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Wolfgang Sandner / FAZ

Each musician must have their antennae permanently tuned to the other three in order to respond to the slightest tonal nuance within these indelible mixtures of compositional and improvisational elements. At the same time, they each persistently worked on their autonomous parts, contributing to the whole of the piece. What emerged was a fantastic web of contrapuntal lines, which at times inevitably led to voice-leading dissonances: a powerful polyphony full of friction, homophonic passages, and curious harmonies—yet always bound by an unmistakable sense of musical logic. Just like Bach. Only within the jazz idiom.

Tom R. Schulz/Elbphilharmonie

With this project, Christof Lauer adds a brilliant highlight to his international career. He still plays as if every solo—indeed, every note—means everything to him, and that is truly magnificent. He is the Shiva of German jazz: both an authority and a destroyer of authority in one person.

 

He is a drummer who creates space, painting finely shaded sonic landscapes for his fellow musicians, and skillfully guiding the music with an elegant subtlety. Since the release of his debut album in 2018, Nathan Ott has impressively demonstrated how fruitful an intergenerational, intercontinental jazz encounter can be. The focus has always been on the remarkable fact that Miles Davis veteran Dave Liebman, together with three European jazz musicians from two younger generations, developed such an open format for improvisational dialogue on equal terms.

When Liebman later had to retire from touring due to health reasons, Christof Lauer—one of the most influential voices in European jazz—joined the ensemble, transforming its sound and inner life. How can one explain the magic that emanates from the tenor and soprano saxophone in his hands? As an idiosyncratic sound artist who rejects routine and persistently explores new forms, Lauer has created a musical cosmos where his horn sometimes whispers gently, sometimes expressively pierces the air—always intense, always fresh. His collaborations with legends such as Al Jarreau, Paul Motian, Buster Williams, and the iconic United Jazz & Rock Ensemble attest to his ability to communicate with the best while always maintaining his own distinctive voice.

Together with the sharp communicative brilliance of the phenomenal Buenos Aires-born saxophonist Camila Nebbia, Lauer’s playing merges into a unique texture, completed by the elegant elasticity of Danish bassist Jonas Westergaard—one of the most remarkable individualists on his instrument worldwide. As the bandleader, drummer Nathan Ott skillfully guides the music with elegant subtlety, drawing from a deep, cross-generational understanding of jazz. A sensitive architect of musical scenery, he shapes the ensemble’s sound with both sensitivity and passion.

The album „Continuum“ documents the quartet’s long-standing collaboration and marks the first release on Ott’s new interdisciplinary platform, An.bruch. Recorded direct-to-tape in April 2024, the goal was to capture the ensemble’s dynamics as authentically as possible.

Together, they create a closely communicative, atmospherically dense, and contemporary music that transcends genre boundaries and is capable of all dynamic intensities without ever losing its grounding.

 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Among the most noteworthy younger, explicitly chamber music-oriented ensembles in European jazz is the quartet led by Berlin-based drummer Nathan Ott. His music is fascinatingly unorthodox and contemporary, yet remains firmly rooted in tradition. It is remarkable how the ensemble creates such atmospherically dense and seamlessly connected musical arcs.

 

Berliner Tagesspiegel

If music is the art of bending time, then Berlin-based drummer Nathan Ott is a time-stretcher. At times, his music feels as if one could step into the space between two beats, look around, and observe the textures. Such is the sense of calm that emanates from his playing. Rather than seeking abrupt breaks within his music, Ott, as a bandleader, explores them at the boundaries of disciplines.

 

Hamburger Abendblatt

Anyone who has loved jazz long enough to have experienced Elvin Jones live will recognize something of his secret, his drive, and his pulse in the untamed physical presence and musicality of Nathan Ott.

Gäubote

This brilliantly performing quartet keeps you on the edge of your seat. It explores and investigates sound—its color, texture, and dynamics, its articulation and qualities. The fact that all of this takes place within an almost orchestral framework creates a bridge between jazz and classical music. It evokes the uncompromising, iconoclastic spirit of Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, and Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

 

Notizen zum Album »Continuum« des Nathan Ott Quartetts 

In the beginning was the beat. And the beat was with Ott. Nathan Ott.

Just as the creation of the universe began with a single moment, the small world of Continuum, the new album by the Nathan Ott Quartet, begins with a single stroke. No big bang, no pomp and circumstance. It starts with a light, precise tap on the drumhead, immediately followed by a second stroke on a cymbal. And in that instant, the polarity within the microcosm of drumming is established: drumhead and cymbal, wood and animal skin versus resonant metal. Right from the first second, Nathan Ott brings to life the defining sound elements of his instrument. The continuum begins.

