feature photo: Joerg Steinmetz
The Vincent Meissner Trio is an up-and-coming piano jazz trio from Germany, but not just any of the innumerable such small jazz combos out there. Following in the wake of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio and the Bad Plus, the Vincent Meissner Trio adeptly uses an all-acoustic format to give a youthful injection of spunk to an old format.
Their new sophomore release Wille contains an inspired handful of creative covers – they reminded me of what a incredible melody the Beatles’ “In My Life” is, for example – but this is obviously a combo also in tune with the more recent trends in contemporary music, like Louis Cole. The front cover of the album announces that the music contained within is “young German jazz” and they found a perfect moment that covers youth and European, and turned into an appealing jazz song.
“Young Folks” by the Swedish pop trio Peter Bjorn and John is a song that became so pervasive about 15-16 years ago, even this 21st century pop-unaware writer has heard it many times. I hear it even more so now since my autistic daughter has adopted it as her Saturday morning soundtrack, a soundtrack consisting of only this tune, played over and over around the house. It always stood out to me due to its deliberately lo-fi production and of course, that whistling of the theme which makes it an earworm that’s impossible to extract. I can’t decide if the song is annoying or endearing; it manages to straddle the fence for me. I think most times I like it, though.
No such dilemma with Vincent Meissner Trio’s version, however. Henri Reichmann’s brisk drums puts “Young Folks” on a fleet footing right from the start. Vincent Meissner’s plays around creatively with chorus, tracing the lyric lines as if they were sung stuttered. After the first chorus, he’s rearranging the melody, adding interesting complexity the original purposefully avoided and uses the opportunity to show off some terrific chops. Meanwhile, Josef Zeimetz’s bass keeps it all secured and the interplay among the three is remarkable for a band who is really just getting started.
Wille is out now, from ACT Music.
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