The 25-year-old cellist Adèle Viret is one of the most promising young talents in Europe: UK Jazz News was very impressed by the "fascinating storytelling, interplay and understanding" of her quartet, which was named "Ensemble of the Year" at the European Broadcasting Union's 2024 Jazz Competition.
Adèle Viret was born into a musical family in 1999: father Jean-Philippe is a renowned bassist; brother Oscar, an expressive trumpeter, plays in her quartet. The Mediterranean and its diverse cultural influences have long fascinated the artist. "Close to the Water" is the title of her remarkably mature debut album, which is characterized by contemporary jazz and chamber music trends. Daniel García visited the NDR for the first time in 2018. This was followed by an international career. Now he returns with two of the most creative musicians on the Spanish jazz scene: bassist Pablo Martín Caminero and drummer Borja Barrueta. Together they meet the renowned and adventurous NDR Vokalensemble. In the "Beata Viscera" project, they combine the improvisational art of jazz with the polyphonic music of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A magical journey full of surprises.
Her sources of inspiration are compositions by Pérotin, Josquin Desprez, Carlo Gesualdo and William Byrd. Her works are "of unique, almost supernatural beauty", enthuses García. In their time, the cadences and tonal centers that we have known since the Baroque era did not yet exist. To our ears today, this art sounds strangely floating, dreamlike and rich in contrasts. "My aim," emphasizes Daniel García, "is not to turn these works into jazz pieces, but to find the similarities between the music of 500 years ago and what we achieve when we improvise."
October 16, 2025
