| Jazz moderne |
Retrospective: Carl Clements and the Real Jazz Trio Deliver a Career-Defining Jazz Album
Retrospective is a rich, generous, endlessly listenable record from a musician at the height of his powers, backed by a band that matches him at every turn.
Clements holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, an MFA in Jazz Performance from CalArts, and a jazz composition degree from Berklee, but none of that academic pedigree shows up here as dry theory. It shows up as freedom. Having studied Hindustani classical bansuri flute for over three decades alongside a lifetime on the saxophone, Clements moves between jazz’s hard-bop vocabulary, Latin rhythm, and North Indian melodic phrasing without ever making the shifts feel like detours. Retrospective isn’t a jazz album with “world music” flourishes bolted on, it’s proof of what happens when those traditions have been lived with for so long that they simply become one voice.
That voice opens the record on “One for Joe,” a tribute to Joe Henderson that swings with real muscle: Clements’ tenor carries an angular, hard-bop edge over a rolling groove from Jung, Schaedlich and Biehl, and the interplay is immediate, a band that locks in from the first note. “Mobius” follows with a more exploratory architecture, while “Almodovar,” built on a warm bolero pulse, gives Jung and Schaedlich room to stretch out and gives the album one of its most seductive moments. The bansuri flute makes its entrance on tracks like “Procession” and “Kadam”, the latter a loose nod to Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints”, and it’s here that Clements’ cross-cultural fluency is most striking. The flute doesn’t feel like a guest appearance, it feels like a natural extension of the same musical mind that was playing hard-bop tenor two tracks earlier. “A Change of Rhythm” pushes into a knotty 7/4 groove without ever losing its groove-first accessibility, and “Remnants” slows things down into a gorgeous, slightly smoky waltz on soprano, full of dynamic control and patient phrasing.
The album’s emotional high point may well be “Selene in Repose,” a nearly ten-minute piece that lets Clements’ tenor unspool gradually over an increasingly lyrical piano solo from Jung, the kind of extended, unhurried statement that only a band this comfortable with each other could pull off without losing tension. The title track, “Retrospect,” closes the main body of the record with a post-bop burn that pulls together everything the album has been building toward.
What makes Retrospective so satisfying isn’t technical ambition alone. Plenty of records chase odd meters and cross-genre fusion and what sets this one apart is how effortless it all sounds. Recorded live at Sound & More in Darmstadt and mixed with real warmth and presence by Klaus Endel, the album captures four musicians who aren’t performing their influences, they’re simply playing music, and the influences happen to include hard-bop, Latin American rhythm, and Hindustani classical phrasing because that’s genuinely who Carl Clements is.
The Real Jazz Trio deserves equal billing in that success. Jung’s piano work moves fluidly between thick, percussive chords and lyrical right-hand lines, Schaedlich’s bass playing is both anchor and voice, and Biehl’s drumming has the rare gift of pushing a groove forward while leaving space for everyone else to breathe. Fifteen years of playing together is not a marketing detail here, it’s the reason this album works as well as it does.
Sorry to say it again and again, but Retrospective is a rich, generous, endlessly listenable record from a musician at the height of his powers, backed by a band that matches him at every turn. It’s the kind of album that rewards repeat listening as each pass reveals another layer, another small conversation between instruments you missed the first time. Simply put, this is essential “modern jazz”, and one of the most complete, satisfying releases of the year. A must-hear, without qualification.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, August 23rd, 2026
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Tracklisting:
- One for Joe 04:56
- Mobius 08:21
- Almodovar 07:44
- Procession 05:19
- Remnants 07:43
- Selene in Repose 09:52
- A Change of Rhythm 05:40
- Retrospect 08:53
- Kadam 04:19
All compositions by Carl Clements
Musicians:
Carl Clements – saxophones & flutes
Jean-Yves Jung – piano
Johannes Schaedlich – bass
Jens Biehl – drums