Er is tegenwoordig j*zz, j±zz, j´zz,, j_zz, jfzz enz. (zo veel) maar dit album van deze Berlijnse bovenste-liga-combo hoort zonder enige twijfel in de categorie j!zz! En het is ongetwijfeld een uitschieter. Je weet niet wat je hoort: de muziek heeft iets lichts, ligt goed in het gehoor maar je zult toch voortdurend je oren rechten, je afvragen: wat is dit …, ah. is dit … ? Rocket in the Pocket, Rumba Brutal, Tja? Het is niet Thelonius, niet Ornette, niet Don, niet Booker, niet Eric. Het lijkt wel alsof ze allemaal iets in Berlijn hebben laten liggen wat de Enttäuschung nu gevonden heeft (zou het?) – helemaal doorspekt met märkisch zand. Wie zegt nou wat een meesterwerk is? Fake? Zou het iets eigens zijn? Bij de Enttäuschung gaat het niet om Täuschung eerder is het andersommige aan de hand, het beide kanten om haakse. Wie kan nou zo’n stuk als nummer 13 op het album spelen en het later de uitermate passende titel Schienenersatzverkehr meegeven? Over humor in de muzkek gesproken. De Enttäuschung, inmiddels internationaal vermaard, zijn twee extraordinaire blazers, basklarinetist Rudi Mahall en trompettist Axel Dörner (als je hun nog niet tegengekomen bent, wordt het tijd!) met een van de droogste ritme-secties die ik ken: bassist Jan Roder en drummer Uli Jennessen. Dit album is hun staalkaart, doorwrocht, mooi, helemaal raak.
Henning Bolte, JAZZmagazine Nr. 5, Oktober 2009

Fast möchte ich meinen, dass Thelonious Monk, den sie anfänglich, d.h. 1995 ff, coverten, nur eine Maske oder eine Legitimation für DIE ENTTÄUSCHUNG war, um ihren eigenen Monkismus auszuleben. Bei der 5. Version von Die Enttäuschung (Intakt CD 166) jagen Rudi Mahall (Bassklarinette), Axel Dörner (Trompete), Jan Roder (Bass) & Uli Jennessen (Drums) mit einem 'Nassen Handtuch' einen 'Salty Dog', sie spülen 'Wiener Schnitzel' mit Flüssigem aus 'Hopfen' nach, tanzen 'Rumba Brutal' mit einer 'Rocket in the Pocket' und geben sich abgebrüht - 'Tja', 'Tinnef'. Nur der versteckte Winnetou verrät die romantische Seite dieser Buben, die zeigen, dass man in deutschen Landen keineswegs dazu gezwungen ist, so deutsch zu sein wie 'Schienenersatzverkehr'. Notfalls - und der Notfall ist hierzulande geschichtsträchtig - fängt man sich die Courage und die Elektrizität, um die 'Tu es nicht'-Hürde zu nehmen, aus der Luft, Luft, die von Negermusik blitzt, die von Freebop sprüht. Eigensinnig wie Dackel, problembärig wie 'Bruno', schlagend wie ein Gottesbeweis von Kapielski. Tu's nicht? Erst recht! Was da zuckt und spritzt sind die quecksilbrigen Quintessenzen von Monk, Dolphy, Coleman, Haden, Cherry... Ein auf flinke, freche Kürzel entschlacktes, gesalzen & gepfeffertes Kribbeln, und dann doch auch unvermutet lyrisch ('Uotenniw', 'Tatsächlich', 'Hopfen'). Mahall & Döner sind als Doppelspitze unschlagbar, der Corpsgeist der Vier sucht Seinesgleichen.
Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy, Deutschland, 64/2009

