Koch, Richard - Rays Of Light LP

One of the most independent and distinctive jazz trumpeters of our time is back with his fourth studio album. After three quartet albums, he now presents a new work as bandleader with his new quintet. In terms of the instrumentation and instrumentation, this acoustic work could have been performed in the 19th century. We hear Fabiana Striffler on violin, Valentin Butt on accordion, Andreas Lang on double bass, Nora Thiele on frame drums, and Richard Koch on his trumpet. However, Koch's compositions are interspersed with the transatlantic history of pop music over the past 150 years: from American folk books to internet radio—and back to the village festival in his adopted hometown of Wustermark, from where he can always quickly travel to the jazz capital of Berlin by regional train. At a time when the transatlantic relationship is threatening to tip politically, Koch's "Rays Of Light" comes at just the right time to offer a cultural counter to all this madness, even as a European musician. After all, it is particularly evident in music how similar our cultural DNA is and has always influenced one another. Just as all kinds of European folk and salon music, crossed with Afro-American and oriental influences – from Christianity to Islam to voodoo – gave rise to a magical, global, Creole music: jazz. And we haven't even talked about Bach, Dylan, or the Beatles yet. Koch's pieces in 2025 are just as hard to assign to a specific region or tradition: It is music that fits just as well in the Austrian Alps as it does in Provence or New Orleans. It is understandable in both urban and rural areas. It incorporates Balkan elements like Klezmer; we hear oriental percussion in its origins, and the double bass adds a good portion of swing and bop from the nervous metropolises. The accordion offers a great deal of harmonic interpretation, and the violin shares this scope with the trumpet without getting lost in metaphysical speculation. Koch's compositions seem as light-footed as they are colorful. As if he wanted to say: Listen, dear people! All the music of the world is here, everything is good! But the lightness of his playing, which seems to rub off on his fellow players, remains his creamy secret. When Koch and his quintet leave the stage, everything quickly returns to the gray it was before. So it's no wonder that successful rock and pop acts like Peter Fox or the Beatsteaks, as well as musical crossover artists like Nils Frahm or Jimi Tenor, have long sworn by Richard Koch's trumpet playing. Everyone loves this very special swag at their party. And "party" is indeed a good keyword. Because "Rays Of Light" is extremely party-friendly.It's perhaps the most party-friendly album to come out of Berlin's jazz scene in recent years. An album that, in these times plagued by ultradiversity on the one hand and fear-filled, categorical, anti-woke rejection on the other, seeks to bring the entire estranged family back together. One can't think of many jazz musicians who can whip up music as effortlessly as Richard Koch and his "Rays of Light." Musicians who truly aspire to be understood by everyone out there. Without being camp or kitsch. This instrumental jazz-folk music is celebrated with great seriousness and full concentration. With great passion and infectious joy of playing! Chapeau!

1. Space
2. Ringe
3. Moon Dance
4. Big Blossom
5. Constancy
6. Choo Choo
7. Flowing Up
8. Frank
9. Failing and Raising