Abstract Truth Andreas Feith & Markus Harm

• 1 Abstract Truth 08:40
• 2 Unfolding Path 04:16
• 3 Out in Space – Improvisation 08:07
• 4 Darn That Dream 05:02
• 5 Calm 05:33
• 6 Tune for K 05:17
• 7 Blood Count 08:28
• 8 Long Way Home 04:57
• 9 Ringelegängele 02:26
• 10 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes 06:03
• Total Runtime 58:49

Info for Abstract Truth

There are numerous examples in jazz of this phenomenon, and yet every one fascinates us anew: Musicians who are so familiar with each other in such a special way that their interplay has a very special quality. In the case of pianist Andreas Feith and saxophonist Markus Harm, such familiarity has grown over the years. Their new duo album, created over the span of five years, documents a musical closeness that allows for anything. Compared to the remarkable debut "What's New", "Abstract Truth" is "an artistic statement on a completely different level,” as Andreas Feith formulated it, At the time, the two had taken a good opportunity to record quickly assembled material. "This time we composed, conceived, and prepared intensively", among other things in the context of a guest performance in the idyllic Schloss Elmau. Markus Harm can only confirm the feeling of his duo partner. "Our familiarity has really developed dramatically in recent years. Our interaction is extremely multi-layered and flexible. Such a constellation is worth its weight in gold!"

Feith and Harm have known each other for many years. They met in Nuremberg in one of the early large bands of clarinetist and composer Rebecca Trescher: Ensemble 11. To this day, they belong to Trescher's much-praised group, which has also received awards and now includes 10 musicians. In the ensemble, the two quickly felt they were on the same wavelength. They also met for casual duo performances and played in a loose quintet line-up. Feith also sometimes joined the Markus Harm Quartet as a pianist, when the regular guitarist was prevented, while Harm was in the Feith Quartet. The duo sessions intensified, especially in dealing with standards. Harm: "We tried out a lot and challenged each other. And in doing so, a mutual improvisation language was absorbed and developed." His own pieces only became the subject of their playing later. Feith: "The most fulfilling moments arose when we played standards!" Markus Harm seconded this view with a surprising explanation: "Then we are completely free."

Freedom is a term that one does not necessarily expect in connection with an ensemble based on classical jazz values. But it is precisely this feeling, this attitude, that is an important factor for the extraordinary in the collaboration of Andreas Feith and Markus Harm. Feith considers this aspect confidently: "We have the same freedom as unrestricted musicians in what we do, only combined with traditional skills and a great respect for tradition. A dialectic of freedom and the appreciation of tradition. This is rare on the German jazz scene." Freedom refers on the one hand to the handling of the originals, whether standards or our own pieces, on the other hand to improvisational exchange. It can also become a starting point, as in the spontaneously designed duo version of Harm's "Out in Space" (which he describes in his illuminating liner notes). By the way: "Out in Space" was the title track of the latest Markus Harm album, an excellent quartet recording with Feith on the piano (released on Double Moon in 2024). The saxophonist and experienced bandleader stated about that production: "How Andreas interpreted my songs was just fantastic. At that time, I immediately thought what we had always talked about in a relaxed way before; we absolutely have to do something with just the two of us again, there has to be another album!"

And Harm, who now lives in Vienna, added: "Every time we meet, Andreas has gotten even better. He is imaginative and always has something to contribute, no matter where it goes. He always follows, but he also demands and contributes something too. In this way, our interaction always remains fresh and exciting. In addition, he can think soloistic like a saxophonist or a singer. He has an extremely strong right hand and can always play the melodies too".

Even Feith, who is at home in Nuremberg (previously commuting between Nuremberg and Berlin for a while), is not sparing with compliments: factually and well-founded, not just due to friendship. "I have always appreciated Markus' lyrical qualities when playing melodies. There are few who can play melodies like him in the moment that touch your heart. We have always had a deep connection, and we are mutual catalysts. You always have this feeling with Markus: he is honest. You can always feel his heart in the polarity of emotional intuition and intellect. In addition, he has a huge range of sound such as hardly anyone else has: from large, focused radiance to very soft, more delicate and refined tones."