Reh-Zensionen, Nummer 65, Deutschland, Herbst 2009

Die homogene Gruppe, die sich unterwürfig, oder auch andersrum, Die Enttäuschung nennt, ist seit Jahren zusammen und fleißig auf Tour. Mit diesem neuen Tonträger hat man zum Intakt-Label in die Schweiz gefunden. Gut so. Es ist ein, wie immer bei dieser Formation, hintergründiges, listiges Werk entstanden. Rudi Mahall, mit seinem charakteristischen Ton an der Bassklarinette, und der quirlige Axel Dörner, der mit allen musikalischen Wassern gewaschene Träger von braunen Anzügen, werden von der eingespielten und verschworenen Rhythmusgruppe, mit Jan Röder am Bass und Uli Jennessen am Schlagzeug, unterstützt. Wenn die Titel mehr als nur Platzhalter für die Wiederauffindbarkeit im Verlies der Geschichte sein sollen, dann scheint die Gruppe fast in Österreich angekommen zu sein. Wie soll man sonst 'Wiener Schnitzel', 'Tinnef', 'Nasses Handtuch', 'Schienenersatzverkehr' oder 'Bruno' harmlos deuten? Im Midtempobereich werden meist eher melancholische Geschichten erzählt; Geschichten, die wohl überall auf der Welt passieren könnten, das ist wohl klar, aber ein bisschen Großstadt brauchen sie schon als Hintergrund, meine ich. Anspieltipp: das beinahe monkisch klingende 'Salty Dog'. Elegant. (mitter)
mitter, Freistil, Österreich, Oktober 2009

Paul Seralheiro, Sa Scene Musicale, Canada, October 2009

Absolutt ingen skuffelse
Die Enttäuschung betyr noe i retning av skuffelse. Verken bandet eller skiva lever opp til navnet.

Bak navnet skjuler fire av Tysklands aller hippeste jazzmusikanter seg. Trompeteren Axel Dörner, trommeslageren Uli Jennessen, bassklarinettisten Rudi Mahall og bassisten Jan Roder har vi blant annet møtt sammen med pianisten Alexander von Schlippenbach ved flere anledninger her hjemme. Da har det vært Thelonious Monks musikk som har stått på programmet.
Nå møter vi altså denne kvartetten, som har eksistert siden slutten av 90-tallet, med bandets egen musikk. Berlin har de siste tiåra blitt kjent som et musikalsk og kulturelt hovedkvarter som har trukket kunstnere fra hele verden til seg, blant annet vår egen topp-pianist Håvard Wiik har slått seg ned der.
De fire vi har med å gjøre i Die Enttäuschung har vært sentrale i Berlins jazzliv i åresvis. De har hatt solide røtter i jazzens avantgarde samtidig som de også har vært tiltrukket av den til dels melodiske free-bopen med røtter i 60-tallet.
Her treffer vi de fire usedvanlig utadvendte og samstemte musikantene med et repertoar bestående av 14 låter som alle fire mer eller mindre broderlig har komponistansvaret for. Vi møter et virilt og åpent gruppesound med stort sett melodiske improvisasjon på høyt nivå og spesielt Dörner og Mahall er solister i ultraklassen. Herrene liker at det swinger, men liker også å bryte det opp når det blir forutsigbart.
Dette er original og spennende jazzmusikk anno 2009 med røtter tilbake til Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy og John Carter. I mine ører er Die Enttäuschung noe av det mest interessante kollektiv som finnes på jazzhimmelen akkurat nå og musikken er både tidløs og samtidig.
Av Tor Hammerø , Side2, Norway, 06.10.09

Despite a name that translates from the German as “The Disappointment,” Die Enttäuschung’s music is neither sad-sack nor defeatist in design. Fifteen years is a long time to shoulder a self-inflicted pejorative if the sentiment behind it isn’t tongue-in-cheek. Over that span, the band has cemented a durable songbook and performance dynamic that reliably contradicts their dour title. Recent years have found them straying from the repertory-minded music typified by their Monk’s Casino collaboration with pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach (also on Intakt) to a more personalized slant that references the composer in spirit rather than letter. As with their last self-titled Intakt release, this latest emphasizes kinetic, improv-weighted tunes that cater to the strong personalities in the ensemble.
Rudi Mahall has managed, somewhat miraculously, to sidestep the looming shadow of Eric Dolphy on his bass clarinet. His fleet and quirky voicings favor the middle register often sounding like a hollowed-out alto, though sputtering intervallic leaps also come as frequent punctuations. Axel Dörner’s trumpet completes a natural dyad in the front line, his brassy slurs and collar-ruffling phrasing keeping things delightfully off-center. Bassist Jan Roder and drummer Uli Jennessen don’t profit directly from the pole-positioning of their colleagues, but both are just as active and essential in sustaining the split-second variability and rigorous forward momentum of the group.
All four players share in the seeding of the quartet’s songbook. Mahall’s “Rocket in the Pocket” reels out in a stuttering convergence of jumping-bean horn lines and carbonated rhythmic accompaniment. His tightly-circumscriptive “Weiner Schnitzel” spills out in choppy squiggles and loops like so many sausage links. Jennessen’s five tunes run from the angular balladry of “Uotenniw” to “For Quarts Only,” a curious conflation of Lacy and Coltrane that contains a ghostly watermark of “A Love Supreme” in its sing-song theme. Ornette is another obvious anchor, evident in the freewheeling relays that occur between the players on Roder’s “Salty Dog.”
Track for track, it’s a thrilling album, one that merges daredevil aural acrobatics with an underlying professionalism that all but eliminates the likelihood of anyone cracking their skulls open on the big-top floor. The single affirmation of that ill-fitting band name arrives with the realization that the entertaining spectacle is only an hour long.
Derek Taylor, www.dustedmagazine.com, USA, Oct. 8, 2009

