszman, bass (track 6)
Bill Evans, soprano saxophone (track 8)

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Booklet for Life Rhythm