CD review: Gregor Hübner, Richie Beirach, Veit Huebner Duos & Trios – Testaments 2022: Video, CD cover

On the occasion of the 75th birthday of jazz legend Richie Beirach in May 2022, we are releasing a three-album-set that captures the musical work of siblings Gregor and Veit Hübner, who have been working together with the US jazz pianist for almost 25 years.

It is a true gift to the growing musical partnership and friendship, which Dave Liebman describes as follows: “Truly a family affair with two brothers, Gregor, Veit and “Uncle” Richie! This music transverses 20th century and jazz. You can hear the brotherhood especially on the “free” pieces. Listening to the variety of idioms the performances are both intimate and soulful, performed by musicians who know the history.”

TESTAMENTS – DUOS AND TRIOS is a chronicle of the musical relationships of these three musical personalities. The material on these three albums is a combination of short classical pieces with extensive improvisation, jazz standards, show tunes, completely free improvisations and our own compositions.

Excerpt from the liner notes: “I met Gregor and Veit Hübner over 25 years ago. At that time I was still living in my flat in SoHo, New York City, at Spring Street and Hudson. Gregor started as a jazz piano student with me and Veit became part of my weekly jazz ensemble class at the New School’s jazz programme. There was always something special about these two brothers. Aside from Gregor being an outstanding jazz violinist and composer and Veit being a truly excellent jazz bassist, they had wonderful qualities as people, brothers and more. Eventually I also got to know their little sister Fee and their great parents. I became something of an older brother to the boys, “Richie Huebner” was the little joker we always laughed at. The reason I talk about this personal background is that jazz, unlike classical music, is 90% improvised, and when you’re improvising for hours on stage or in the recording studio, a lot of it is about personal relationships between the improvising musicians.”

Richie Beirach

This recordings happened over the last 5 years and it shows first of all our ability to improvise on classical compositions as well as our own music and Jazz standards. There are no borders in between these different styles and thats what I love about these 3 CD’s. There is only 2 kinds of music, good and bad music in my opinion and I think we made a really beautiful album for the listener. We play together since over 25 years and we are friends, which is also a very powerful thing when you work on something like this. And we keep going playing this music live and recording new music constantly. This was not me selecting the musicians, this is a band since 1996, there was no selecting,- an interview with me said Gregor Hübner.

1. Fantasy on Katchaturian’s Andantino (6:50)
2. Gaia (6:22)
3. Fantasy on Bartok’s Bagatelle No. 3 (6:59)
4. Fantasy on Faure’s Pavane (4:57)
5. Testament (5:22)
6. Fantasy on Mompou’s Impressiones Intimas (6:14)
7. Ground Zero (9:12)
8. Fantasy on Defalla’s Nana (5:16)
9. What Are the Rules (4:15)
10. Fantasy on Bach’s Es Ist Genug (3:57)
11. Love in the Garden (5:33)
12. This Is New (6:06)
13. Waltz for Fee (4:24)
14. Transition (3:20)
15. Kathmandu (8:09)
16. Rectilinear (4:02)
17. Zal (6:34)
18. Summer Night (6:55)
19. Peace Piece (6:48)
20. If I Were a Bell (5:01)
21. Green Dolphin Street (6:47)
22. For Heike (8:47)
23. Moor (4:08)
24. There Is No Greater Love (6:23)
25. For George Mraz (5:02)
26. For Isolde (6:49)
27. Nardis (6:33)
28. My Romance (5:39)
29. Life on Mars (7:50)
30. Footprints (5:01)
31. Sunday Song (8:10)

Richie Beirach, piano
Gregor Hübner, violin
Veit Hübner, double bass

New CD – 2022 – Buy from here