Free jusque dans le bop
Rudi Mahall, Axel Dörner, Jan Roder et Uli Jenessen revisitent de longue date la musique de Thelonius Monk en compagnie du pianiste Alexander von Schlippenbach. Ils ont publié en 2005 Monk’s Casino, un triple album dédié à l’intégrale des oeuvres du maître. En parallèle et sans pianiste, les Berlinois font l’école buissonnière en quartette sous l’espiègle appellation «Die Enttäuschung» (la déception). Serait-ce une façon d’affirmer qu’ils ne combleront pas certaines attentes? Ces brillants improvisateurs remettent tout en jeu et jettent des ponts entre la tradition afro-américaine (Monk, Mingus, Dolphy) et le jazz européen. La polyphonie et le contrepoint succèdent aux improvisations collectives, les fragments de blues aux moments de lyrisme débridé. Ce faisant, ils gagnent en profondeur sans que la prétention à l’innovation ternisse leur propos. C’est frais et free jusque dans le bop, cela swingue dans tous les coins et distille les fruits d’une écoute magistrale. Seuls les puristes seront déçus.
Ch. Stult, LeMag – Courrier, Suisse, 10 octobre 2009

Eric Mandel, Jazzthetik, Deutschland, Oktober 2009

Ernst Mitter, Freistil, Österreich, Oktober-November 2009

Christian Steulet, Le Courrrier, 10. October, Geneve

Diese Berliner Viererbande macht seit fast 15 Jahren mit ihrem Free-Bop die Welt unsicher, manche bezeichnen sie als beste Jazzband der Welt. Nun ja. Lassen wir das mit den Hierarchien und Listen, nicht wahr. Um im Lokalbild zu bleiben: diese 14 quecksilbernen Tracks von vier großartigen Musikern und Individuen sind klar wie Kloßbrühe. Und hey: Nicht von den Linernotes des ansonsten sehr geschätzten "Jazzprofessors" Bill Shoemaker abschrecken lassen, (die in keiner Weise eine klare, direkte und sinnliche Hinführung zur Musik sind). Diese Musik macht Spaß und ist auch geeignet, die Jugend zu verführen.
Made my Day, by Honker, www.terz.org, 1.11.2009

