Peter Protschka

Modern Jazz at its best

28 Jun 2024

Review Hearts and Minds, Jazzthing 143, Summer 2022

Peter Protschka Quintet - Hearts and Minds
(Double Moon/Bertus)

The quintet of trumpeter Peter Protschka has been playing together for almost a decade and yet "Hearts And Minds" is the band's first studio recording after the live album "Twilight Jamboree". So it's no wonder that they are extremely well attuned to each other and measure their repertoire with firm steps. Half of that comes from Protschka himself and half from the American tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza, with whom the band leader engages in gripping duels - be it in ballads such as "Hymn For The Suffering" or the energetic "Tom's Groove", which Protschka wrote to his American colleague Tom dedicated to Harrell. The pianist Martin Sasse, the bassist Martin Gjakonovski and the drummer Tobias Backhaus complete the excellent cast - you can clearly hear why they are among the most sought-after musicians in this country. They make "Hearts And Minds" a traditional ride through modern jazz.

The Quintet on the road

28 Jun 2024

The quintet at the legendary Birdland Neuburg

Rick Margitza & Peter Protschka Quintet | 2018
Donaukurier | Karl Leitner

This formation is his dream band, says Peter Protschka right at the beginning. For six years they have been meeting regularly and going on small tours. And this here in Birdland is the third concert of the 2018 tour.

Then comes "August In Paris" to warm up, then "Black Forrest", the first composition with one of those wonderful melodies, of which a few more will follow in the course of the concert, then the soul-jazzy theme of "Tom's Groove", a blues dedicated to the esteemed Tom Harrell, whose photo from last year's performance at the same venue hangs on the wall just to the left of the band. This number leaves the most lasting impression so far, and if you review the first half of the concert during the break, you inevitably come to the conclusion that Peter Protschka (trumpet, flugelhorn), Rick Margitza (tenor saxophone), Martin Sasse (grand piano), Martin Gjakonovski (double bass) and Tobias Backhaus (drums) have done one thing above all. They have constantly increased the intensity, almost imperceptibly actually, but steadily.

The real hits come in the second half. Margitza's "Warm", Sasse's "Groovy Waltz", at the end the brilliant "E. Jones", a tribute to the legendary drummer Elvin Jones. The two wind instruments have plenty of opportunity to develop as soloists, which is a real revelation even for the spoiled ears of the Birdland audience. Martin Sasse is in no way inferior to the two. You can let it melt in your mouth how he fuses sparkling runs and ravishing chord work into a completely unique way of playing. Whereby one – no matter how original and innovative the solos are – is still waiting for these themes, which one cannot get enough of and which of course only sound even better when they are played in the movement, as they are here .

With Protschka from Cologne and Margitza from Detroit/Michigan, the two wind players who lead the quintet together, two musicians seem to have found each other who complement each other perfectly. Their personal way of expression may also be different, which can be seen in the solos, but they always pull together when it comes to giving a composition a band-typical face, i.e. when it comes to the arrangements. It basically doesn't matter who the actual composer is, because a piece always becomes a real band event as soon as it's included in the set list. The result of this approach is then an outstanding concert like this.

Peter Protschka Quintet on the road

28 Jun 2024

Burning Band at Birdland Neuburg.

Rick Margitza & Peter Protschka Quintet | 2018
Neuburger Rundschau | Reinhard Köchl

It's a sublime sound that hits you in the basement under the court pharmacy. No populist "hardbop music" like the ones jazz museum guards harp on all too often and with almost no profile of their own. Crackling, shimmering, dignified, robust, (in the best sense of the word) masculine, elegant, cool, which should by no means be confused with cool: This is how the exquisite and, above all, well-rehearsed crew around the Cologne trumpeter Peter Protschka and the American tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza presents itself in the pleasingly dense, almost sold-out “Birdland”.

An appreciation that the knowledgeable Neuburg audience has for one of the most accomplished bands of contemporary traditional jazz. In return, the incorruptible criterion of “quality” immediately paves the way for everyone. When Protschka brings his flugelhorn to his mouth for a discreetly brisk ride through the thicket of six-eighth bars, it sounds like an exciting chapter from a John le Carré crime thriller. Rick Margitza fits him like a fraternal twin. The 56-year-old from Dearborn/Michigan, who first gained notoriety alongside Miles Davis and rose to become one of the greatest in his field on a par with legends such as McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Tony Williams and Bobby Hutcherson, never wants to be in this formation Being a star, but primus inter pares, equal among equals. He pushes his saxophone lines wavy under the narrative stream, ties the dramaturgy and acts like a spotlight that evokes the right mood at the right moment.

