Katché: Jazz album of the Year

Neighbourhood, Manu Katché's ECM leader debut, has won the German Critics Prize – Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik – as Jazz Album of the Year 2006. From the jurys findings: The French drummer Manu Katché, who has played on hundreds of records with the likes of Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Sting and Dire Straits has not been in a hurry to follow up Its About Time, the first CD issued under his name. 15 years have passed between that disc and Neighbourhood. "Neighbourhood", Manu Katché's ECM leader debut, has won the German Critics Prize – Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik – as Jazz Album of the Year 2006.

His recording on ECM assembles a cast as unexpected as it is convincing: the Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, and members of Stanko's quartet Marcin Wasilewski, piano, and Slawomir Kurkiewicz, bass, meet Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, playing in peak form. The chemistry of the team is a perfect blend, both amongst the rhythm section and between the horn players. At once delicate and relaxed, Katché's compositional sketches unfold gracefully. His lucid drumming never forces itself into the foreground of this fascinating and well-made French-Polish-Norwegian production that emphasizes the musical qualities of European neighborliness."

The award will be presented to Manu Katché on Saturday, 18. November 2006, at the Berlin Musikinstrumenten-Museum.

Katché can also be heard on several ECM recordings with Jan Garbarek, including the acclaimed "In Praise of Dreams", released in 2004. He is currently on tour with the Jan Garbarek Group.