One of a host of jazz musicians with deep roots in classical music, Roland Hanna graduated from NYC’s prestigious Julliard School of Music and worked with the likes of Charles Mingus, Elvin Jones, Sarah Vaughan and Jim Hall. Although Hanna had originally intended the pieces as a suite for cello and jazz ensemble, trio members American bass maestro Dave Holland, and Swiss drummer Daniel Humair fit in perfectly with the change of plans. Holland had just taken leave from Miles Davis, and Humair was about to go on tour with Oscar Peterson.

Joachim Kühn is joined by Daniel Humair, one of Europe’s most celebrated drummers, along with bassist/cellist Peter Warren, whose play has graced the albums of such diverse greats as Clarla Bley and John Scofield. Other Way Out is a free dialogue between piano and soprano, and Unison Union brings the quartet together in a display of intuitive inspiration. 16 pieces of creative brilliance.

In 1974, some seven years after the first Basel ‘Sticksland’ meeting, a 36-man percussion extravaganza took place that once again featured a top-flight jazz ensemble together with the Basel drum and fife corps of Alfred Sacher and Georges Mathys. Now add a Scottish drum and fife corps with the former and reigning Scottish drumming champions Jimmy Catherwood and Joe Noble, kilts and all, as well as some 300 fifers hidden in the audience of a theater packed to overflowing. The results: a Carnival Happening!

The brilliant French Hammond organist and pianist Eddy Louiss worked with the likes of Kenny Clarke, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Stan Getz; reed player John Surman and drummer Daniel Humair have long been major forces on the European scene. Louiss also recorded the title piece on Stan Getz’s “Dynasty” album – here the trio presents a wilder version with fiery solos from Surman’s baritone and Louiss on Hammond. This trio likes their Sabi hot with a Spanish tinge.

Renowned Swizz pianist/composer George Gruntz became entranced by the music of the North African Maghreb on his 1964 visit to Tunisia. Over the next few years he revisited the area, taking in the melodies, rhythms, and improvisational styles of a Bedouin music rooted in 1000 years of nomadic culture. With the intent of integrating this music with jazz, Gruntz assembled the crème of the Bedouin players and a top-flight group of like-minded jazz musicians.

On this MPS release, French pianist Martial Solal teams up with jazz giants German bassist Niels-Henning Pederson and Swiss drummer Daniel Humair in what music journalist Karl Lippegaus described as “a European dream trio”.

The intimate musical get together that occurred in June 1969 was due to a large extent to the close friendship between the inimitable American guitarist Jim Hall and Producer Joachim Ernst Berendt. As Hall was visiting him in Berlin, Berendt proposed a recording with bassist Jim Woode and drummer Daniel Humair; this configuration developed into an intensely introspective session.