Jazztime: Branko Arnsek Sextett – a Grooveworldcompressor

BRF 1 Radio 17.11.2023

Jazztime: Branko Arnsek Sextet – A Groove World Compressor

Double bassist Branko Arnsek has internalized the music of the places he has lived, from his native Balkans to the Western world and the dance halls of Latin America. The way he blends them is refreshingly different.

For the second time in a row, a German sextet is making waves with a production that mixes familiar styles with less conventional twists. This time, the journey begins in Stuttgart, and the tour guide is Slovenian-born bassist Branko Arnsek (actually: Arnšek), who lived in Swabia from childhood. He studied double and electric bass in the Swiss capital, Bern, but this restless, dedicated globetrotter has always been drawn back to Cuba, where he also lived for extended periods. Since 1990, Arnsek has taught at the Stuttgart Music School, directs the Cuban salsa orchestra Tokame, runs his own label 59music (named after his birth year of 1959), and, through his agency Cuban Events, creates a showcase for Cuban cultural life wherever he goes.

With his Branko Arnsek Sextet, he explores the realm of modern jazz while incorporating a wide range of styles that reflect his heritage and his longed-for homeland. On his album "Move Closer!", this isn't done in the way one might expect—a technically proficient musician playing Latin jazz, for example. No, Branko Arnsek plays modern jazz that revels in its roots in swing and bebop. His ensemble includes Frank Eberle on piano, Janos Löber on trumpet, Anton Mangold on alto saxophone, and Michael Mischl on drums. Reinier Ceruto Zaldivar, on percussion, grooves through his compositions, which sometimes draw on bebop, sometimes on Cuban jazz, and, almost as if following bebop principles, repeatedly and surprisingly disrupts them.

Completely seamlessly, yet with sharp edges, he halves the tempo, doubles it, or even destroys the time signature to paint an extra-stylistic pastiche into his swing machine with a few chord strokes. He does this with astonishing ease and precision. Dominant forms include Cuban son, salsa, and mambo, but also jazz-funk and, later, the soul-jazz school ("Delay"). On four of the nine tracks, the Cuban singer Johana Jo Jones appears with agile precision as a vocalist. "Move Closer!" condenses so many musical worlds into just over 50 minutes that the title opens up a perspective both inward and outward.


`Move Closer!` Here's the link to the program: https://1.brf.be/sendungen/jazztime/1145243/

Markus Will