Alexandra Lehmler Quartett Sans mots

Unmistakably straight from the heart: Lehmler's new CD 'sans mots' with her well balanced German-French quartet! The Mannheim based sax player found her dream team at the 'Enjoy Jazz Festival': vibraphone player Franck Tortiller, drummer Patrice Héral, herself, her partner Matthias Debus on double bass, supported on a couple of tracks by trumpet and flugelhorn player Herbert Joos from Karlsruhe, a true veteran of the German experimental jazz scene.

Alexandra Lehmler, born in 1979 in Bad Ems/Lahn, trained in Mannheim, Stuttgart and Paris, 'Jazz Award Baden-Württemberg 2014' winner, with a grant from the Arts Foundation Baden-Württemberg, is really a model musician in Germany. A brilliant go-getter with the tendency to look for the extraordinary, aiming for a rather personal balance between passion and expressiveness, as well as a sensuousness of grooves and melody. She's known to have searched beyond the German border, among the French jazz scene with its stronger influences by regional traditional music as well as migrants from former colonies and globalisation in general. This is where the Lehmler finds those musicians who share her boldly permeable way of access to music. Her signature sound with trailing tones from her soprano sax, flexible drives from her alto sax or the soft roar of her baritone sax benefits from her boldness. She naturally and confidently embeds elements from world music, firmly incorporates minimalist and electro soundscapes, dark and rock-style, dirty and rough. It is neither a question of musical styles, nor any specific style for that matter. It's simply her very own style!

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With her quartet she closes in on her ideal of permeability between various styles, also owing to the other musicians. On drums, Patrice Héral breaks up the boundaries between groove and swing. At times, Patrice's back beat has a rock feel to it, dropping into an elegant swing beat next, never tripping up over an odd beat rhythm. As vocal artist he throws in earthy sound morsels on digital delay here and there. At the same time, Federico Casagrande’s guitar sound smoothes out the harmony and opens up innumerable possibilities for Lehmler's potential melody.

Jazz is people's music. The quartet 'sans mots' definitely reflects Alexandra Lehmler's musical personality: fiery, energetic, adaptable, committed to sensuousness of groove and melody, as well as timeless in a very contemporary way.