Ivan Habernal is now a jazz scholarship holder
WSomewhat surprisingly, the pandemic also delayed the awarding of the 31st jazz scholarship from the city of Frankfurt. The jury was only able to meet in autumn 2021 to select a band or individual from the 17 applications received for the 10,000 euro grant. The decision fell on the 1983 born jazz bassist, composer and arranger Ivan Habernal.
The handover of the 2021 scholarship and the prizewinner’s concert have only just been celebrated in the Frankfurt Romanfabrik. Ina Hartwig (SPD), head of the cultural department, spoke of the goal of “giving the scholarship holders an incentive to develop talent and skills, including their own areas of focus, to try new things, to experiment”. With her laudatory speech, the city councilor referred to the jury, which singled out Habernal’s release for its unusual cast of four wind instruments and four strings. For his “couraged orchestra” he wrote “very well thought-out, complex arrangements. They impress with surprising details, a wealth of tonal colors not often found in jazz and a clever dramaturgy,” Hartwig quoted the jury as saying.
There is no doubt that it would have been attractive to actually experience the aforementioned eleven-person orchestra live. But even without the strings, the stage of the Romanfabrik is completely filled with seven musicians. Not unusual in jazz, the winner had to place himself in the second row, often a little hidden by two of the four wind players. On the other hand, Habernal’s focus on the electric instrument appears to be somewhat more special, in his case one with six instead of the usual four strings. During the concert he tells an anecdote about it. When he was a student in New York, he had wanted to play at several sessions, but initially failed several times because there was no amplifier for his electric bass. Because all of my colleagues only played double bass.
The leitmotif is reminiscent of big band wind sections
Of course, Ivan Habernal’s ability also shines through in the arrangements for his septet. Also in some details of the compositions that he released as a quartet on the album “Places & Stories” some time ago. The first piece of the concert, “The Black Sheep”, uses a line that Habernal borrowed from a folk song from his old Czech homeland, as he revealed a good two years ago in a portrait of the FAZ. Other facets of the composition reveal South American influences. In addition, Peter Klohmann on tenor and Maximilian Shaikh-Yousef on alto saxophone, trumpeter Jason Schneider and trombonist Andreas Jamin inevitably evoke memories of big band wind sections with powerful fanfares as the leitmotif.
The following “The Calm Before The Storm” begins relatively calmly, as its name suggests. At first, Martin Standke plays rolling drum patterns with felt mallets, then the horns swell, lurking, as it were. Surprisingly, Standke takes a short break, a glistening eruption of the wind instruments leads to Schneider’s colorful trumpet solo. Later, pianist Andrey Shabashev has plenty of room to develop his first improvisation. It ranges from quick introspective moments to dynamic escalations to powerful expressiveness.
Compared to the extensive solo excursions of his musicians, Habernal is much more reserved. Instead of stepping into the limelight with dexterity, he prefers to let his plays tell the story. Habernal once said that he had a clear idea of what they were supposed to convey. “Letters From NYC” suggests something of the hustle and bustle of the metropolis with erratic rhythms and fast phrases, “Meanders Of The Nidda River” sounds more relaxed, but by no means consistently comfortable. “Queen’s Experience” finally captures the atmosphere of the strongly South American district in New York.