"Abstract Truth" is an extraordinary duo album in many ways. It begins with Feith's powerfully rolling, bluesy-tuned title track (although not intended, the title reminds one of Oliver Nelson's classic 1961 "Blues And The Abstract Truth" album). The atmosphere of "Calm", the elegant buoyancy of "Tune For K", the stirring finale in "Long Way Home": these are facets of a diverse statement in which Feith and Harm are completely at home. This is exactly what you can hear in the emotional versions of the selected standards right up to the nostalgic end: a magnificent version of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". Also there: a duo in fascinating congruence.

Andreas Feith, alto- and soprano saxophone
Markus Harm, piano

Andreas Feith
Pianist and composer Andreas Feith (*1987) is currently one of the most sought-after jazz musicians of his generation in southern Germany. This is underscored by collaborations and concerts with artists such as Rick Margitza, Scott Robinson, Doug Weiss, Phil Donkin, Don Braden, and Adrian Mears, as well as Fabian Arends, Stefan Karl Schmid, Tobias Backhaus, Peter Gall, Moritz Baumgärtner, and many others. He is valued not only for his ability to provide sensitive and harmonically adept accompaniment. Above all, he captivates audiences with his uncompromising solo playing, built on a strong foundation rooted in tradition while always seeking the new, the spark of inspiration that springs from the moment.

While still completing his classical piano studies at a young age (which won him numerous awards), Andreas Feith increasingly deepened his passion for jazz and improvised music. After majoring in jazz piano at the Würzburg University of Music, he earned a Master of Music degree from the Cologne University of Music and Dance, which he completed with distinction in 2014. Since then, he has realized his musical visions in a wide variety of artistic projects, whether in his own quartet with Lutz Häfner, Martin Gjakonovski, and Silvio Morger—the band was also a finalist for the 2020 New German Jazz Prize—or in a permanent duo with his longtime collaborator Markus Harm.

He is also a permanent pianist in the award-winning Rebecca Trescher Tentett and a sought-after sideman, for example in the hr-Big Band, the Klaus Graf Quartet, and the Christoph Beck Quartet. In recent years, he has performed and toured in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, and Kyrgyzstan, and has appeared as a leader and sideman on over 15 albums. Since the winter semester of 2020, he has been teaching jazz piano and jazz theory at the Nuremberg University of Music.

"Blessed with a rhythmically strong left hand, pianist Andreas Feith presents a delightful album full of power and energy with his prominent quartet." - Jazzthetik - 2023

"Andreas Feith is a discovery - a musician who really has something to say, both as a player and as a writer. Excellently trained, harmonically profound, rhythmically very confident, melodically inventive - this record is a joy!" - WDR 3 - 2022

Markus Harm
(born 1987 in Stuttgart) studied jazz saxophone and taught as a lecturer at the Nuremberg University of Music from 2018 to 2022. Effective October 1, 2022, he was appointed professor of jazz saxophone at the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).

The multi-award-winning jazz musician is a permanent member of various bands, including the "Rebecca Trescher Tentet," the renowned "Sunday Night Orchestra" in Nuremberg, the Tobias Becker Big Band, the Matthias Schwengler Sextet in Cologne, and the Mareike Wiening Quartet, and is a regular guest musician with the SWR Big Band. He is also a sought-after sideman in the bands of Charly Antolini, Dusko Goykovich, and the Jazzfactory Orchestra Stuttgart.

In 2022, he was engaged as lead alto player of the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra for studio productions and concerts under the direction of Ed Partyka in Finland. In addition, he has released three studio albums and a video and audio production with the Markus Harm Quartet since its founding in 2013 in collaboration with Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich. Since 2014, he has also performed as a duo with pianist Andreas Feith. The two musicians recorded their first album, "What's New," in October 2019 in the Bayerischer Rundfunk studio in Franconia.

Harm has shared the stage with greats such as Sheila Jordan, Jim McNeely, Paquito D'Rivera, Scott Robinson, Gwilym Simcock, Tony Lakatos, Bob Mintzer, Ack Van Rooyen, Herwig Gradischnig, Roman Schwaller, Herb Geller, Manfred Schoof, Vladimir Kostadinovic, Emil Mangelsdorff, Martin Gjakonovski, Oliver Kent, John Ruocco, and many others. Tours have taken him to the USA, Hungary, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, France, Austria, and Switzerland.

This album contains no booklet.