In this multi-chapter story, Martin Sasse occupies an elementary role. The pianist, who has developed amazingly, especially in the past ten years and has now reached the absolute world class of mainstream jazz, delivers either funky, swinging or lyrical sprinkles and moody episodes such as the lurching jazz waltz "A Groovy Affair". Drummer Tobias Backhaus and “Mr. Bass” Martin Gjakonovski, who is gradually becoming the woofer with the most appearances in “Birdland”.

One thing you can already see after the first song: Protschka, Margitza and Co. want to play it; every evening anew. No one tears their job down here. The five men in the prime of life live their very personal jazz dream, immerse themselves in their own worlds of sound, merge into an organic unit in which there are no longer any egos, only a deep inner understanding, crisp grooves, wonderful melodies and awesome runs. The heartfelt ballad "Cry Me A River", for example, attains a radiance through Margitza's horn that changes the entire basement into an imaginary dark blue with a fiery red core. His solos are fascinating interplays of shadow and flickering, of rhapsodic lines and garland-like bound scales, of hoarse overblowing tricks and clear, firm tonal cascades.

"E Jones”, the ode to super drummer Elvin Jones, begins like a thunderstorm: rolling, mighty, imposing, full of electricity. This time Protschka is responsible for the resulting discharges with his temperamental, but always controlled glissandi and MP-like salvos. It is an idiosyncratic, rarely experienced class that transports this quintet. A refreshing difference that is best recognized in comparison to other bands that are artificially jazzed up. What sometimes fails there with a bang and in the best case can be overplayed with routine works in this perfectly functioning combo as if by itself.

Virtuoso return at the Blue Nite Worms

28 Jun 2024

Organic Universe at the Theater Worms

Peter Protschka Organic Universe

Wormer Zeitung| Viktoria Selbert| 2024

Almost exactly four years after the first lockdown and a time of many unanswered questions, including whether a concert like the last "BlueNite" would ever be possible again, the time had come again.

Cologne trumpeter Peter Protschka and his three-piece band were guests at the Wormser. And the musicians played as if nothing had ever happened. Not quite, as the existential crisis has made live jazz even more conscious and intense. The energetic band leader Peter Protschka on trumpet and flugelhorn, Johann Hörlen on alto and soprano saxophone, Clemens Orth on a portable Hammond organ and, as a surprise guest on drums, the exceptional young Cologne drummer Fabian Arens, filled the foyer of the Wormser with explosive jazz for two hours.

Post-bop is the name given to the mature further development of bebop with driving, varied rhythms, extensive harmonies, structured chorus playing and rapid improvisations. As a "composers band", according to Protschka, pieces by individual artists were also interpreted, as well as some standards in sophisticated arrangements. "It was a project of the heart" for him "to play in the line-up with Hörlen and Orth", said Protschka. This was clearly noticeable as a synergy in the ensemble, as everyone's playing was characterized by full enthusiasm and complete dedication to the music.

The compositions by Protschka "Early Autumn", Mulder's Mood", a reminiscence of the series "The X-Files", "Hymn for the suffering", written in a monastery, as well as Clemens Orth's "Trip Bounce" and Johann Hörlen's "Water Lillies", based on a Scandinavian poem, or “Canoe" inevitably cast a spell.

The highly virtuosic instruments offered a musical experience in a class of its own. First and foremost, Peter Protschka's magnificent trumpet and flugelhorn sound, the fascinatingly precise duo passages with Hörlen's alto sax, plus Aren's sensitive and refined beats and the Hammond organ with its legendary sound made for an impressive concert in the broad stylistic spectrum of BlueNite.

A grab bag full of jazz music

28 Jun 2024

With Kindred Spirits at Rittergut Orr near Cologne

Peter Protschka Kindred Spirits

Pulheim| Bernd Woidke| Kölner Stadtanzeiger|2024

"Kindred Spirits" - that's the name of the jazz formation led by trumpeter and flugelhorn virtuoso Peter Protschka. With Tobias Weindorf, piano, Volker Heizze, double bass, and Dominik Raab, drums, he had "like-minded people" - the German translation of the band's name - with him, who were inspired by bebop and postbop, but also brought their own stylistic variations into play.

In front of an audience of around 40 in the jazzy ambience of the established music venue Rittergut Orr, the band kicked off with "Dolphin Dance" by Herbie Hancock, a piece from the legendary 1965 album "Maiden Voyage".

Hancock broke away from traditional jazz modalities and set a milestone for the future of improvised music. However, the structure of the piece remains classic: theme - improvisations - theme. Protschka adds elegiac melodic lines, strong motivic ideas and rousing dynamics with the flugelhorn. Weindorf's piano contribution is quieter, sensitive, but equally full of ideas. Heinze's bass solo uses the entire length of the scale, is rhythmically intricate and shines with technically demanding trills.

