Potsa Lotsa XL / Potsa Lotsa plus / Potsa Lotsa

POTSA LOTSA appears in different shapes : 4 / 7 / 10 / …

First, POTSA LOTSA is a wind quartet that interprets the music of Eric Dolphy

POTSA LOTSA PLUS is a septet : 6 horns + electronics : it was founded to perform Eric Dolphys´composition Love Suite and corresponding original pieces 

POTSA LOTSA XL is a new 10 piece large ensemble that interprets the music of Silke Eberhard

POTSA LOTSA XL

10 piece large ensemble

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FOTO: (c) PHOTOMUSIX / C. Marx

Silke Eberhard (altosax, composition)

Jürgen Kupke (clarinet)

Patrick Braun (tenorsax, clarinet)

Nikolaus Neuser (trumpet)

Gerhard Gschlößl (trombone)

Johannes Fink (cello)

Taiko Saito (vibraphon)

Antonis Anissegos (piano)

Igor Spallati (bass)

Kay Lübke (drums)

Die Berliner Saxofonistin Silke Eberhard gründete 2009 das Bläserensemble Potsa Lotsa um alle bis dato bekannten Kompositionen des afroamerikanischen Multiinstrumentalisten Eric Dolphy (1928 –1964) einzuspielen. Benannt wurde das Ensemble nach der Komposition Dolphys Number Eight (Potsa Lotsa),  die auf dem legendären Album Eric Dolphy & Booker Little Quintet – Memorial – Recorded live at the Five Spot  von 1961 zu finden ist und „den Klang von zwei Saxophonen, Trompete und Posaune perfekt beschreibt.“ Das Quartett erweiterte Eberhard schließlich zu Potsa Lotsa plus  durch Klarinetten, Tuba und Live-Elektronik. Das 2014 veröffentlichte Album Potsa Lotsa plus plays Love Suite by Eric Dolphy  wurde mit dem Vierteljahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik ausgezeichnet. Doch nicht nur Eric Dolphy ist Inspiration: zwischenzeitlich nähert sich das Ensemble auch dem Werk Giaccinto Scelsis oder Kurt Schwitters´ Ursonate.

In der XL-Version sind erstmals auch Cello, Vibraphon, Bass und Schlagzeug mit von der Partie. Mit dieser Konstellation präsentiert Silke Eberhard Werke aus eigener Feder. Ihre Stücke sind inspiriert durch den Blue Note Sound der 60er Jahre, Westcoast, Third Stream, Free Jazz und verwandte Genres, die Arrangements speziell für diese Gruppe geschrieben. Kein Instrument dominiert, alle Protagonisten/innen kommen gleichberechtigt zu Wort.

Die XL Formation ist nach einem aufregenden Ausflug in elektroakustische Gefilde wieder eine rein akustische Jazzband, die im Spannungsfeld von kammermusikalischem Jazz bis hin zu zeitgenössischem Bigband-Sound agiert.

POTSA LOTSA PLUS

plays Love Suite by Eric Dolphy

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Jazzwerkstatt CD 2014
PREIS DER DEUTSCHEN SCHALLPLATTENKRITIK
GERMAN RECORDS CRITICS AWARD 1/2015  
Silke Eberhard – altosax & bass clarinet
Jürgen Kupke – clarinet
Patrick Braun – tenor sax & clarinet
Nikolaus Neuser – trumpet
Gerhard Gschlößl – trombone
Marc Unternährer – tuba
Antonis Anissegos – live electronics

“When you hear music, after it is over, it is gone in the air; you can never capture it again”

This quote from Eric Dolphy from 1964 belongs to the classical repertoire of music commentaries on jazz. A short time earlier, Dolphy had taken an apartment in Paris. He was planning to marry his fiancée, the dancer Joyce Mordecai, there in July. Dolphy was working on a piece titled Love Suite… the work was apparently lost and remained a subject of speculation for decades.