Pirmin Bossart, Jazz n' More, Schweiz, November 2009

It's only right that the whole membership of this quartet gets equal billing, as this is a group that sublimates the individual in the interest of collective identity. Given the instrumental line-up—two horns, bass and drums—there are, of course, countless precedents for music in this form. The group proves itself to be abundantly aware of them, but the degree to which it transcends them is ultimately a matter for debate.
In choosing to concentrate on bass clarinet Rudi Mahall—whose work with pianist Aki Takase on Evergreen, also released in 2009 on the same label—is a positive delight, evidently knowing that individual precedents on the horn are few; he avoids comparisons with both Eric Dolphy and Michel Pilz in a manner that's not self-conscious. When he gets reflective, as he does on "Uotenniw," he does so with a grace aided in no small part by his sense of economy.
It's only with repeated listening that comparisons with the classic Ornette Coleman quartet fade away. The odd iteration of "Tinnef" is a kind of antithesis to Coleman's singular song, especially when Dorner does a passable imitation of someone playing at half-tempo in his solo. Even when he resorts to tried and trusted methods, tension and release are not so much subverted as navigated around, as though they were obstacles on the path to a more fundamentally realizable kind of freedom.
"Tu Es Nicht" tends to underscore the primacy of a collective notion. Rhythmic stasis is best emphasized by Dorner's declamatory contribution, especially when he punctuates it with streams of scarcely inflected notes. In face of this Mahall deals in something like the full extent of his horn's range, adding pungent comment.
"Rumba Brutal" turns out to be self-explanatory. Jennessen is on the rhythmic nail but the horns suggest something else, while bassist Jan Roder suggests something else again, much as Mahall does in his solo. Whilst sticking within the bass clarinet's natural range he conjures up only his own personality, with his angular phrasing, surprisingly given the Dolphy precedent, entirely his own.
"Salty Dog" offers a welcome dose of the same as far as he's concerned, although the rhythmic displacement is of an entirely different order. Conventional relations between bass and drums have no place here and Dorner too makes the most of the accommodating freedom.
Nic Jones, www.allaboutjazz.com, USA, November 21, 2009

Cette année à Berlin, Rudi Mahall (clarinette basse), Axel Dörner (trompette), Jan Roder (contrebasse) et Uli Jennessen (batterie), se retrouvaient au sein de Die Enttäuschung, rare projet musical donnant son nom à chacun de ses enregistrements.
Die Enttäuschung cinquième du nom voit ainsi Mahall et Dörner évoquer une autre fois le couple Eric Dolphy / Booker Little pour hésiter avec superbe entre bop et free jazz sur quatorze compositions originales. D’unissons turbulents en solos imaginatifs et d’intérêts mélodiques en récréations dissonantes, les musiciens servent une musique habile qui trouve refuge sur ballade (Uotenniw, que signe Jennenssen) après avoir profité de joutes impulsives.
Rappelés sans cesse par le swing – sur Wiener Schnitzel comme partout –, les musiciens décident ici de lui obéir, là de lui jouer un autre tour : procès en latinité fait à un thème prétexte (For Quarts Only), expérimentations instrumentales ou mise à sac de l’entier vocabulaire du jazz en signe factice de mécontentement (Tatsächlich). Un peu de bop encore, contrarié bien sûr dans sa progression, et les membres de Die Enttäuschung peuvent commencer à réfléchir à la suite à donner à leur haute collaboration.
Guillaume Belhomme, Le son du grisli, France, December 2009

Klaus Hübner, Jazzpodium, Deutschland, Dezember 2009

Bill Meyer, Downbeat, UK, January 2010

Vincent Cotro, Jazzmagazine, France, Décembre 2009

Aldo Del Noce, Suono, Italia, December 2009

Die Enttäuschung is a Berlin-based quartet consisting of trumpeter Axel Dörner, bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall, bassist Jan Roder and drummer Uli Jennessen. They’ve been working together since the 1990s, often devoting themselves to the repertoire of Thelonious Monk. In fact they’re so good at Monk repertoire that Alex von Schlippenbach enlisted them as the rest of the Monk’s Casino quintet, his project to record and perform Monk’s entire compositional output. Here the members of the quartet perform their own compositions. Away from Monk material, the band isn’t particularly Monk-ish (the absence of a piano alone will do that); instead it’s a free jazz quartet strongly tied to certain rhythmic and dialogue traditions associated with the first Ornette Coleman quartets, a bouncing rhythmic exuberance in which kernel patterns are batted back and forth between drums, bass and horns (if you were looking for something similar in Monk it would be most apparent in the early ‘60s quartet that included Charlie Rouse and the very melodic drummer Frankie Dunlop). Although the individuals don’t otherwise strongly invoke any members of the classic Coleman bands, there’s an internal dynamic, a qualitative dimension, a joy and a playfulness that are uncannily similar, the combination of rhythms and horn lines at times insistently invoking certain passages from Free Jazz, a sudden confluence of Don Cherry and Eric Dolphy, say, along with a matching up of rhythmic patterns from Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins. It’s a definite tradition and it occasionally surfaces in the compositions. Dörner’s “Tja” will suggest the walking-bass-as -melody of Dolphy’s “Hat and Beard” (itself a Monk tribute), while Mahall’s “Rumba Brutal” has a Latin tinge distinctly like the one in Coleman’s “Una Muy Bonita.” The last track, Jennessen’s “Bruno,” sounds very much like something cooked up by the New York Art Quartet, another important band in the same tradition. So while Die Enttäuschung (the name translates as “The Disappointment,” by the way) can’t be credited with incredible originality, it hardly matters. They manage to talk among themselves on their own themes in a fluent, mature idiom as engagingly as one could hope to hear.
Stuart Broomer, Point of Departure, USA, December 2009

