Sara Decker
Concerto calls her bright, clear voice a delight and praises the finely spun accompaniment.
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Sara Decker Quartet · 2020
poetryfied.
Poetry by Rilke, Dickinson and Kaléko.
Original music by Sara Decker.
About the project
Poems become songs.
With poetryfied, Sara Decker brings together poetry and jazz. Her second album sets texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, Emily Dickinson, Mascha Kaléko and Jane Tyson Clement to original music, giving their words a new musical setting.
Recorded with her Cologne-based quartet, the project combines the intimacy of song with the freedom of jazz improvisation. Billy Test on piano, Nicolai Amrehn on bass and Jeroen Truyen on drums join Sara’s voice and compositions.
The album was released by AMC Records in 2020, with support from Initiative Musik. Guest musicians add trumpet, tenor saxophone and flute to the quartet’s sound. Jeroen Truyen handled editing; Christian Heck mixed and mastered the record.
The ensemble
Musicians behind the sound.
A sensitive Cologne quartet, with three guests adding colour to selected poems.
Billy Test
WDR presents him as an award-winning pianist, composer and arranger; on poetryfied he brings harmonic finesse and alert dialogue.
Nicolai Amrehn
Melodiva describes the Cologne band as sensitive; Amrehn’s grounded bass lets the quartet wrap around the words without crowding them.
Jeroen Truyen
Melodiva singles out his drum excursions as outstanding accents.
Heidi Bayer
Melodiva highlights her flugelhorn solos as outstanding accents—a second voice opening small windows in the quartet sound.
Stefan Karl Schmid
Jazz Journal lists Stefan as a guest on tenor saxophone. He contributes one solo on a single track.
Julia Kriegsmann
Jazz Journal credits her as the flute guest; her playing adds air and transparency to the album’s literary sound world.
Watch & listen
poetryfied on film.
If playback is unavailable here, watch directly on YouTube.
Album credits
- Vocals & composition
- Sara Decker
- Piano
- Billy Test
- Bass
- Nicolai Amrehn
- Drums
- Jeroen Truyen
- Trumpet
- Heidi Bayer
- Tenor saxophone
- Stefan Karl Schmid
- Flute
- Julia Kriegsmann
- Editing
- Jeroen Truyen
- Mixing & mastering
- Christian Heck
poetryfied · Sara Decker Quartet
Experience poetryfied live.
Experience Sara’s poetry settings live with the quartet. The live line-up can vary: Billy Test plays on the album, while Jonathan Hofmeister may join on piano for concerts.