Elvis Never Left The Building: Peter Madsen's CIA Trio
[PSR#012614]
PERSONNEL
Peter Madsen – piano
Herwig Hammerl – bass
Alfred Vogel – drums, percussion
TRACKS
1. Devil In Disguise
2. Love Me Tender
3. Suspicious Minds
4. Jailhouse Rock
5. Hound Dog
6. All Shook Up
7. Surrender
8. Heartbreak Hotel
9. Can't Help Falling In Love
10. Don't Be Cruel
about
Playscape Recordings is proud to release Elvis Never Left the Building, featuring veteran pianist/composer Peter Madsen and his CIA Trio, with Herwig Hammerl on double bass and Alfred Vogel on drums and percussion. Madsen's CIA Trio is one of eight ensembles of Madsen's Collective of Improvising Artists, an Austria-based group he founded in 2007. Similar in theme to Madsen's last release Soul of the Underground, which paid homage to artists and musicians instrumental in revolutionizing the post WWII art and music worlds, this newest release pays tribute to Elvis Presley, also a cultural revolutionary and an idol of Madsen's during his youth, before he "fell under the spell of jazz and improvisation." Soon after teasing a fellow musician to sing "Elvis's Love Me Tender" at a Karaoke bar during one of Madsen's tours in Japan, he toyed with the idea of putting his own stamp on "Love Me Tender" as well as other Elvis classics. After completing his arrangement of "Love Me Tender", Madsen writes in his liner notes, "It was then that I decided to deconstruct and reconstruct enough Elvis to make a CD! "Jailhouse Rock", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Hound Dog", "Suspicious Minds", "Surrender", "You're the Devil in Disguise", "Don't Be Cruel", "All Shook Up"... all classic hits. But I wanted Elvis in unusual meters (5, 7, 10, 11, 12)! Elvis with modern harmonies! Elvis with unusual bass lines! Beautiful jazz Elvis! Strange Elvis! Serious Elvis! Wild Elvis! Free Elvis! Elvis Never Left the Building was recorded at the MPS Studio in Germany in the Black Forest on the same Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano where several of Madsen's "heroes" such as Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Earl Hines, Oscar Peterson and Hank Jones also recorded. Madsen has released five previous Playscape Recordings releases under his own name (Soul of the Underground, Gravity of Love, Sphere Essence: Another Side of Monk, Prevue of Tomorrow and Litchfield Suite) and has appeared on 16 others under the leadership of such longtime label-mates as Michael Musillami and Mario Pavone as well as the late Thomas Chapin. Overall, Madsen's career spans more than 30 years and includes a long list of prominent collaborators featuring everyone from Stan Getz, Benny Golson and Stanley Turrentine to Thomas Chapin, Kenny Garrett and Joe Lovano, as well as Pee Wee Ellis, Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley.
 
 
Reviews
Top 10 release of 2014 - 4½ stars
— Downbeat
Those without a propensity to shake, rattle or roll, can rest assured this is purely a jazz outing with all the innovation and inventiveness that one would expect from the caliber of Madsen.
— Karl Ackermann, allaboutjazz.com