Nighthawks
Paris Dakar
Across its 11 tracks, Paris Dakar breezes past genre boundaries with refreshing ease. The production recorded by Dal Martino, stretched to an almost epic length due to pandemic breaks, resulted in a vast amount of material. For some pieces, up to 100 tracks of sound were available. In alchemical fashion, Martino distilled these into what was essential. True to form, grooves lead throughout the album. A few chords or melodic sketches are never enough for this band first, there must be movement. On the title track Paris Dakar, that movement is driven by a rock pulse. Neither Martino nor Jörg Lehnardt (guitar), Thomas Alkier (drums) and Jürgen Dahmen (keyboards, percussion) have a small history in Rock Music. But it is trumpet player and co- founder Reiner Winterschladen who pushes the improvisation here, far from jazz-rock cliches - and with rare intensity. Energy, though rarely emphasized in descriptions of the jazz-gold-award-winning band, is one of Nighthawks' signatures.