Slowfox - Freedom (April 16, 2021)

A double bass line, eloquent, elastic, not far from “So What” from Miles Davis' album of the century Kind Of Blue. Elegant. Some Jarrett drizzles from the wing. The saxophone body breathes. Then, as if of free will, the melody materializes, and “I” is in the room, the opener of the new Slowfox album. After barely half a minute the song grew together, unexpectedly and in no hurry. As if it had never been there before.

Freedom, the third album by the Cologne trio, stands for freedom and radiates it. Bandleader Sebastian Gramss calls the music of the collective “Melodic Avantgarde”, always able and willing to perforate borders in whatever direction. Just because. Or - also not. It's not loud. But uncompromising.

The name of the album goes back to an iconic sentence with which the great Nina Simone replied to an interviewer in 1968 when he asked about her definition of freedom: “I will tell you what freedom is to me: No fear. I mean really no fear. ” Detached from the syntax, the words now serve as titles for the tracks on the Slowfox album. The essence of the content remains untouched in its original artistic reference, not charged with new meaning by the band.

Slowfox have been trying to find song titles by quotation since their debut album The Woods (2014). Then it came from US poet Robert Frost. With ECHO award winner Gentle Giants (2017) it is a US proverb that is often attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche.

Brought together in 2013 by Sebastian Gramss, the instrumental trio plays chamber music-like composition jazz in pop song format: short pieces, none longer than five minutes, which quickly get to the point with a high level of complexity.

Freedom shows a very tidy synthesis of modern sound aesthetics and our own conception of contemporary melodies with no artistic limitations. Meticulously thought out and arranged, put together and set in motion with intuition and know-how, this complex stuff is nevertheless easy to grasp.

1. I 04:13

2. WILL 04:26

3. TELL 03:29

4. YOU 03:05

5. WHAT 03:36

6. FREEDOM 03:45

7. IS 02:18

8. TO ME 04:01

9. NO FEAR ! 03:54

10. I MEAN 02:21

11. REALLY 04:03

12. NO 05:06

13. FEAR ! 03:04

14. NINA 02:54

15. SIMONE 03:58

Hayden Chisholm – Saxophone, Flute

Philip Zoubek – Piano, Prepared Piano, Moog

Sebastian Gramss – Double Bass, Spacebass*

* Spacebass – modified double bass with 12 additional sympathetic strings

Music composed by Sebastian Gramss

except Track 10 – traditional Korean song

Label: Rent A Dog

Produced by: Sebastian Gramss & Ana Lakčević

A production of Sebastian Gramss & SLOWFOX

Recorded by Christian Heck at the Loft Studios, Cologne

Recording Assistant: Lukas Lohner

Mixed and Mastered by Reinhard Kobialka - Topaz Studio, Cologne

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Wout Gooris Trio & Chisholm/Vann - Some Time (2018)

Wout Gooris has an instinct for tranquility. His 2016 release voor Jef was music made for the first moments of morning, when the sun is just shaking the sleep from its eyes, and a calm hush hangs over the world. Album opener “Fata Morgana” is a gentle sigh of melody, as comforting as it is serene, but from there, Some Time expands into livelier forms of expression, and sparks with life and busyness. Aiding that transformation is the addition of saxophonists Hayden Chisholm and Erwin Vann. And while the melodic textures they bring to the session are enchanting, it’s their harmonic contributions that give this music a greater presence than Gooris’s previous offering. It’s a welcome change, and brings to light facets only hinted at on voor Jef. It’s something best represented on the album finale “Lullaby,” the way the tune escalates from a familiar tranquility up to a temperature with enough heat to burn.

1. Fata Morgana 04:30

2. 't Wout 05:36

3. Rêver 08:10

4. Earthlings 06:52

5. Chant 07:11

6. Close 05:51

7. Open 06:31

8. Lullaby 05:00

Hayden Chisholm - Alto Saxophone

Erwin Vann - Tenor Saxophone

Wout Gooris - Piano & Compositions

Nathan Wouters - Double Bass

Stijn Cools - Drums

Recorded by Ted Masseurs at Audioworkx on July 8 & 9, 2016 

Mixed by Stijn Cools 

Mastered by Uwe Teichert at Elektropolis 

Artwork by Stefaan Claeys aka Stanley Casfea 

Graphic Design by Marie Sledsens

Nils Wogram Root 70 - Luxury Habits (nWOG RECORDS 2017)

Released April 28, 2017 

After four "conceptual works" releases Root 70 enters the free and spontaneous space again. Luxury Habits is an album on rhythm and unexpected metric transformation. Take the risk and get surprised.

Times change, and with them, the themes and credo of all artists – as long as their antennas continue to receive signals. Even the first bars of the opener of Luxury Habits announce that Root 70 is moving differently. Indeed, the motto for the new CD could be “the party’s over.” Never before has the band sounded so serious. Although here, serious does not mean the cerebral tendency in some of contemporary jazz, but rather the seriousness with which a subject is exhibited, and the depth with which the intentions of four musicians merge. Indeed, the music on Luxury Habits did not even have a conceptual plan. On the contrary, unlike on the last records of Root 70, Wogram wanted to do in a space devoid of concepts what a jazz musician likes to do: to simply play.

Wogram, Chisholm, Penman and Rueckert combine the gift of questioning themselves. Individually and as a band, which, in this case, amounts to a close circle of friends. “The album has emerged from a band dynamic,” says Wogram. “We talked intensively about the concepts of the past few years and agreed that we wanted to take a little more risk. We needed a new challenge.” The collective risk of precise blurring is a rare commodity in an epoch so fond of the post-factual. Root 70 lean far out the window. We have enough answers. Root 70 are four individualists who merge into an inseparable identity and once again ask the right questions in their music.

1. Luxury Habits 05:37

2. To Don`t List 06:58

3. Rehearsing the Future 09:21

4. Flattery is the Strongest Weapon 07:33

5. It`s arrogant to call me arrogant 06:11

6. Rich Kid 08:04

7. Party Anxiety 05:36

8. Starting from Zero 07:25

9. Piazza 08:33

Nils Wogram (Trombone, Melodica) 

Hayden Chisholm (Alto Sax) 

Matt Penman (Bass) 

Jochen Rueckert (Drums)