Now, fifty years after Dolphy’s tragic collapse during an opening concert in a Berlin club, Silke Eberhard recorded the Love Suite with Potsa Lotsa Plus in a studio of Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB).
(Thomas Fitterling, from the Linernotes)

Potsa Lotsa Plus

PRESS QUOTES

“The saxophonist Silke Eberhard brings his (Dolphy) music back to life – with surprising discoveries …” SONIC, Franziska Buhre, July / August 2014.

“Now she plays as dolphy´s successor the alto saxophone and bass clarinet, the instrument that Dolphy established in jazz. Listening to him and her, one feels transported back to a future that will be a time of new beginnings. “DIE ZEIT, Stefan Hentz, 1/10/14

“It is 24 minutes long, the newfound “Love Suite” in Silke Eberhard’s version, and offers chamber music in addition to free jazz, captivating sounds, effective humor, imaginative solos, thrilling duets and trios. (…). The discoveries continue.” Jazz Thing, Hans-Jürgen Schaal, Nov. 2014

“Potsa Lotsa succeeds in creating the contemporary echo of Dolphy’s dual nature as a composer and performer without a hint of museumizing, but with a proper playing obsession.” TAZ, Die Tageszeitung, Franziska Buhre, 6/25/14

“Wonderful, nervous chamber music for the termite mound.” Berliner Zeitung, Maurice Summen, 3/11/14

“The altsaxophonist and bass clarinetist Silke Eberhard took the hardest road of Dolphy-veneration. She had in fact discovered an unfinished Dolphy work – the “Love Suite” (…). Frizzy chorales, pale counterpoints, sounds, complex sounds and structure overlays, clear jazz phrasing which fell from the sky, when one had just stopped expecting it, and much New music of the late twentieth century were the material for this memorable event.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Ulrich Olshausen, 6/11/14

“Silke Eberhard could score points with Dolphy posthumous chamber music work Love Suite: In the arrangement for wind and electronics the clarinetist allowed written structure and energetic improvisation come into play in clever dialogues.” The Standard, Andreas Felber, 4/11/14

“She celebrates Eric Dolphy´s breakneck interval jumps and into abstraction drifting harmonies as a landscape of torn scraps of sketchy designed melodies.” Tagesspiegel, Stefan Hentz, 4/11/14

*****
TAZ, June 25 – 2014 “Potsa Lotsa gelingt der zeitgenössische Widerhall von Dolphys doppeltem Wesen als Komponist und Interpret ohne einen Anflug von Musealisierung, dafür mit gehöriger Spielversessenheit.” (Franziska Buhre)

SONIC:
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BOOKING:
Alberto Lofoco
Phone: +39 320 822 81 21 – alberto@akamu.net
www.akamu.net


POTSA LOTSA

Potsa Lotsa - the complete works of Eric Dolphy

POTSA LOTSA
the complete works of Eric Dolphy
Jazzwerkstatt, 2010Silke Eberhard – altosax
Patrick Braun – tenorsax
Nikolaus Neuser – trumpet
Gerhard Gschlößl – trombone

POTSA LOTSA

Potsa Lotsa

Fotos: Oli Potratz

Potsa Lotsa spielt Eric Dolphy
Das Gesamtwerk von Eric Dolphy – neu eingerichtet, frisch interpretiert, improvisatorisch fortgesetzt, antimuseal aufbereitet von Silke Eberhard und ihrem speziell dafür formierten Quartett. (Bert Noglik, aus den Linernotes)

In 2009, Silke Eberhard received the scholarship „Jazzstipendium“ by the Berlin Senate to realize “Potsa Lotsa”. With this project she presents new arrangements of the works of Eric Dolphy for a quartet consisting exclusively of a wind section.

