Ella & Louis Jazz Club im Holzhausenschlösschen - Kristjan Randalu & Bodek Janke
Kristjan Randalu (Piano)
Bodek Janke (Drums)
“This duo combination is as timeless as it is casually spectacular, as demanding as it is entertaining at a high level, that some will want to experience the two energetic performers on stage in the future.” – Jazzthing
The collaboration between Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu and Polish drummer Bodek Janke dates back over three decades when the two founded their first bands together. Since then, they have repeatedly performed together in various constellations, including as a duo, and are featured on ten albums where they combine jazz and other improvisational idioms with various folkloric traditions. “Double Standard” is the duo's first recording since the live album Live from 2008, which was described by JazzTimes magazine as “a captivating experience.” On the new EP, Randalu and Janke explore a series of jazz standards from new perspectives, dissecting familiar melodies and cadences into unusual time signatures, playful polyrhythms, and with all the musical intimacy they have cultivated together for so many years.
The program begins with “At Last” – Janke and Randalu frame the melody in tricky rhythms, creating an elastic groove that makes their solos leap off the page. In Miles Davis' “So What,” there is hardly any mention of Cool Jazz left. Instead, the familiar melody is accelerated and restructured with altered note lengths before it transitions into a virtuosic piano pattern. The pianist and drummer explore a variety of variations on the well-known theme before the piece culminates in a stunning crescendo.
Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island” is counted here in nine, with a strong emphasis on the backbeat and expansive runs over the keys, while Janke supports the foundational melody with changing metric patterns and uninhibited fills. Ultimately, it was Herbie Hancock who referred to Kristjan Randalu as an “impressive pianist,” and here Randalu more than lives up to his virtuosic reputation. The Paul Desmond standard “Take Five” features a four-beat pulse in the duo's approach, structured in quintuplets, before the titular 5/4 time signature is introduced in the B section. Randalu and Janke develop the music with powerful snare accents and deep grips on the keys, before concluding the program with a very distinctive version of “Blue Bossa,” which the duo recorded in 2020 – at a time when it was nearly impossible to play together in the same room. This provided the impetus to conceive the entire project remotely – a fact that speaks to the quality of these two protagonists, who are able to achieve complex and flowing interplay even over a distance.
In the musical communication of the tightly-knit duo, a particularly wide idiomatic spectrum is evident, and the uniquely personal instrumental signatures of both musicians elegantly merge into an energetic, funk-infused whole that sounds like far more than the sum of its two parts.
Photo: Ralf Dombrowski
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