Johannes Enders Standard Questions Vinyl LP 2026

1. Why
2. Isn't It Romantic
3. How Long Has This Been Going On
4. What Kind of Blue
5. How High the Moon
6. Where Are You
7. How Deep Is the Ocean
8. What Am I Here For
9. What's New

"Questions open up a space that can be interpreted," is how German saxophonist Johannes Enders describes the starting point of 'Standard Questions', "something that has probably fascinated me subconsciously for a long time." So he searched the American Songbook for pieces whose titles formulate questions, selected seven of them, and added two of his own compositions in a fitting manner. He then recorded the collection with his equally new and magnificent acoustic quartet: the Austrian pianist Oliver Kent, the Berlin-based American bassist Josh Ginsburg, and the American Gene Calderazzo on drums, who moved to England in the mid-1990s.

Johannes Enders shapes the selected standards into a statement of balanced beauty. Gentle, raw, and with sustained energy, he offers his answers to the questions of our time, reflecting improvisationally on the old and ever-new questions, and in doing so, defending not only his understanding of jazz as a universal language, but also the unifying and identity-forming power of music in general. Like many of his predecessors, he believes in its positive force, which, beyond the prevailing criteria of neoliberalism, speaks of something greater in ever-new variations.