American jazz guitar legend Kurt Rosenwinkel and Swiss piano virtuoso Jean-Paul Brodbeck reimagine seminal works by Johannes Brahms on The Brahms Project, out May 2, 2025 via Heartcore Records

Heartcore Records is pleased to announce the May 2, 2025 release of The Brahms Project by virtuosic American jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and renowned Swiss pianist Jean-Paul Brodbeck, alongside bassist Lukas Traxel on bass, and the inimitable drummer Jorge Rossy. The album features ten arrangements from the pen of Brodbeck, whose exemplary skills as a small ensemble orchestrator capture the enigmatic genius of Brahms’ compositions at their fullest and most brilliant.

Johannes Brahms, the compositional heir apparent to Beethoven and a figure inextricably linked to the cultural identity and philosophies of the German Romantic cannon, is in many ways the perfect musical subject for a jazz portrait. The composer’s challenging harmonies, overt love of polyrhythms, and robust melodicism provide ample inspiration for re-interpretation and motivic development. 

“The work of Brahms has had a tremendous emotional impact and influence on my career as an artist, and has set the course for this musical endeavor,” Brodbeck reflects.

The Brahms Project showcases ten masterful arrangements by Brodbeck, whose skill as an orchestrator enables the quartet to illuminate Brahms’ music in vivid, contemporary hues. Drawing from an eclectic array of the composer’s works—including pieces for cello, solo piano, voice, and orchestra— The Brahms Project features arrangement that are wildly imaginative deviations from the original yet maintain a wordless reverence for the source material through their thematically relevant improvisations and precise interpretation.

“We aimed to approach these compositions with reverence and a faithful commitment to the source material, while also adding our unique artistic footprint and vision.  The musical telepathy I experienced playing with these great musicians made it very inspiring and easy to approach arrangements and adaptations of Brahms’ music for the quartet,” shares Brodbeck. 

The composer’s famed “Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118 No. 2”, a staple of the classical piano performance repertoire, is presented by the quartet as a grooving Steely Dan-esque romp with Rosenwinkel’s guitar playing the foil to a through-composed bass and left-hand piano figure. Rossy plays with a deft restraint and keen awareness for the sonic moment, always propelling the music forward with a quiet intensity that lends clarity and motion to the dense and involved harmonies of Brodbeck’s arrangement. “Wiegenlied”, Brahms’ timeless German lullaby, is herein rendered as a moody Bill Evans-style ballad replete with lush, impressionistic chord voicings and inventive reharmonizations that pine with emotional depth and poignancy. The folkloric elements of Brahms’ compositional voice are never far away in any of the ensemble’s extemporisations, despite the technical rigor of Brodbeck’s arrangements and the serpentine, asymmetrical forms which defy the typical idiomatic jazz approach. The most ambitious contemporary interpretation of The Brahms Project is undoubtedly the “Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 Mvt 3 Allegro Giocoso”. The joyous, major key themes of the third movement are juxtaposed against an island calypso groove, and perfectly placed subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the harmonies interspersed with involved figuration in the rhythm section. In this arrangement, the quartet clearly invokes the spirit of a full orchestra with their telepathic interplay and flawless instrumental capabilities.

Following the success of The Chopin Project (2022) and its acclaimed international tour, The Brahms Project marks the next evolution for this extraordinary quartet. Few musicians possess the rare ability to bridge the worlds of jazz and classical music while maintaining the integrity of both traditions. Rosenwinkel, Brodbeck, Traxel, and Rossy rise to the challenge with a level of artistry and sensitivity that transcends genre. The Brahms Project is not simply “jazz meets classical” or “classical meets jazz”—it exists beyond categorization, as a profound exploration of the timeless and universal nature of Brahms’ music. As Brodbeck aptly summarizes: “If we see art as the image or the sublimation of our soul, then Brahms has reached the greatest depths and the most epochal heights.”

Heartcore Records will release Kurt Rosenwinkel and Jean-Paul Brodbeck’s The Brahms Project on May 2nd, 2025. The album will be available for purchase and listening through all digital music platforms.

Tracklist:

Hungarian Dance No. 1 (8:14)
Intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 2 (6:28)
Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 2 (8:10)
Rhapsody, Op. 79, No. 1 (5:20)
Wiegenlied (6:35)
Intermezzo, Op. 116, No. 6 (4:47)
Symphony No. 3 – III. Poco allegretto (8:24)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (5:19)
Ballade, Op. 10, No. 4 (7:17)
Symphony No. 4 – III. Allegro giocoso (3:56)

Tour Dates:

Thursday, March 27- Davos, Switzerland  Klosters
Thursday, April 3 – Porgy and Bess in Vienna
Friday, April 4 – INTERFINITY Festival in Basel
Monday, April 7 – Zig Zag in Berlin
Tuesday, April 29 – Oakland – Yoshi’s
Thursday, May 1 – Cincinnati – Caffè Vivace | Coffee House, Jazz Lounge
Friday, May 2 – Indianapolis – The Jazz Kitchen
Saturday, May 3 – New York – Zankel Hall (Carnegie Hall)
Wednesday, May 7 – Chrisses Jazz Cafe Philadelphia
Thursday, May 8 – 11, 2025 – Chicago – Jazz Showcase
Friday, May 16 – Exit Zero Jazz Festival – Kurt Rosenwinkel

from https://lydialiebman.com