For those of you that still believe that a thorough grounding in traditional technique still matters, it's worth recalling that the three most highly acclaimed "extended technique" improv trumpeters of recent times, Axel Dörner, Greg Kelley and Franz Hautzinger, are just as good at playing straight (well, nearly straight) as they are at conjuring forth the kind of noises that would have you barred from polite society or send you racing to the phone to call the plumber. But of the three, it's Dörner whose legit work remains closest to jazz, most notably in the quartet Die Enttäuschung with bass clarinettist Rudi Mahall, bassist Jan Roder and drummer Uli Jennessen.
"The rhythm is so.. dumpety dump," Keith Rowe moaned on listening to a Mike Westbrook track in our Wire Invisible Jukebox a while back. "I just had to get away from it." One wonders if he discussed Dörner (and Hautzinger)'s ongoing love – the word is not too strong – for the jazz trumpet tradition when they recorded A View From The Window together in Vienna back in 2003. Not that Jennessen's drumming is ever dumpety dump, but much of it wouldn't be at all out of place on any of the hard bop albums Dörner evidently admires so much. That said, Jennessen's own compositions on this latest (and once more eponymous) outing on Intakt (he and Mahall each pen five of the 14 tracks, Dörner three and Roder one) go out of their way to put spokes in their own wheels. This is tight, angular modern jazz pure and simple, an enthusiastic and impressive display of individual and collective chops, clearly and unashamedly influenced by Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy (the latter inevitably comes to mind on listening to Mahall's insanely agile bass clarinet). Those who already in possession of one or more of the quartet's four preceding albums (if anyone's got an extra copy of their 1995 double LP debut, all Monk covers, let me know) might be wondering what this latest offering adds to the story so far; if "make it new" is your motto, then this might just be a disappointment, which, oddly enough, is what the group name translates as. But given the choice between "make it new" and "make it good" I'll go for the latter every time. And very good this is.
Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic, Autumn 2009

Vom Titel her ist die eine von der anderen CD, die beide in diesem Jahrzehnt beim Zürcher Intakt-Label erschienen sind, nicht zu unterscheiden. Das Berliner Kollektiv Die Enttäuschung spielt „Die Enttäuschung“, lediglich die bunten Cover von Katja Mahall signalisieren Differenz auf den ersten Blick. Umso erstaunlicher ist nun, dass sowohl die 2006 veröffentlichte wie auch die neue CD von Die Enttäuschung in der aktuellen Ausgabe (Januar 2010) des amerikanischen Fachblatts „Down Beat“ mit je 4,5 Sternen bewertet wurden und somit zu den wichtigsten Alben zählen, die in diesem Jahrzehnt in Sachen Jazz und Improvisation veröffentlicht wurden. „Die beste Jazzcombo von heute“, schwärmt „Down Beat“, und man vermutet richtig, dass es dem Autor schwer fällt, den Bandnamen mit dem unbekannten Umlaut halbwegs richtig auszusprechen. Bei den Kollektivisten Rudi Mahall, Axel Dörner, Jan Roder und Uli Jennessen, die mit Alexander von Schlippenbach und der Drei-CD-Box „Monk´s Casino“ auch einem größeren Publikum bekannt wurden, stehen hochseriöse und mitreißende Eigenkompositionen im Zentrum, die das mit dem Bandnamen gegebene Versprechen so gar nicht einlösen wollen. Die Enttäuschung tritt am 30. und 31. Dezember in der Jazzwerkstatt in Berlin auf.
Jazz thing News, 50. Woche, 10.12.2009

