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CIRCULADO
Markus Gottschlich
Of Places Between
InnerCat Music Group
Markus Gottschlich is an Austrian-born, Miami-based pianist who claims to be one of the young lions of «real» jazz in South Florida. The emphasis on the adjective real is mine. And it should be the emphasis anyone should apply on adjectives trying to make redundant nouns that can stand on their own. Participatory democracy is one case in point; real jazz is another.
But Mr. Gottschlich —who also claims to have lived in an apartment where Beethoven lived, as if this would make him a better pianist— seems to be playing with words for the same reason he likes to play the role of the jazz young lion: to hype and reaffirm something his music should do by itself. This comes, I guess, when the work of a creator has no substance, or it is nowhere near where he wants it to be. It goes without saying that the only person Mr. Gottschlich seems to be fooling is himself.
«Of Places Between» is not a bad recording; it is below the ordinary, true, but it is not terrible. That's because the program here is not particularly memorable (it has the same tone throughout). And yet it has good moments. It flows with a simplistic narrative mainly because any keen listener is forced to recognize that the album is a reflection of Mr. Gottschlich's many limitations, mostly as an improviser and an imaginative musician. This is cocktail pop at its cutest.
But what Mr. Gottschlich lacks as an improviser and in high musicianship are compensated with a strong intuition for grace, elegance and dignity. If one expects more, say, from his rendition of «A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing» (Billy Strayhorn) or Schubert's Impromptu Op.90, it is because one is listening to a musician who needs to find a «real» voice that would makes more from less. And at this, Mr. Gottschlich has lots of work to do.
JUAN MORENO
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