Editorial Review:

Album Description:
Playground is the eagerly-awaited second ECM album from star French drummer Manu Katché. His first ECM record, Neighbourhood, garnered many prizes and awards, and was a favorite among jazz fans. The new recording picks up where Neighbourhood left off, and in the interim the group has coalesced into a rip-roaring and fully-integrated band. Manu's group, featuring a Polish/Norwegian confederacy of young players, is energized by his hard-driving drums, and together, the quintet - whose strong new frontline features Mathias Eick and Trygve Seim - plays exciting, zestful music. Playground's rhythm section is - as on Neighbourhood - the powerhouse team of Manu, Marcin Wasilewski and Slawomir Kurkiewicz. Katché's four band mates represent the leading line of young European jazz artists, and on two tracks, guitar guru David Torn joins the group lending a magical touch with his unique sound. Manu's compositions are all new, and every tune is extremely accessible - catchy melodies and toe-tapping rhythms abound! Manu Katché is one of the best-known drummers in the world today. His listening constituency extends far beyond jazz through his playing on hundreds of rock and pop records, including discs by Peter Gabriel, Sting, Joni Mitchell, Dire Straits, the Bee Gees, Tori Amos, Tracy Chapman and many, many more. However, he has always maintained that jazz is his first love and he has been an ardent follower of music on ECM since he was 15. He first appeared on ECM with Jan Garbarek in 1990 and went on to perform on five of Garbarek's ECM albums. Neighbourhood was Katché's first ECM leader album and was released in 2006.









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Disc 1:

1. Lo
2. Pieces of Emotion
3. Song for Her
4. So Groovy
5. Morning Joy
6. Motion
7. Project 58
8. Snapshot
9. Possible Thought
10. Inside Game
11. Clubbing
12. Song for Her

Rating: - * Gorgeous Jazz Masterpiece ... This CD is a beautiful sonic landscape. It marries gorgeous tonal brass melodies over lovely rhythmic foundations. I enjoyed it better than Manu's first, and it bears no resemblance to his work with Peter Gabriel. It stands alone with melodious solos and are a treat from start to finish, which as a rarity these days. Carry on Manu! Rating: - * Worst album ever ... Manu Katche was known to me as one of the grooviest drummers on the planet. So why would you put your name to a band that doesn't reflect your own personal style and display those fantastic groves that you are famous for? Surely I am not the only drummer who has bought this album on the strength of your reputation as an innovative drummer. This album could have redeemed itself had the compositions been of a standard worthy of such a musician. The horn section seriously is enough to put you to sleep. This album is beautifully recorded, it's just a pity the musical content doesn't match the standard of the recording. Manfred Eicher...what are you doing?! This is the first ECM record that I have bought in the last 20 years and I think it'll probably be another 20 years before I revisit your label. Rating: - * Big future for Manu Katche ... This is the first time I hear of Manu Katche. Am I surpised? Yes; as a second release for this young drummer, he fits well among the great Jazz drummer composers, like Cobham, Williams and Roach. His music is by far different yet it is simply; beautiful. Would I recommend this album? You bet, if you are a Hardcore Jazz listener, you will find this album extremely fresh, tight and well arranged. Playground Rating: - * Playground ... Playground This is a haunting piece of Euro Jazz that somehow fits the times in which we live. Manu Katche's compositions and the technical ability of the musicians playing with him use their instruments to speak of the world-weariness so many of us feel and to the quest for spiritual connection we seek with each other and with the universe in which we live. I especially liked the trumpet solos by Mathias Eick. Katche's drumming is steady, inventive, yet never overpowering. Rating: - * Reincarnation of the cool ... I eagerly awaited this CD, as I heard the quintet live in Amsterdam, a couple of months after they had been recording this in New York. I am happy to say the same atmosphere of the concert pervades this record. The brilliant rhythm section I already knew from Neighbourhood, and recent Tomasz Stanko recordings, creates an exciting and beautiful soundscape. The Norwegian horn line up was a revelation, however. Clearly from the school of Jan Garbarek, these Vikings show mastery and a fine sense of style. Although playing generally in service of the collective, it is clearly Katche who is responsible for the restraint that these players exercise. It is the enormous reserve you are hearing behind the deceptively simple lines, that makes you want to listen to this group again and again. It the same secret that Miles Davis but also somebody like James Brown used to great success. I hope these guys keep touring and recording for some more, as an advertisment for how European jazz has come into its own. Why not 5 stars? It's a matter of taste. In addition to the composure and style, I would have liked to hear one track where they would really have gone wild, cuffs off, messing things up. Like Stanko said in an interview, next to a little bit of mess, you appreciate beauty even more fully...