Genius musicality and a contagious joy of playing
SÜDWEST PRESS March 2010

You almost can’t get enough… a calm, understated album, touching in its warmth.
BZ March 2010

… as a creator he points the way, as a soloist he is outstanding. You can sense the great emotion that is underlying in this opera.
RONDO March 2010

One of the Greats of the global jazz scene enchanted his audience with his trio Saturday night!
BT March 2009

Simply genius. Superb. Outstanding… this project will become part of music history.
SZ March 2009

With the very first notes he elicits from his Joseph-Rubner-Bass (built in 1912) it is clear: all will be well! From the first note that is being plucked you want to follow him – be it the old traditional works song “Es, es, es und es”, a melody from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” or John Coltrane’s Blues “Cousin Mary”. The bass notes bubble or shimmer as flageolet that it is pure joy. And it gets most exciting when Ilg starts dismantling old familiar melodies to then reconstruct them in an entirely new way. Bravo!
ALLGÄUER ZEITUNG 04/09

Ilg makes the audience perceive the bass as a solo instrument. Great!
JAZZ’N MORE 03/09

Dieter Ilg. Trio, Duo and now solo: great jazz!... one of the best of his trade!
AUGSBURGER ALLGEMEINE 02 / 09

Ilg know where it’s at
FONOFORUM 01 / 09

BASS is a strong solo album. The audience gets to hear that the bass not only works as an accompaniment but that you can actually tell stories on this instrument.
CD KRITIK.DE 12/08

Fascinating interpretations. Virtuoso discourses created by this versatile and internationally highly respected musician from Freiburg captivate us with their narrative motives which are incapsulated in wonderfully sonorous sounds.
IMAGE HIFI 12/08

Without any safety net or “double bottom” – i.e. no studio tricks or effects – this double bass player from Freiburg still convinces us with his new, pure bass solo album. It doesn’t more clever than that.
TONART 11/08

The sounds that Ilg coaxed out his for string are sensational: He let them shimmer flamenco-style, he pulled and tucked them with percussive force, drumming wildly on the corpus or gently strumming the strings as if playing a romantic guitar serenade. Not a single moment of boredom, just utter enjoyment for the listener.
MANNHEIMER MORGEN 11/08

You could say that Dieter Ilg is “the word” when it comes to bass playing on the German Jazz scene. Almost like no other he understands how to use all the possibilities of his instrument so as to make his skillful sound applicable in every context imaginable. He managed to bridge the gap between working on his own creative projects (taking it as far as founding his own label) while at the same time consolidating his reputation as one of the  most sought after sidemen in Europe.
In April 2008 Dieter Ilg gave a solo performance at Schloss Elmau. He produced and created pieces which may define contemporary jazz bass playing for a long time to come, presented with such ease and intensity that the boundaries of this instrument are moved and extended almost unnoticeably.
JAZZPODIUM 11 / 08
 
Without any safety net or “double bottom” – i.e. no studio tricks or effects – this double bass player from Freiburg still convinces us with his new, pure bass solo album. It doesn’t more clever than that.
TONART 11/08

The way he plucks, caresses or beats the bass – making the instrument melodic as well as rhythmic, constantly interchanging in between the two – magnificent!
MAINPOST 10/08

Dieter Ilg’s playing is seldom abstract but always extremely illustrative. He takes his listeners on a journey through an inner imagery world. The audience witnesses a musician at the high point of his career.
BZ 10/08

By now Dieter Ilg is a genuine “classic” as a bass player with his modern articulation and storytelling style.  He knows how to dive into the unknown and yet he always finds his way back onto the more familiar path. This is what makes him unique – as proven by the audiences reaction this evening.
DARMTÄDTER ECHO 10/08

The sound of his double bass is phenomenal… Dieter Ilg plays with enormous virtuosity – though playing solo he never loses sight of the foundations of the bass. With ease he manages to present a varied album of a quality with which not many could compete.
BASSPROFESSOR 10/08

Ilgs virtuosity has depth, his sophisticated technique is solid, trustworthy and his joy of playing is contagious. His earthy drive and stupendous virtuosity are deeply convincing, his musicality goes beyond the vibrating strings. Charming in its humour – his bass seems to be one of Ilg’s best friends.
GENERALANZEIGER 03/08

Again and again this exceptional musician plucked the strings with both hands, played multi layered melodic phrases and used the bass’s corpus as a percussion instrument. Wonderfully soft flageolets mixed with overtone sounds and driving grooves. The audience was listening so hard you could have heard that needle drop.
ESSLINGER ZEITUNG 02 / 2008

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