Village Voice Jazz Poll Winners, Chicago Reader, USA, DECEMBER 30, 2009

Best Of List, Henning Bolte, Heaven Magazine, Nederland, 2009

Ulrich Steinmetzger, Leipziger Volkszeitung, Deutschland, 8. Januar 2010

Bjarne Soltoøft, Jazznytt, Norway, Nr. 6 / 2009

From " Best of 2009, Part Four":
5. Die Enttäuschung, Die Enttäuschung (Intakt)
This quartet from Berlin continues to write pithy postbop swingers and uncork concise, biting solos whose vocabulary draws from jazz’s entire history. The lean, craggy grooves of bassist Jan Roder and drummer Uli Jennessen give the music a buoyant drive without treading on the front-line action of bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall and trumpeter Axel Dörner. In both their individual solos and their knotty but airy multilinear improvisation, the horn men are exquisite in their focus and bracing in their tone.
Peter Margasak, www.chicagoreader.com Blog, USA, January 22, 2010

An amorphous designation at best, FreeBop is often used to characterize musicians who work in a freer idiom but haven’t completely abandoned many of the strictures of contemporary modern jazz. Berlin-based Die Enttäuschung – the Disappointment – does this and much more. As its members demonstrate on this CD, the quartet is versatile enough to meld the explorations of Free Music, the dense rhythms of Hard Bop and impressive tonal blends reminiscent of West Coast Jazz. Free Cool anyone?
More notably this package is filtered through the band’s collective tonal sensibilities, making the 14 originals presented here not only memorable, but also beholden to no other vision than their own collectively.
Besides providing the engine for the Monk’s Casino band which adds pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach to the quartet, each Enttäuschung member operates in different comfort zones elsewhere. Trumpeter Axel Dörner for instance, makes it point to stretch the boundaries of brass timbres in the company of fellow experimenters such as saxophonist John Butcher. Bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall is a valued part of other bands including Günter Adler, Soto Steidle, Vierergruppe Gschlöss and Aki Takase’s Fats Waller project. Drummer Uli Jennessen – who composed five tunes on this CD, as did Mahall – is also in the band LAX. Meanwhile bassist Jan Roder plays with the Squakk trio and the Real Latinos.
You can hear this last influence – Free Latin Jazz perhaps – in the groove Roder and Jennessen lay down on Mahall’s “Rumba Brutal”. Indicating with the title that this is no dance hall party tune, the theme is conveyed by contrapuntal horn lines, not percussion beats. With the drummer’s crisp and blunt ruffs encompassing clatter and cross-sticking, Dörner contributes plunger extensions, and Mahall’s ratcheting runs dip into the reed’s lowest register for mid-range lines which somehow suggests “Makin’ Whoopee”. The multi-tone finale finds the two horns in lockstep, attempting, it seems, to sound every note of the scale.
This blending is present throughout. Nonetheless the sonic variety available through flexible juxtapositions is most obvious on Jennessen’s “Uotenniw” – with its Hard-Bop echoes – and Dörner’s “Tinnef” – which leans towards West Coast Jazz. On the later parallelism is expressed with bass clarinet lowing and trumpet fluttering on top of Roder’s walking bass line. As the brassman’s long notes hocket and splinter into capillary extension, the reedist uses vibrated tones that offer broken-octave convergence with the trumpet line. Jennessen’s ratamacues, rebounds and rim shots simmer in the background as both horns recap the head with upended flourishes.
In contrast, “Uotenniw” rides on Art Blakey-like introductory press rolls from Jennessen and burnished grace notes from Dörner. As the trumpeter uses moderato coloration to extend the narrative, Mahall seizes the theme and re-harmonizes it more atonally and a half-step lower in pitch. While all this is going on, Roder pumps his strings and the drummer continues his rolls. Eventually the resolution involves chromatic harmonies.
As committed as they are to complete the program logically without dangling discord and inappropriate intonation, the four ensure that no one mistakes Die Enttäuschung for a junior Jazz Messengers or an updated Gerry Milligan Quartet, no matter how lyrical any composition may be or how harmonized its execution.
Most instructive is Dörner’s solo on his own “Tatächlich”. Swift, staccato and sharp, the exposition advances decisively throughout, although the composer leaves room for his own throat-clearing growls and antipodal glissandi. As Roder bows spiccato tones and Jennessen rattles and rebounds, Mahall’s connective lines suggest other partnerships like John Coltrane and Mils Davis or Eric Dolphy and Ted Curson. This is especially noticeable during an interlude of tempo cutting. First Mahall’s solo is strengthened by Dörner blowing ornamental clusters beside it, then when the trumpeter methodically smoothes out another variation, the reed man’s response is a cadenza of trills and the odd tongue slap.
Well on the road to joining earlier celebrated German exports to the improv world, Die Enttäuschung continues to defy the English translation of its name with every release. .
Ken Waxman, www.jazzword.com, Canada, February 21, 2010

