Tue, 22 June 2004

Euphonic Productions presents:
(See pictures of the performance at the bottom of the page)
Lucas Niggli ZOOM
plus special guests:
Jeff Crompton & Rob Rushin

9pm, Tues, June 22
Eyedrum
290 MLK Jr. Drive, Suite 8
404-522-0655
www.eyedrum.org
(jazz/improv)

ZOOM:
Nils Wogram - trombone
Philipp Schaufelberger - guitar
Lucas Niggli - drums & percussion

The trio of the Swiss drummer Lucas Niggli unifies three strong-willed musicians of the young generation who have been influenced by the most varied musics and who simultaneously blaze their own path through a new obscurity that the Postmodern and current tendencies have triggered. With ZOOM, Lucas Niggli can unify his numerous likings for Jazz (the drive, the energy, and the idiomatic-improvisatory freedom) as well as that for new music (tonal and interpretational culture). With ultimate concentration, this small and agile group speeds through the heights and depths of today’s music: here a nod at tradition, there a jump into the unknown, always up to tricks, all of which guarantees that seriousness will never turn into solemnity. The compositions of Lucas Niggli are tonally balanced, play with the most various dramatuguries and energies, are relaxed and simultaneously highly energetic. The joy of playing, embedded in a beautiful "group chemistry” allows the pieces to ring out freshly again and again. Lightness is a central point in Lucas Niggli’s music. Via this "filigreed” grouping with two tenor instruments (trombone and guitar) and drums, as well as with the excellent musicians Philipp Schaufelberger (a great tonal aesthete) and Nils Wogram (THE complete trombonist), complex, even abstract passages sound light as a feather.

"Highly inspired flights of the imagination: ZOOM"
- Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Switzerland

"Three artists on a high wire"
- Tages Anzeiger, Switzerland

Lucas Niggli was born in a thunderbolt in 1968, West Kamerun. He lived there before he moved to Switzerland. Today he lives in Uster with his three children, Felix, Gaudenz and Emilia and his partner Annette Meier. His affinity to music, especially to percussion instruments, was quite strong at a very young age. Between 1987 and 1995, he played at the experimental New Jazz formation "Kieloor Entartet”. The group published three CDs, conquered many stages in diverse countries, formed a not every day orchestra, "ENAO91 and ENAO93”, and connected to other artists and composers. After that, Lucas Niggli took charge of the management of the alternative Swiss label "UNIT-Records” until 1998; he was the president of the "Schweizerischen Musikverbands des Jazz und Improvisation Musiker” (Swiss Professional Association of Jazz and Improvisation Musicians).

In 1995 he founded the avant-core band "Steamboat Switzerland” with Dominik Blum and Marino Pliakas. More than 100 concerts, 3 cd and 2 vinyl recordings testify to the group’s intense and hard work. "Lucas Niggli’s Zoom” was founded in 1999. They performed at all of Europe’s big festivals, (Moers, Saalfelden, Willisau) and they recorded a cd in 2001. As an extension of this trio, Lucas Niggli created "Big Zoom”, a quintet with Claudio Puntin and Peter Herbert as guests. Since 1994 Lucas Niggli has played in a variety of different bands with Pierre Favre as his partner. These are, amongst others, "Singing Drums”, "European Chamber Ensemble”, "The Drummers”, as well as a duo.

In his projects, Lucas Niggli had the chance to work hand in hand with musicians from all over the world, from all kinds of different scenes. People like Butch Morris, Trevor Watts, Fred Frith, Hans Koch, Peter Kowald, Peter Waters, Samul Nori, Tom Cora, Ikue Mori, Tenko, Michel Doneda, Michel Wintsch, Collegium Novum, Urs Leimgruber, Arkadij Shilklopper, Jean-Luis Matinier, Martin Schütz, Irene Schweizer, and many more...

Nils Wogram was born in Brunswick in 1972, today lives in Cologne. Without a doubt, he belongs to one of the most watched newcomers of the German and European jazz scene. With its three CD releases and numerous tours, his own quartet (with Simon Nabatov, Henning Sievertsund and Jochen Rückert) has matured into a unmistakable ensemble. Next to his own quartet, he is one of the most sought after German solo trombonists and performs in groups such as Jazzkantine, Underkarl, Gunter Hampel’s Next Generation and others.
Nils Wogram has won numerous prizes, such as the Jazz Prize of Nuremberg and the Jazz Prize of the state of North-Rhine Westphalia. He has already played with well-known musicians such as Kenny Werner, Herman Forster, Nils Landgren, Tomas Stanko, Ed Schuller, Illinois Jaquet, Michael Formanek, Brad Shepik and George Garden.

"A New Trombone Light, the trombonist goes his own way, even when he is dealt with as a worthy successor to Albert Mangelsdorff"
- Der Spiegel, Germany

"And suddenly there is only this music…"
- Die Zeit, Germany

Philipp Schaufelberger was born in Gottingen, Germany in 1970. He has played in various formations in jazz and in the collapsing borders of its related forms. Thus, in Giancarlo Nicolai’s guitar orchestra, "ZAP” (with Hans Feigenwinter, Bänz Oester and Kaspar Rast), in "Boxer” (with Mich Gerber and Fab Kuratli), Banff Jazz Orchestra with Kenny Wheeler, concerts in Canada. Since 1994 he has been a member of the Harald Haerter Quartet, toured with Dewey Redman in Europe and the USA, Festival tour ’96 (North Sea, Leverkusen, Montreux, Lugano Jazz festivals), tour in 1997 with Michael Brecker, Jazz in Willisau, and concerts with Jim Black, Bill Stewart, Joey Baron, Klaus Dickbauer, Hans Koch and many others. Cooperation with Daniel Mouthon "Säugers Flug” and "Air à l1enverre,” a multi-medial Opera together with the Ensemble for New Music, Zurich. Currently also a member of "Chanteurs à Voix” (with Doro Schürch) and of Pierre Favre’s European Chamber Ensemble.

"Schaufelberger shines with his quirky, Frizzle-like voicing and phrasings on inventive reworkings of two Monk tunes"
- Down Beat, U.S.A.

"Schaufelberger’s exemplary fundament. A discreet highlight."
- Der Bund, Germany

www.lucasniggli.ch/homeE.html

Local duo of Jeff Crompton (alto sax) and Rob Rushin (guitar) open.

ZOOM - Philipp Schaufelberger (guitar) and Lucas Niggli (percussion)
Eyedrum 6-22-04

ZOOM - Philipp Schaufelberger
Eyedrum 6-22-04

ZOOM - Nils Wogram
Eyedrum 6-22-04

ZOOM - Nils Wogram (trombone) and Lucas Niggli (percussion)
Eyedrum 6-22-04

ZOOM
Philipp Schaufelberger  (guitar) Nils Wogram  (trombone) Lucas Niggli (percussion)
Eyedrum 6-22-04

Jeff Crompton (alto sax) and Rob Rushin (guitar)
Eyedrum 6-22-04

Home