Hans Lüdemann is not one for making life easy for himself. Last month he performed a solo concert in Cologne's famous Loft with two de-tuned pianos. However, this sumptuous box set presents the pianist performing with five different trios on five full-length CDs, with a concert DVD thrown in for good measure. At some point in the future it seems inevitable that the new German jazz scene will emerge, much like the Norwegian jazz scene ten years ago, and make the rest of the jazz world sit up and take notice. When that happens, this modest yet enormously accomplished Cologne-based pianist will be at the forefront of the coming German jazz explosion.

Lüdemann made a name for himself as the inspirational pianist in the brilliant young saxophonist Angelika Niescier's group Sublim, enabling him to establish a platform to present his own music. This box set came together when Lüdemann decided to explore jazz's more subtle arts, what he refers to as “secrets”; he points out that not even the best jazz education can teach us the inspiration in the moment and that these moments are getting fewer as the weight of jazz history and the mastery of past styles takes up more room and inhibits improvisational freedom and the evolution of new ideas. Thus he placed himself in situations that because of their uniqueness and newness would challenge the musicians to react spontaneously yet pay maximum attention to the collective unity of the musical whole. Thus each of the five trios on this album had its own musical programme, written by Lüdemann and his collaborators (except CD 2 which were written by Hanns Eisler during his Californian exile in the 1940s and based on lyrics by Bertolt Brecht); each trio had a short rehearsal; and each trio was recorded live at Cologne's Loft jazz club with no second takes. What emerges is a stunning document of the improviser's art, whether it be in the free inclinations of the trio with the in demand Cologne-based bassist and drummer, Robert Landfermann and Jonas Burgwinkel; the trio with Munich bassist Henning Sieverts and Berlin drummer Eric Schaefer (the latter associated with Michael Wollny's [em]) that reference new music, jazz and rock; the exuberant ‘grooves’ of the trio with former Zawinul bassist Linley Marthe and drummer Chandler Sarjoe; the trio with Dejan Terzic, a German drummer with Serbian roots, and the French bassist Sébastian Boisseau whose free inclinations embody sampling in a union so successful it became a working band; and the trio with bassist Dieter Manderscheid and drummer Christian Thomé that performs the music of Hanns Eisler while simultaneously exploring the notion of what a ‘German’ jazz trio might sound like. Throughout, Lüdemann emerges as the consummate artist; rising to the diverse challenges he set himself and in responding to the inspiration of the moment showed he is destined to make an important impact on the European jazz scene.