Where Are We Now? Atrin Madani

• 1Where Are We Now?06:18
• 2Things Behind The Sun05:50
• 3Everybody's Talkin'04:32
• 4Alone Again (Naturally)05:25
• 5Tempted04:07
• 6Maxine03:54
• 7Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)04:27
• 8Fool On The Hill05:21
• 9Yellow05:11
• Total Runtime45:05

Info for Where Are We Now?

Where are we now? Where are we now? We ask ourselves this in the face of pandemic uncertainty, geopolitical upheavals and the images of women in Iran in autumn 2022 taking to the streets for their rights. Images that particularly concern Atrin Madani, son of Iranian immigrants. Where are we now? This is also a question that every generation of jazz musicians has to ask themselves anew. Madani, born in 1998, has found an answer for himself that is as clear and precise as his singing: What we need most right now is honesty. Humility. And quality. All of this can be found in abundance on the Berliner's debut album without East or West in front, without walls and borders in the head, as the actor Hans-Jürgen Schatz once wrote about the singer.

Madani's debut "Where Are We Now?" is one big declaration of love. The magic that occurs when words and melodies form stories that you just can't get out of your head. These structures are commonly called “songs”. But when Madani sings them with his fabulous quartet, they become cinematic panoramas of the soul.

You can definitely hear the Schöneberger's intensive preoccupation with predecessors such as Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé, Andy Williams or Tony Bennett. However, he honors the masters by not copying them, but confidently going his own way. And it doesn't lead via the leftover ramps of the Great American Songbook or through the pop charts of the recent past, which are considered with a cramped, postmodern wink. Based on the sound aesthetics of a Norah Jones, a Diana Krall or a Till Brönner, Madani focuses on a hand-picked selection of songs that have so far remained largely unsung in jazz.

We are talking about the exquisite products of the demanding singer/songwriter art of the 1970s, which recently celebrated an amazing comeback in the clubs under the sign of "Yacht-Rock" with compilation series such as "Too Slow to Disco". Songs that are made for Madani. Like Michael Franks or Donald Fagen, the two pillar saints of sophisticated seventies pop rock, the young Berliner has the rare gift of making enormously complex things sound as light as a feather.

But the story of "Where Are We Now?" also includes the deeply personal connection that the millennial has to the songs of the boomers - and in the process makes the supposedly insurmountable front lines between the generations seem obsolete.

"Everybody's Talkin'" has followed Madani since he was a child. "My dad is a total music freak, we always played that song in Harry Nilsson's version with that weird nasal country voice," says the singer with a laugh. For their reading of the piece, made famous by the movie Midnight Cowboy, Madani, pianist Christian von der Goltz, guitarist Alexander Ruess, bassist Olaf Casimir and drummer Tobias Backhaus were inspired by the hypnotic calypso groove that Ahmad Jamal included his hit song "Poinciana" on the 1958 recording Live at The Pershing.

Atrin Madani, vocals
Alexander Ruess, guitar
Christian von der Goltz, piano
Olaf Casimir, double bass
Tobias Backhaus, drums

Atrin Madani
is a world traveller in jazz, firmly rooted in his Schöneberg neighbourhood. Born in 1998, he is a Berliner with no East or West before him, he did not experience the division of the city, never saw the Wall. Berlin became the capital and the seat of government, but for him it is above all the German capital of jazz. And there are no borders, no walls. Jazz is a universal language.

In 2017, he graduated from high school, paving the way for university studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden and the Jazz Institute Berlin. In 2018, he was honoured to be accepted into the vocal ensemble of the Bundesjazzorchester. In autumn 2019, he moved from the Elbe to the Spree and is now continuing his studies at the Jazz Institute Berlin (JIB). His teachers include: Céline Rudolph, Judy Niemack, Matthias Bätzel, Cymin Samawatie, Rabih Laoud Wolfgang Köhler and Paulo Morello. Atrin has had the great honour of performing with the likes of Django Bates, Jiggs Whigham, Marc Secara, Christian von Kaphengst, Torsten Goods, Thomas Stieger, Hendrik Smock, Benny Brown, Lisa Bassenge, Peter Fessler and many more.

Concert activities have already taken him to countries such as the USA, Canada, Israel, Madagascar, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. In September 2017, he had the great honour of performing at the civic festival of the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and in October 2021, at the awarding of Berlin's honorary citizenship to the German President at Berlin's Rotes Rathaus. Since May 2022, Atrin has also been part of the programme of the Bar jeder Vernunft in Berlin with the programme "Der Mond hatte frei". In September 2021, Atrin recorded his debut album at Berlin's Hansa Studios, which is scheduled for release in the course of next year (2023).

This album contains no booklet.