Kronthaler – Some Call Him Johnny Grey

Over the past few decades, jazz has opened up and blended with other types of music. From world music to classical – and especially baroque – music, folk, electronica, rap… For the jazz lover anchored in tradition (from New Orleans to post-free) this exogenous tropism is not always convincing, far from it.

But among the greatest successes, it is undoubtedly the meeting of jazz and baroque music that produced the best results. And I can’t resist the pleasure of recommending (if you can find it, as it’s not on any platform to my knowledge) trumpeter Jack Walrath’s “Orange Has Me Down”, in which he revisits Purcell’s music for Queen Mary’s funeral, adding a… reggae tempo (« Journey, Man! » — Evidence Music).

But not all jazzmen have this sense of humor, and their attraction to Baroque music seems to me to be linked to the fact that it is often harmonically and rhythmically close to jazz, not to mention the fact that in the 17th and 18th centuries, composers were all improvisers too. On the present CD, this eminently Baroque repertoire is treated – from Monteverdi to Handel, via Purcell and Vivaldi – as well as more modern themes, from Sting and Kallima-Potratz, including a standard, “My Favorite Things”, of which this is undoubtedly one of the most unusual versions.

The German mezzo-soprano Theresa Kronthaler, who gives her name to the group, has a magnificent, typically Baroque voice – even if she has been heard to venture into Donizetti or Berlioz – and her singing is obviously the melodic guideline of the trio. But her two instrumentalist partners are not to be outdone, both in terms of the highly cantabile sonority of their respective instruments and in terms of their obbligatos and brief solos, all of which have an exquisite flavor. The inventive playing of Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima is well known, and the deep, woody double bass of German Oliver Potratz is also very much in evidence on the European jazz scene, when he’s not joining a symphony orchestra.

Together, they offer the singer a magnificent, intimate and vibrant setting whose undeniable charm should seduce music lovers of all stripes.