"I'm constantly thinking about how I can position myself as a drumming bandleader in such a way that the instrument takes on a supporting role, but does so in a musical way and by no means as a display of virtuosity," says Wolfgang Haffner. This attitude runs as a common thread through his entire career - and also through "Life Rhythm", his tenth album on ACT.
And although Haffner's music deliberately contradicts common ideas of virtuoso drum leaders, this time the instrument is particularly in focus. The starting point for this was Wolfgang Haffner's very first solo concert in 2022 at Schloss Elmau. He remembers: "That was an insane challenge, where I was also faced with the decision: Am I going to play a drum solo for an hour? Of course not! So I added a lot of melodic-sounding percussion instruments, looped passages live, worked with echoes and delays - basically like in the studio, but on stage." All of this led Haffner to once again deal intensively with the subject of the instrument that has accompanied him throughout his life. And so this time all the pieces on "Life Rhythm" have their origins not on the piano, as is usually the case with Haffner, but on the drums.
"I'm constantly thinking about how I can position myself as a drumming bandleader in such a way that the instrument takes on a supporting role, but does so in a musical way and by no means as a display of virtuosity," says Wolfgang Haffner. This attitude runs as a common thread through his entire career - and also through "Life Rhythm", his tenth album on ACT.
And although Haffner's music deliberately contradicts common ideas of virtuoso drum leaders, this time the instrument is particularly in focus. The starting point for this was Wolfgang Haffner's very first solo concert in 2022 at Schloss Elmau. He remembers: "That was an insane challenge, where I was also faced with the decision: Am I going to play a drum solo for an hour? Of course not! So I added a lot of melodic-sounding percussion instruments, looped passages live, worked with echoes and delays - basically like in the studio, but on stage." All of this led Haffner to once again deal intensively with the subject of the instrument that has accompanied him throughout his life. And so this time all the pieces on "Life Rhythm" have their origins not on the piano, as is usually the case with Haffner, but on the drums.
The result of this process can be experienced right at the start of "Life Rhythm" on the title track: The piece is based on a hypnotic groove in which it is not the cymbals that set the time, as is usually the case in jazz, but above all the drums. It is no coincidence that this groove is directly reminiscent of Phil Collins and his track "Take Me Home" in particular: Collins' way of turning drum parts into elementary parts of songwriting remains one of Haffner's greatest inspirations to this day. And each of the eleven very compact, song-like pieces on "Life Rhythm" also opens up its own world of musical drumming: sometimes dry and reduced with brushes as on "Balance", poppy on "Joy of Life", with delicate cymbal grooves, subtle electronics and percussion on "Eternity" or minimalist until just before silence in "Silence and Sound".
The fact that all these styles form such a coherent whole is due to the fact that Wolfgang Haffner has penetrated them in depth over the course of his career - alongside style-defining characters such as Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek, Esbjörn Svensson, Nils Petter Molvaer, Albert Mangelsdorff, Ricardo Villalobos and many, many more. All these collaborations have shaped Wolfgang Haffner's vocabulary both on the instrument and as a composer, and the wide variety of styles associated with them are equally part of his musical personality.
Versatility and the highest musicality are also the characteristics that unite Wolfgang Haffner and his fellow musicians on "Life Rhythm". The basis is formed by a well-rehearsed trio together with keyboarder Simon Oslender, himself also a drummer and band leader, and Thomas Stieger, one of the most sought-after German bassists in pop and jazz. They are joined by trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky, Haffner's collaborator since his ACT debut "Shapes", and the Finn Arto Mikälä, a real discovery in terms of sound diversity on the guitar. Haffner expands this band of outstanding all-rounders with a number of musical characters who lend the music their very own color: Nils Landgren, a friend and companion for more than 20 years, saxophone icon Bill Evans, Sting guitarist Dominic Miller, Balkan beat star Shantel, bass mastermind Nicolas Fiszman, oud virtuoso Thomas Konstantinou and Bruno Müller, one of the best German jazz guitarists.
"Life Rhythm", says Wolfgang Haffner, "is a continuation for me, not a repetition". With its warmth, power and clarity, the music bears the characteristic signature that has made Haffner probably the most popular drum-playing leader in Europe with his albums and thousands of concerts in more than 100 countries. And at the same time it is an evolution of his music. It is quite possible that Haffner's success is due precisely to the fact that his music always contains something new and something old, and that Haffner always "takes his audience along" in the flow of his ideas - and in a shared "rhythm of life".
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