Stan Sutzmann tenor sax, Michael Arbenz piano, Thomas Lähns bass, Florian Arbenz drums
A veteran of the UK jazz scene, Stan Sulzmann has a rich and varied career that has included playing with musicians as diverse as Kenny Wheeler, Larry Grenadier and Gwilym Simcock, as well as a prolific output as bandleader. Always moving forward, Stan’s Neon Quartet sees him amongst some of the UKs most sought-after young musicians, and their latest album “Subjekt” explores Stan’s ever-developing musical influences. Stan is also a highly respected composer and arranger; his vibrant big band arrangements have excited and inspired people for the last 25 years, and in 2013 Stan was commissioned to write an original piece for the London Jazz Festival....
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Stan Sutzmann tenor sax, Michael Arbenz piano, Thomas Lähns bass, Florian Arbenz drums
A veteran of the UK jazz scene, Stan Sulzmann has a rich and varied career that has included playing with musicians as diverse as Kenny Wheeler, Larry Grenadier and Gwilym Simcock, as well as a prolific output as bandleader. Always moving forward, Stan’s Neon Quartet sees him amongst some of the UKs most sought-after young musicians, and their latest album “Subjekt” explores Stan’s ever-developing musical influences. Stan is also a highly respected composer and arranger; his vibrant big band arrangements have excited and inspired people for the last 25 years, and in 2013 Stan was commissioned to write an original piece for the London Jazz Festival.
Highly in demand as a sideman, Stan has worked with a host of musicians, including: John Taylor, Jim Mullen, Nikki Iles, Mike Gibbs, Marc Copland, Allan Botchinksy, European Jazz Ensemble, Kit Downes, Michael Brecker and Gil Evans.
‘It simply doesn’t get any better than this’ John Kelman
Vein are a great trio with drummer Florian Arbenz at the helm. Arguably one of the best drummers in Europe and winner of a European Culture Award, Florian is joined by his brother Michael Arbenz on piano, for whom too international stardom beckons. The trio is complete with bassist Thomas Lähns who equally deserves the prodigy status.
Today most jazz piano trios are deeply attached to musical interplay (And yet, even with the most subtle, most distinguished form of interplay there is always one in the trio who plays the part of the primus inter pares – the pianist, of course (usually and by definition leader of the group). That’s exactly where pianist Michael Arbenz, drummer Florian Arbenz and bassist Thomas Lähns come up with their own idea of musical interplay. In fact, what they aim to achieve with their music is the greatest possible balance of their three voices – starting with the way they work out their own compositions and arrangements, and going right through to the soloistic parts, fully assigned to all three of them. The result is impressive musical togetherness, packed with surprising melodic, rhythmic and dynamic turns, played with highest precision even in the most complex, distorted and twisted passages of their compositions, arrangements and solos.
“Another European piano trio and yet another fresh angle on this time-honoured instrumental format.
The most striking thing about the trio of the Swiss Arbenz brothers, Florian on drums and Michael on piano, with Thomas Lähns on bass, is the wit and humour they bring to their music“… Peter Bacon The Jazzbreakfast, April 2014
There’s no pinning them down. …. loose, deconstructed standards…visceral, obliquely stated swing…impassioned blowing …taut, off-kilter funky groove…hooky theme… this band has a vibrant, distinctive personality…vividly current as well as being rooted in that consciousness of jazz history. A Tour de Force. A diverse, top drawer session”… London Jazz News, March 2015
The Swiss piano trio Vein can veer toward being too flawlessly polished for their own jazz good, but as they’ve shown in partnerships with improvising stars such as American saxophonist David Liebman and Greg Osby their work has fire as well as flair. Pianist Michael Arbenz, his drummer brother Florian and bassist Thomas Lähns reaffirm that, even in such a potentially circumspect context as this venture, celebrating the classical backgrounds they share. All the pieces are originals but tweak familiar structures, such as the Prelude that opens as a thoughtful, slow-zigzagging solo piano melody, reiterated by Lähns’ gracefully pliable bass phrasing and developed with the cool animation of a classic Bill Evans trio. There are stealthily spacious meditations such as Poeme de Nuit, and snappy drum-like flyers where the intensity almost tips into free-jazz (In Medias Res). Michael Arbenz’s Sheherazade is a fittingly compelling tale of talkative tabla figures and pithy solos, and Lähns’ Pastorale is a spine-tinglingly evocative display of bowed-bass expressiveness, while Ballad of the Monkeys shows just how hard this refined band can rock”… 4/5stars.. John Fordham, The Guardian, April 2017
“Vein, a piano trio with a difference. These guys can play together (like on “Funky Monkey”) at a new level of straight-eight interaction… They don’t really sound like anybody, but do proceed (way) out of the Evans-Bley tradition. Anybody who wants something truly new in the piano trio format would do well to hear this one”…Grego Edwards, Cadence, NYC
“For a demonstration of what the jazz trio has been, and can be, it’s hard to imagine anyone doing it better“…. Matthew Wright, The Arts Desk
Youtube:
bit.ly/VEINchambermusic
bit.ly/VEINfunkymonkey
bit.ly/VEINmaking1
www.vein.ch/
Support from Laura Armstrong on cello and Ella Hohnen-Ford on voice.
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