Three compositions by Peter Protschka demonstrate not only his musical imagination, but also the enormous stylistic diversity of the band members. The pieces are called "Dear Conrad", "Early Autumn" and "Mulders Mood". They open up a grab bag of jazzy puzzle pieces, from delicate drum grooves in which the left hand plays a different rhythm to the right, to piano fill-ins thrown in as quotes of the trumpet's improv suggestions, to highly sophisticated glissando moves from the bassist, whose facial expressions are worth the price of admission.

The further selection of pieces shows the personal affinity of the like-minded musicians to the greats of jazz history: Kenny Dorham's "Old Folks" is included, a cool ballad with a singable melody, Woody Shaw's "Organ Grinder" in which Dominik Raab celebrates a stick dance on the edge of his floor tom, Tom Harrel's "Because I love you" and "You stepped out of my Dream" - great joy of playing for everyone, they make their musical dreams come true! The encore "Sandu" by Clifford Brown ended a touching jazz concert, which - without any electrical amplification! - was not characterized by dramatic volume, but by a wealth of ideas, outstanding craftsmanship and lightness.

The jazz lounge at Rittergut Orr offers other events ranging from traditional swing to contemporary fusion jazz and melodic ballads.
ballads.

http://rittergut-orr.de/

 

Peter Protschka-Adrian Mears Quintet @ Birdland Neuburg

29 Sep 2024

Great review from the last tour

There are also fixed, long-term bands in jazz, but they are not the rule. Musicians often only get together for a production, a project or a tour. In a wide variety of constellations and for different reasons. Sometimes there is a concrete plan behind it, sometimes it's more of a chance meeting and the realization that they have similar musical ideas in mind, share common preferences, have the right chemistry or simply like each other.

And then they get going. Jazz musicians can do that. Of course you have to rehearse pieces and sequences, but you can safely assume a basic canon, a common way of thinking or a standard repertoire. Peter Protschka (trumpet, flugelhorn) from Cologne, the Australian trombonist Adrian Mears and the trio of pianist Carl Winther from Copenhagen with Andreas Lang on double bass and Andrers Mogensen on drums, who have all been guests in Neuburg several times in recent years, but each with different partners and never all together, are playing only their eleventh concert together at the Birdland Jazzclub. And they are already harmonizing perfectly, playing powerful sets with plenty of “oomph” and are an example of how contemporary, modern hard bop or post-bop can sound, namely not at all dusty, but rather rousing, fiery and extremely exciting.

The common basis are the pieces of the two brass players, who usually introduce the almost ravishing themes of pieces such as “Mina”, “Dear Conrad”, “Stairway Down” or “Black Forest” in the movement, then take off into their solos, evoking memories of Woody Shaw, Albert Mangelsdorff or, in the case of the pianist, Bill Evans, while bassist Andreas Lang develops his own melodies in the background and the immensely agile Anders Mogensen comments on the wide arches of the wind instruments as a permanent source of unrest with constant rumbling and provides an incredibly dense rhythmic carpet. The fast-paced pieces repeatedly contain crooked bars and fairly complex harmonies, while the ballads, such as the touching “Transition”, which Protschka wrote in memory of his mother, really get under your skin.

After the collective went full throttle for the last time this evening on the occasion of the Mears composition “Illusion” and the audience was amazed to witness for the last time how perfectly and seamlessly the cooperation worked - not under the motto “one for all” and not under “all for one”, but under “all for all together” - the only adaptation of the evening followed with the encore. “Invitation”, written by Bronislaw Kaper and made famous by John Coltrane, fits seamlessly into the overall concept and fits in perfectly with the rest because it speaks a similar language to the Mears and Protschka pieces. Should one of these five musicians ever be a guest in Neuburg again, with whatever colleagues, then a visit is highly recommended. You don't hear musicians like these every day. Not even in Birdland.

New concert series @Rittergut Orr

17 Mar 2025
Rittergut Orr

Since 2024, there has been a jazz concert series at the beautiful Orr manor near Cologne, which I am the artistic director of.

The series presents exceptional artists from Cologne and the entire German-speaking region. Come along, we look forward to seeing you. The concerts are presented in cooperation with Cologne's legendary jazz club, the King Georg Jazzclub.

Protschka´s Organic Universe (Trio)

23 May 2025 - 21:00
Jazzkeller Frankfurt am Main

Protschka´s Organic Universe (Trio)

24 May 2025 - 20:00
Jazzhaus Heidelberg