tickets:
regular: 14,- €uro
students, disabled persons: 7,- €uro
ATTENTION - SUNDAY CONCERT:
doors: 5.30 pm CET
concert starts:
approx. 6.00 pm CET
The Trio Ivoire has been around for 25 years!
Who could have predicted this when pianist Hans Lüdemann first met balafon virtuoso Aly Keïta in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, during a solo tour of West Africa organized by the Goethe-Institut in 1999? They immediately hit it off, and shortly thereafter, the two founded the Trio Ivoire in Cologne with British drummer Steve Argüelles as the third member of the group.
Not only is the trio’s instrumentation of piano, balafon, drums, and electronics unique, but so is the music, which draws its tension from the contrasts and vast distances between the musicians‘ personal roots.
Both are probably reasons why Trio Ivoire has such staying power and why the collaboration has remained exciting to this day. Fittingly, the trio is presenting a completely new program for its anniversary on the new album Resurrection, released in fall 2025 by INTUITION—a “perfect recording” (Concerto) that has just been nominated for the “German Record Critics‘ Quarterly Prize.”
Trio Ivoire started out at LOFT, where they recorded their very first album in December 1999 – now they are set to celebrate their anniversary there. Guest artist Tamara Lukasheva, who has worked with the band frequently in recent years – on their previous album Enchanted Forest and on the Atlantic 7 2025 project in the USA – will also be performing.
http://www.trioivoire.com/
The Trio Ivoire combines the inventive spirit of two German improvisers and a sound poet from the Ivory Coast: this is about the pure joy of playing, which extends freely across traditions and continents.
Pianist Hans Lüdemann, who had previously worked with Jan Garbarek, Paul Bley, Heinz Sauer, and Marc Ducret, met balafon master Aly Keïta on a solo tour of West Africa in 1999. Shortly thereafter, they founded the percussive trio, originally with Steve Argüelles on drums, from 2007 to 2012 with Chander Sardjoe, and since 2013 with Christian Thomé.
https://www.hansluedemann.de/
https://www.christianthome.de/
Trio Ivoire brings together personal roots from the traditions of jazz, European, and African music—which can create contrasts and generate tension, but also merge together. The combination of the African balafon with piano, drums, and electronics creates a contemporary sound that is beyond comparison. This has less to do with traditional music than with finding artistic expression in a globalized world. Together, they create their own unique style of music that transcends clichés—a joyful interplay between three extraordinary musical personalities, blending traditions, visions, and experimentation.
Since then, Trio Ivoire has performed internationally in clubs, concert halls, and at festivals: at the Jazzfest Berlin, Elbjazz Hamburg, Acht Brücken Festival Cologne, Munich Piano Summer, Leverkusen Jazz Days, Nancy Jazz Pulsations, Jazzunique Bucharest, Odesa Jazz Festival, Budapest Spring Festival, Music Meeting Nijmegen, HIFA Festival Harare, Cologne Jazz Night, Jazz a Ouaga Ougadougou, Bach Festival Leipzig, Bamako Jazz Festival, Offbeat Festival Basel, International Music Festival Maputo, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Laeizhalle Hamburg, the CRR Konsert Salonu Istanbul, Villa Massimo Rome, NDR Hamburg, Old Library Hall Cape Town, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Haus der Kulturen der Welt/ Berlin, Admiralspalast Berlin, University of Montpellier, Oetkerhalle Bielefeld, Lucerna Theater Prague, Goethe Institute Johannesburg, Institut Francais Djibouti, Porgy & Bess Vienna, Bonafide NYC, Lang Concert Hall Philadelphia, Sunset Paris, Stadtgarten Cologne, Goethe Institute Abidjan, Chorus Lausanne, Periscope Lyon, Treibhaus Innsbruck.
Trio Ivoire had already released six albums—most recently “Enchanted Forest” in 2020, a collaboration with the vocal trio of singers Tamara Lukasheva, Simin Tander, and Amanda Becker and musicians Alexandra Grimal and Lisa Wulff—and now, in 2025, the new trio album No. 7, “Resurrection,” is being released.
Over the years, Trio Ivoire has collaborated with a number of guest musicians: initially with kora player and singer Tata Dindin from Gambia. In 2008, they realized the project Tagra with musicians from East Africa and percussionist Brice Wassy on behalf of the Institut Francais in Djibouti. They worked with singer and mbira player Chiwoniso from Zimbabwe and Ivorian singer Dobet Gnahoré, percussionist Rhani Krija, kora player Ballake Sissoko, and trumpeter Reiner Winterschladen.
For their anniversary, they made a conscious decision to return to their original trio lineup.
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