Short Cuts, Jazzwise, UK, February 2010

Kazue Yokoi, Jazz Tokyo, Japan, Winter 2010 (in japanese)

Martin Woltersdorf, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Deutschland, 26. Februar 2010

Ci vuole una discreta dose di auto-ironia per varare un quartetto e battezzarlo "la delusione". L'idea bislacca è venuta a Rudi Mahall, Jan Roder, Axel Dörner e Uli Jennessen, cotitolari del progetto Die Enttäuschung (la delusione in tedesco), che giunge al traguardo dell'opera seconda dopo un esordio del 2007 uscito sempre su Intakt. A quale gioco giocassero i nostri al momento della scelta del nome non è dato sapere, quel che è certo è che di delusione non si può parlare per un disco riuscito e intrigante.
In scaletta una serie di variazioni sul canone ornettiano, quattordici per l'esattezza: alcune piuttosto aderenti nello spirito e nelle forme al primo quartetto di Coleman, ad esempio l'iniziale "Rocket in the Pocket," oppure "Salty Dog," con quelle tinte vagamente monkiane; alcune dal respiro più moderno, "Bruno," per dirne una, da qualche parte fra Tim Berne e Ellery Eskelin; altre più astratte, scomposte, persino surreali, "Tu es nicht," oppure "Wiener Schnitzel" (che poi sarebbe la cotoletta alla viennese), e ancora "For Quarts Only" (deformazione free di "Brasil"). La durata media dei quattordici pezzi è bassa (si viaggia intorno ai quattro minuti), il che rende il percorso accidentato e imprevedibile, tenendo viva l'attenzione e solleticando l'ascolto.
Notevoli, poi, le doti strumentali dei quattro germanici. Innanzitutto quelle di Rudi Mahall, che del clarinetto basso è uno dei più grandi specialisti in circolazione. Ma anche della tromba di Dörner, in certi passaggi abrasiva, in altri più meditabonda; del contrabbasso pulsante di Jan Roder e della batteria disinvolta di Jennessen. I nostri si frequentano da un bel pezzo (tra l'altro nel Monk's Casino di Alex Von Schlippenbach) e l'affiatamento non è dunque un problema.
Insomma, l'idea di fondo regge, i solisti ci sanno fare: per confezionare un buon disco non serve poi molto.
Valutazione: 3.5 stelle
Luca Canini, italia.allaboutjazz.com, Italy, 19-05-2010

In 2005 Alexander Von Schlippenbach released Monk’s Casino (Intakt 100) and the set proceeded to climb to the top of many best of the year lists (including mine). A large part of what made that remarkable examination of Monk’s entire oeuvre special was a fine 4tet that accompanied him. On DIE ENTTAUSCHUNG you can hear that great 4tet, Die Enttauschung, playing their own compositions. Let’s face it, none of these compositions have the resonance in a Jazz fan’s ears that the Monk works do, but take that away, and you have a great recording. Without the piano, the ensemble can’t help but evoke Ornette Coleman, except that Rudy Mahal is fast becoming the most distinctive voice on bass clarinet since Dolphy. But this is really an all-star quartet; every member writes and solos, and the ensemble is tight. But like the Lacy and Rudd bands that spent so much time on Monk, Die Enttauschung has benefited from their studies of Thelonious with von Schlippenbach. The quirky switches of rhythm and the sour minor second harmonies almost make this a pianoless tribute to Monk. That’s not a bad thing. Monk Studies are part of what made Lacy and Rudd special. I think it is happening here again. Check it out!
Phillip McNally, Cadence, USA, Apr - May - Jun 2010