Certainly not economically, but purely artistically, the compulsory Corona break has done some musicians quite well. After all, it was an opportunity to escape the routine, to collect oneself and to sharpen one’s view of what is really important to one musically. Wolfgang Haffner is such a case. On the new album “Silent World”, which was released at the end of January, the drummer – the title already gives it away – listened to himself. The result, which he will broadcast live next Saturday at Prince Regent Theater (and on March 25th at the home game in Nuremberg’s Meistersingerhalle) is probably the most personal thing he’s done in a long time.
Germany’s probably most renowned jazz drummer is only 57, but it feels like Haffner has always been at the forefront of German jazz. Because he started so early – he was already on tour with Konstantin Wecker when he was 18, and at 24 he was in Klaus Doldingers passport six years later in Chaka Khan’s band in their heyday – but also because he is so tireless.
In addition to his own albums, he has played on 400 others and produced the Icelandic band mezzoforte and the No Angels. He worked with projects from the fidget above old friend up to dream band and 4 wheel drive, He was the session leader at the Burghausen Jazz Week, and he was the host at his home event “Stars im Luitpoldhain” in Nuremberg.
He sometimes seemed driven, even in his own projects. The “Kind of” trilogy, for example, created between 2015 and 2020, in which he dealt with cool jazz, tango and Spanish music, was an idea of his label boss Siggi Loch, which he liked to do because of the networking with many big stars and with met with great success. Of course, it wasn’t the pure Haffner, especially since he always saw himself at least as much as a composer as as a drummer. When the noise of everyday life fell silent because of Corona and the earth suddenly turned into a “Silent World”, the moment had come to “ask me what I actually want. What my handwriting is,” as he remembers.
International stars like Dominic Miller and Nils Landgren were in the studio
So now with “Silent World” he’s the sound dreamer again, bringing together a uniquely springy groove with extravagant sounds and the power of simple melodies. And that always creates a special tension. Even more intense and concentrated than on the earlier albums “Shapes”, “Round Silence” or “Heart of the Matter”, with which he established his special sound. Even the concisely short titles such as “The Peace Inside”, “Hope” or “Belief” reveal that it is about the human essentials, about the sometimes hymn-like, sometimes dreamy deepening of a fundamental thought or feeling.
Many of the international stars that Haffner is friends with were guests in the studio, from Dominic Miller and Bill Evans to Nils Landgren and Nicolas Fiszman to Marc Wyand and Till Brönner. But the striking backbone is formed by the German quintet that has come together in recent years, die magic band, with which Haffner is now coming to the Prinzregententheater: his longtime companion on bass Thomas Stieger; the trumpet innovator Sebastian Studnitzky, who has often played on Haffner’s most personal works; his current closest confidant, Simon Oslender, who, like few others, has mastered the grand piano, the keyboards and the organ just as fantastically; and his recent discovery Alma Naidu, whose angelic voice suits this program particularly well.
In the concert, the album will only be the starting point for a retrospective of his very own work. He promises a big, meticulously put together show with a Haffner-esque “flow”: “No piece could be in a different place.”
Wolfgang Haffner Magic Band, Saturday, March 18, 8 p.m., Prinzregententheater, Prinzregentenplatz 12, www.bellarte-muenchen.de