Mercedes-Benz JAZZ MASTER SERIES

Jochen Rückert, spelled on most releases as Jochen Rueckert (born May 13, 1975 in Cologne, Germany) is a German jazz drummer. He is a naturalized American citizen and resides in New York City since 1997. The brother of pianist Thomas Rückert, he began to practice drums at the age of six. He can be heard on over 120 albums and worked or recorded with musicians and bands such as the Marc Copland Trio, Nils Wogram & Root 70.

 

Rueckert started leading his own Quartet, playing his original music, with Mark Turner, Lage Lund and Matt Penman in 2011. The band has been touring about twice a year since inception and sometimes includes substitutions like Mike Moreno, Orlando LeFleming and Joseph Martin.

 

 

 

A highly inventive saxophonist, Mark Turner has found acclaim with his meticulous, harmonically rich approach to modern creative jazz. Drawing upon the innovative sound of artists like John Coltrane, Warne Marsh, and Joe Henderson, Turner emerged in the early '90s playing his cerebral, classical-influenced brand of jazz.

 

He gained early acclaim on albums like 1998's In This World and 2001's Dharma Days, working alongside such similarly inclined contemporaries as Brad Mehldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Brian Blade. Beginning with 2009's Sky and Country, he built a close association with the ECM label, splitting his time between collaborating with his Fly trio (with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard) and helming his solo dates like the ambitious 2014 quartet album Lathe of Heaven.

 

 

 

Lage Lund is acclaimed not only as one of the finest guitarists of his generation, but also one of the most compelling jazz artists in the world today. A regular in the “Rising star – Guitar” category in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll, he has been hailed by Pat Metheny as a favorite young guitarist, and is “all music and all soul” according to Russell Malone - one of the judges who awarded Lund top prize in the 2005 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. In 2018 is the release of a new Criss Cross release of all original material, written for and developed by his longstanding quartet consisting of Sullivan Fortner, Matt Brewer & Tyshawn Sorey.

 

 

 

Originally from New Zealand, Matt Penman moved to the U.S in 1994 to attend Berklee College of Music, and in 1995 to New York, where he maintains an international performing, recording and teaching schedule as one of jazz music’s most in-demand bassists. He is an established member of the SFJazz Collective, an 8-piece composers’ collective devoted to presenting the original works of its members as well as arrangements of the jazz greats' oeuvre.