Clara Haberkamp Trio

Clara Haberkamp has made a lasting impression on the German jazz scene since her early days with the NRW Youth Jazz Orchestra and the BuJazzO over a decade ago.

Leading a piano trio is one of the constants in Clara Haberkamp's career; she founded her first trio in 2010. Jarle Vespestad joined as drummer in 2022, and together with him and bassist Oliver Potratz she recorded "Plateaux", released in May 2024 on TYXart Records. The most striking thing about "Plateaux" is the trio's astonishing range of styles and playing techniques. The trio around the Berlin-based pianist plays on the same foundation and is ready to take risks and explore new directions at any moment. This new album also shows that whoever dares wins. The album was immediately nominated for the German Record Critics' Award.

For "Plateaux", Haberkamp was inspired by a book whose authors described traditional power structures and hierarchies and encouraged their dissolution: "Milles Plateaux" by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. The world has moved on since then, and if you follow Haberkamp and her trio's course, there are better ways of inventing and communicating since then.

Her two co-conspirators are very subtle, refined musicians and belong to a slightly older generation than herself. Bassist Oliver Potratz is one of the most sought-after representatives of his instrument in Germany. Jarle Vespestad can look back on extensive experience, including several years with Farmers Market and in Tord Gustavsen's trio. Each of them has played on over a hundred albums. Nevertheless, it is the enormously accomplished pianist who shows the directions, who gives the music its forms and her colleagues their rhythmic and harmonic challenges.

The result is music that offers everything - from intricate counterpoints, passionately intense lyricism, quietly reflective or idealized dreamscapes to moments when the music returns to simple, soulful expressions that touch everyone. And few singers/pianists like Shirley Horn have achieved the intensity of piano and voice together that Haberkamp gives to her hauntingly reharmonized "Danny Boy" - a welcome opportunity to return to singing for a single piece.

Cast: Clara Haberkamp (p); Oliver Potratz (b); Jarle Vespestad (dr)