Richie Beirach, Gregor and Veit Hübner release TESTAMENTS on October 28th, 2022
On the occasion of the 75th birthday of jazz legend Richie Beirach in May 2022, we are releasing a 3-CD box set that captures the musical work of siblings Gregor and Veit Hübner, who have been working together with the US jazz pianist for almost 25 years. It is a true gift to the growing musical partnership and friendship, which Dave Liebman describes as follows: “Truly a family affair with two brothers, Gregor, Veit and “Uncle” Richie! This music transverses 20th century and jazz. You can hear the brotherhood especially on the “free” pieces. Listening to the variety of idioms the performances are both intimate and soulful, performed by musicians who know the history.”
TESTAMENTS – DUOS AND TRIOS is a chronicle of the musical relationships of these three musical personalities. The material on these 3 CDs is a combination of short classical pieces with extensive improvisation, jazz standards, show tunes, completely free improvisations and our own compositions.
Excerpt from the liner notes: “I met Gregor and Veit Hübner over 25 years ago. At that time I was still living in my flat in SoHo, New York City, at Spring Street and Hudson. Gregor started as a jazz piano student with me and Veit became part of my weekly jazz ensemble class at the New School’s jazz programme. There was always something special about these two brothers. Aside from Gregor being an outstanding jazz violinist and composer and Veit being a truly excellent jazz bassist, they had wonderful qualities as people, brothers and more. Eventually I also got to know their little sister Fee and their great parents. I became something of an older brother to the boys, “Richie Huebner” was the little joker we always laughed at. The reason I talk about this personal background is that jazz, unlike classical music, is 90% improvised, and when you’re improvising for hours on stage or in the recording studio, a lot of it is about personal relationships between the improvising musicians.” Richie Beirach