REZENSIONEN:

DOWNBEAT by John Murph, December 2009: “Indeed, collective improvisation was the common denominator for many of the German musicians, especially during Silke Eberhard and Potsa Lotsa`s rousing send-up to Dolphy. A horn quartet led by alto saxophonist Eberhard and featuring tenor saxophonist Patrick Braun, trumpeter Nikolaus Neuser and trombonist Gerhard Gschlössl, Potsa Lotsa brought sparkling imagination, collectice improvisational zing and humor to the proceeding as they delved into Dolphy classics such as “Hat and Beard”, “Straight up and Down” and “Burning Spear” with no one playing bass clarinet or flute. A reason why the group´s performance was so magical was that none of the members seemed intent on playing Dolphy but rather playing his music.”

ALLABOUTJAZZ New York, by Laurence Donohue-Green, November 2009: “…Arguably the festival’s most successful tribute was alto saxophonist Silke Eberhard’s POTSA LOTSA (the group named after an obscure Dolphy composition titled “Number Eight—Potsa Lotsa” from the seminal At The Five Spot) at the Oval Room. In a chamber music aesthetic, she showcased a sampling of nearly two dozen Dolphy tunes arranged for a unique quartet of alto (Eberhard), tenor (Patrick Braun), trumpet (Nikolaus Neuser) and trombone (Gerhard Gschlossl). Offering an enlightening listen to the composer’s singular works, the double reed/double brass group thrived in this setting, only their fourth- ever live performance. Giving this tribute additional significance as ultimately a tribute to Dolphy the composer versus player, Eberhard didn’t make much in the way of any noticeable efforts replicating Dolphy’s playing style (rarely did she even reflect a direct Dolphy stamp on her own playing), nor did she try to incorporate two other instruments closely associated with Dolphy—one of which she has been known to play—flute and bass clarinet. The group successfully melded Dolphy’s jazz with an overt classical facet, offering a refreshing listen to such intricate compositions as “Burning Spear,” “Out There”(an alto/trombone feature, with Gschlossl ferociously spitting out walking bass lines), “The Prophet” (an excellent if not obvious selection with its inherent compositional beauty lending itself to the classical chamber ensemble interpretation and textural two, three and four part harmonies of various instrument combinations), “Serene”(featuring more demanding Dolphy lines that understandably found Eberhard actually gasping for breath before squeezing out the piece’s final note after consecutively demanding and lengthy lines), the obligatory “Out to Lunch” (Gschlossl interweaving short jabs and long tones with Neuser while the two saxophonists provided a line underneath before the reeds took centerstage, frenetically bleeting, blowing, popping, then leading back into the strolling head as an empathetic as-ever foursome) and “Straight Up and Down/Hat & Beard” (given an intriguing bolero undertone). An already highly anticipated 2010 Jazzwerkstatt CD release is on the way, so be on the lookout for this one! …”

Westzeit: (Jazzwerkstatt / Records-CD)
Altsaxophonistin Silke Eberhard formierte speziell für ihr Eric Dolphy-Porträt ein Quartett, das sie nach dem Stück „Potsa Lotsa“ von Dolphy nannte. Ihr ist gelungen, was nicht immer mit sauberem Ergebnis daher kommt: einem großen Jazzer dessen eigene Musik in einer entstaubten, spritzigen Interpretation zu widmen. Der schon sehr jung an Diabetes gestorbene Eric Dolphy hatte nur sechs Jahre, von 1958 – 1964, in denen er den Jazz wichtige Eigenheiten der Improvisation mit auf den Weg gab. Als Sideman von John Coltrane, Charles Mingus oder Ornette Coleman drückte er auch deren Musik den Dolphy-Stempel auf. In fantastischenmentaufnahmen – die Vergänglichkeit von improvisierter Musik ist hinlänglich bekannt – tauchen Silke Eberhard und Patrick Braun, Nikolaus Neuser und Gerhard Gschlößl tief in den Dolphy-Kosmos ein, wo sie dessen Melodiebögen und Soloeinlagen kongenial umsetzen. Das Wagnis, bei einer kompletten Werkschau sang- und klanglos unterzugehen, ist das Eberhard-Quartet eingegangen. Und als stolze Sieger herausgekommen. (Klaus Hübner)
*****

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