Marcin Wasilewski Trio & Athina Kontou »Mother«

The title song of Athina Kontou’s album »Tzivaeri« could hardly be more relevant to our times. In this traditional lament from the Aegean, a mother thinks of her child that she sent out of the country to make sure it had a better life. The Greek word »tzivaeri« means jewel, and has its roots in the Turkish, Arabic and Persian languages. And Athina Kontou doesn’t only support international understanding in linguistic terms: the bass player, who studied jazz in Leipzig and Weimar, forges musical links with her band »Mother«. Her acclaimed debut album features Turkish and Thracian folk dances as well as the »Greek blues« known as rembetiko.

Jazz is present in any case in the sound of the prepared piano played by Lucas Leidinger, in Dominik Mahnig’s sensitive drum sound and in the different saxophones played by Luise Volkmann. Master lutenist Koray Berat Sari makes Mother into a quintet with music full of deep melancholy as well as jubilant joie de vivre. German weekly paper Die Zeit described »Tziveari« enthusiastically as »effervescent, gleaming, thrilling«.