Continuum is a significant word, carefully chosen by Nathan Ott as the title for this album, recorded in April 2024 at the Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg. The term describes an indefinite but extended period of time, a sense of continuation. Time always passes without our intervention; it is up to us to make the best use of it. The word continuum evokes eternity, the steady flow of time, whose graphical and geometric shape is likely far from the simplistic yesterday-today-tomorrow timeline on which we hurtle through life, eyes wide and hair flying, like Baron Munchausen on his cannonball. Everything that has ever lived, lives, and will live is woven into the continuum—it is memory and potential, a repository of recollection and all possibilities. And, of course, it is the temporal place of the present moment.

Drummers naturally have a unique relationship with time. They are the timekeepers, the world clocks of music. Nathan Ott, with his friendly yet mischievous gaze, distinctive beard, and the stature of a samurai, fulfills the sacred duty of the drummer with a presence and clarity that have placed him among the greats of his art early in his career. His playing has always resonated with a deep, innate knowledge. After the opening beat of Continuum, he follows with a rhapsodic solo, free in meter, focused, composed, and curious about every sound he creates. After two and a half minutes, he gently anchors the mild chaos of this musical genesis with a steady hi-hat beat, signaling his bandmates to join in with a three-part, consistently syncopated theme. Clearly composed, yet brimming with improvisational freedom.

Despite the fact that a drummer leads the ensemble and takes the spotlight for the first three minutes of the new record, Continuum, recorded direct-to-tape without overdubs, corrections, or editorial patchwork, is far from a drummer’s ego show. Instead, it features four equally strong and prominent partners, meeting on well-prepared ground. Composed material serves as the framework for their collective and individual contributions to contemporary jazz—always expressive, unpredictable, and brimming with spontaneous creativity.

The formula for the Nathan Ott Quartet has remained the same for the past decade: two saxophones, double bass, and drums—no harmony instrument. Saxophonist Sebastian Gille, Ott’s companion from their Hamburg student days, has been a constant presence. The incomparable colors and subtle expressiveness of his saxophone and clarinet playing blend seamlessly with the slightly rougher, more angular, Coltrane-esque style of Christof Lauer. Advanced listeners may discern which of the two is playing at any given moment, but even in two-part passages, the lines merge so symbiotically that the question of „who’s playing what“ becomes irrelevant. No liner notes reveal who plays on which channel, adding to the ensemble’s mystery.

On the previous albums The Cloud Divers (2018) and Shades of Red (2020), the second saxophone voice belonged to Dave Liebman. The legendary saxophonist was instrumental in launching this unusual musical expedition in multiple ways. An 18-year-old Nathan Ott experienced a transformative moment in jazz when he attended a concert featuring Liebman in his hometown of Augsburg. Later, his deep dive into Liebman’s recordings led him to Live at the Lighthouse by the Elvin Jones Quartet from 1972, which featured the same instrumentation as his own ensemble today. In 2015, Liebman fulfilled Ott’s dream of collaborating, resulting in multiple tours and two albums. After Liebman retired from touring due to health reasons, Christof Lauer stepped in to take his place.

Lauer is undeniably an ideal successor. Coming from the Frankfurt school of jazz—associated with names like Albert Mangelsdorff and Heinz Sauer—his playing remains closer to the powerful sound of American jazz, driven by a tradition-born, unrelenting pursuit of freedom. With this project, Lauer adds another brilliant highlight to his international career. He still plays as if every solo, indeed every note, means everything to him—and that is magnificent. He is the Shiva of German jazz: both an authority and a destroyer of authority in one.

Bassist Jonas Westergaard is a rare find—a structurally-minded virtuoso with an infallible sense of balance. Whether anchoring the music or soaring like a kite surfer, he navigates the wild and gentle waters of the ensemble with ease. The fluid, elastic, and incredibly resilient fabric of this band allows the autonomous melodic lines of the saxophones and bass to intertwine into the most intricate, ephemeral harmonic forms, like ocean spray drifting past. Nathan Ott holds this dynamic tapestry together from behind the drums—confident yet adventurous.

This is chamber music rich in sonic exploration, played with wide-open ears and the unrestrained energy of jazz musicians who thrive in the moment, weaving the gold of improvised polyphony. As the renowned music critic Wolfgang Sandner recently wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: „Like Bach, only jazz.“ Continuum is a magnificent snapshot of an ongoing creative process.