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Telecaster Jazz Guitar Noire
Marcus Klossek is one of the growing number of guitarists who perform Jazz on a Fender Telecaster, the archetype of the electric guitar.
A class of musicians that consists of many extraordinary artists; from Jimmy Bryant to Ed Bickert, Bill Frisell, Mike Stern, Jim Campilongo or Jakob Bro, just to name a few.
An established name within the Berlin jazz scene who knows how to get to the point with his Electric Trio. A guitar, bass and drums; that’s all it takes to make the songs of Marcus Klossek sound great!
His brand new album “Tales From The Edge”, the 9th release as a bandleader and the second one for DoubleMoon/Challenge Records, is another proof of exceptional storytelling composing skills which go far beyond the average guitar release.
The Marcus Klossek Electric Trio has toured countless European clubs and festivals since releasing their first album “Now&Again” in 2012.
Really good stories don’t need to be flashy and loud to lodge themselves firmly in our hearts.
Rob Mallows, London Jazz News:
“There is, understandably, a film score feel to this music that might accompany a reissue of a film from the new-wave of German cinema in the ’60s. There’s enough in here to warrant multiple listens, and one suspects that live, it would be somewhat different from a conventional guitar show.”
Ralf Dombrowski, Jazzthing 111:
“Vitality statement, conclusion: This music belongs on stage!”
Martin Laurentius, Jazzthing 96:
“In Jazz there is a demand, that on and with the instruments stories should be told.
Marcus Klossek, the guitarist from Berlin, is someone who has internalized this.”
new album
Guitar, drums and bass – sometimes it doesn’t take more to create great music. The Berlin-based guitarist Marcus Klossek has been keeping his electric trio alive for 10 years now, and the new album “Tales from the Edge” was also recorded in the tried-and-tested line-up.
“It is the platform that lets me realize my songs,” Klossek stated in a lapidary way. “For some reason, I keep returning to this formation. It is simply the ideal line-up for my compositions.”
Klossek composed 10 new songs for the album, and most of them are slimly structured and live from a transparent sound. But Klossek is by no means a purist. “I’ve been trying to integrate other sounds for some time now,” he stated. “Our bassist Carsten Hein contributes spacey effects in a completely improvised way in ‘Industrial Escape’. He can provide quite a lot in that respect. For me, this is an important extension of the sound, including the fact that the guitar is not in the foreground all the time.”
Klossek does not exclude his own instrument from the expansion of the range of sounds; his Fender Telecaster also breaks out from well-known timbres here and there. “I also incorporated some delay effects in ‘Save Your Space’,” Klossek said as an example. “I try to get away from sounding as dry as a typical guitar trio, and I like these echo effects and loops quite a bit.”
The already mentioned Carsten Hein is still at his side. The bassist is just as at home in rock and pop as he is in jazz and has already worked with artists as diverse as Neneh Cherry, Ivy Quainoo, Mellow Mark and Kristiina Tuomi. Marcus Klossek appreciates him for many reasons.
“When I send him new pieces, Carsten always prepares meticulously,” the guitarist stated. “He notices where his spots are and comes up with something for them. The pieces take more shape after two or three rehearsals, and he is a very important partner, because he thinks a lot. Many passages are also completely improvised, and I depend on his creativity there.”
Derek Scherzer sits behind the drums, who is also a sought-after musician and has already played with Ken Norris, Herb Geller, Ulita Knaus, Roger Cicero, Don Friedman and Dusko Goykovich. He is of course essential for electric trio. “Derek is super important,” Marcus Klossek emphasized. “He plays very vividly and is much more than just a timekeeper. He improvises with Carsten and me, but still keeps the sound from getting out of hand. He is good at reading notes and grasping the music, but above all he is a gifted improviser.”
Together, the three musicians repeatedly set accents that let the vitality and freshness of Klossek’s songs shine. The guitarist is a productive composer who can’t precisely name from where his inspiration comes.
“I have some small ideas, but I don’t even know where they come from,” Klossek shrugged, but then related in more detail: “I then try to make a piece out of small melodies and chords. But I don’t compose all the time, but instead do it in phases.”
Only the album title was not chosen by chance by Klossek. “Tales From The Edge” illustrates something of the tension of the musicians, who fly over small abysses and large gorges like in a wire rope act – a tension that you don’t even hear from the casual music of the trio, because they actually work together like clockwork.
They avoid crashes in the process, but they are always possible in principle. “The title expresses the adventure of improvisation,” Klossek said, “in which you always take a certain risk, because it can also backfire.”