Jazz at JAKI: FRIDA

Three voices, bass and drums - the special nature of this quintet is obvious at first glance. But the unusual line-up is just one of the band's characteristic trademarks, another is FRIDAS repertoire. Courageous and light-footed, but never frivolous, it leaves style and genre boundaries around contemporary jazz behind. On her debut album Freedom of Flight, Frida presents intense poetry settings, individual reinterpretations of pop hits and her own compositions. What they all have in common is this special Frida sound, perhaps never heard before, which seems to connect heaven and earth. Here the often clear as a bell, sometimes almost floating, then again emphatic or onomatopoeic voices. There, a growling, woody, sometimes deliberately rough double bass and pointed and dynamic drums.
"As we don't have a harmony instrument in the band, the music sounds extremely transparent and direct," says Julia Ehninger. The versatile, sometimes playful sound language of the album is also characterized by warm timbres, which are sharpened or broken in some variations, and by many unpredictable changes. There are lyrical moments and powerful melodies, rhythmic phrasing and improvisations. Frida takes the freedom to create an unusual variety that has received much acclaim over the past two years. "At our concerts, we always notice that we not only appeal to jazz fans, but that the supposedly familiar songs also offer points of contact for a pop audience - who then enthusiastically embrace our variations," says Ehninger.