Slowfox

MUSIC & BANDS

LINEUP:

Hayden Chisholm – Saxophone, Flute
Philip Zoubek – Piano, Prepared Piano, Moog
Sebastian Gramss – Double Bass, Spacebass / Composition

“Freedom shows a very tidy synthesis of modern sound aesthetics and our own conception of contemporary melodies without stylistic restricted areas. Meticulously thought out and arranged, put together with intuition and know-how and set in motion, this complex stuff is neverthelesseasy to catch.”

NEWS: New album SLOWFOX 5 – ATLAS (rent a dog, 2023) is out!

Slowfox feat. Valentin Garvie (zink, trumpet, piccolo trumpet) & Martin de Lassaletta (double bass) with arangements of music from around the globe!
Listen, download, order now on Bandcamp

Nominated for Deutscher Jazzpreis instrumental album of the year (2022)
Nominated for Deutscher Jazzpreis Bass for Sebastian Gramss (2022)
WDR Jazz award for Philip Zoubek (2020)
ECHO Bass for Sebastian Gramss (2013 & 2018)
Nominated for German Jazz award (2017)
SWR Jazz award for Hayden Chisholm (2014)

For the band’s 10th anniversary, the Cologne trio surprises us as Slowfox 5 with a very special fourth album: “Atlas” is dedicated to the tonal diversity of our world in 23 episodes and explores traditional folk tunes from all five continents in a quintet formation.

The Atlas program ranges from an Argentinian miloga and music from the Andes to the Japanese court music style gagaku or the Sudanese primal trumpets of the Waza Ensemble to Tibetan long horns, an Indian raga alongside gospel and folk music from Austria, England and New Zealand.

The five globetrotters from Slowfox 5 have traveled all continents in 3 decades, always with an open ear for the “local sound” and its representatives in direct exchange with local musicians. This resulted in an extensive collection of special finds, which they used as a starting point for the 23 tracks on the new album.

As part of a South American tour, the present recordings were made in 2022 in the legendary Studio Espacio Aguaribay in Buenos Aires. In addition to bandleader Sebastian Gramss on the double bass, saxophonist Hayden Chisholm and pianist Philip Zoubek, the Argentinian trumpet virtuoso from the Ensemble Modern Valentin Garvie and the exceptional Patagonian double bass player Martin de Lassaletta will play as guests.

As before, the international formation consciously dispenses with drums or percussion and yet creates a complex and rhythmically diverse sound that, inspired by the originals, does not intend any authentic takeovers, but rather uses the raw material as a starting point for a new context, full of respect for the origin and tradition of the different pieces.

Thus “Atlas” represents in the best sense an image of the great musical diversity of our world. Slowfox 5 manages to lift 23 special musical treasures and to help them to new splendor through their personal filter.

Slowfox 5 – ATLAS

(rent a dog, 2023)

order CD or download on Bandcamp

FREEDOM

(rent a dog, 2021)


I will tell you what freedom is to me – no fear!
I mean really, no fear!
Nina Simone

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GENTLE GIANTS

(TRAUMTON Records, 2017) – ECHO award


And those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music.

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THE WOOD

(Jazzwerkstatt Berlin, 2014)


The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

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JAZZTHETIK 05/14: ****

“Eine Metamorphose – eine in Klang umgesetztes Gedicht… …Sebastian Gramss besitzt neben seiner direkten musikalischen Sprache, die er mit Bands wie Underkarl oder Fossile3 umsetzt, these recommendations, die Emotionen streichelnde Klangsprache, die weder aufdringlich noch vorlaut, sondern einfach nur die Seele streichelnde Zurückhaltung aus dem Hintergrund ganz nach vorne stellt…”

Rondomagazin

“New Jazz Techniken und Neue Musik Impulse ergänzen sich perfekt zu einem integrierten Ensembleklang – mit Raum für großartige unaufgeregte Bass-Soli, exquisite Klavierklänge und berückend die Mariano/ Konitz Tradition fortsetzende Saxofonlinien.”

flac.xyz

“This exceptional Cologne based trio of the double bass player and ECHO award winner Sebastian Gramss present us with their second album ‘GENTLE GIANTS’ (Traumton, Berlin). After their acclaimed debut ‘The Wood’ in 2013, the trio lifts their lyrical style to perfection with the new album and develops a subtle depth, in which there is so much to discover.
On board: Sax player Hayden Chisholm – SWR award winner originally from New Zealand, and Austrian born piano player Philip Zoubek. The trio’s appealing and ambitious approach harmoniously brings together refined structures and improvisations, appealing to both the mind and the soul.

Slowfox – Gentle Giants From all the unconventional projects Sebastian Gramss has initiated, Slowfox is the most melodic. Essentially that is true; nonetheless, also this assessment should be seen in relation. Of course ECHO-award-winners Gramss, Hayden Chrisholm und Philip Zoubek are much too reflective to stray onto the thin ice of entertainment. “We invite the listener by connecting to something familiar,” Sebastian Gramss describes the starting point from which the trio develops chamber-musical aesthetics of sharpened senses. Gentle Giants comes alive through a subtle profoundness, in which there is a lot to discover: harmonic finesse, elegant sound ideas, and fine imaginative powers. Bandleader Gramss, who also functioned as the producer of the record, calls the music “Melodic Avant-garde”. Different from the subversive avant-garde of earlier decades, Slowfox only changes a few specific rather than all established parameters. The open approach of the trio brings together crafty structures and improvisations and appeals to intellect and heart alike. Instead of bold speed or muscle flexing there are atmospheric nuances and slender sounds, which interlock in transparent arrangements. At the first listening the omission of any percussion already becomes apparent. Certainly Slowfox is not unique in this aspect, although the concept still seems quite uncommon in a jazz-context. Of course Slowfox can also swing without a specific beat, however, other qualities are the focus here. Unlike the debut album released in 2014, all compositions on Gentle Giants are written by Gramss specially for this formation. “On the first record we explored the possibilities of the new formation and therefore I resorted partly to tried and trusted material,” Gramss recollects. “Thereafter the band sound was generally clear.” Subsequently the trio played live a lot and carved out as mewb its contours more and more clearly. It was essential to this new work, to carry on the individual path. It took about a year to find fitting pieces and to formulate them, Gramss says. In the summer of 2016 there was an extensive tour, so Slowfox had the chance to bring many of the pieces from Gentle Giants to life on stage before they went to the studio in mid-September. Born 1966 in Wilhelmshaven, Sebastian Gramss began playing guitar and electric-bass, which later led him to the double bass and it was Louis Armstrong, Progressive-Rock and Weather Report that brought him to jazz. In the past decades he has worked with sound-rebels like Fred Frith and Elliot Sharp, as well as free jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann and has written music for Pina Bausch and Hans Kresnik. Gramss’ most unusual project is probably the orchestra click here to learn more consisting of 50 bassists named Bassmasse [Bass mass]. Gramss already played with Hayden Chrisholm before Slowfox; back in 1996 they were already sharing a rehearsal room. The saxophonist with the clear tone came to Cologne through a DAAD-scholarship and in the mean time also studied in Japan and in India. On his solo debut Circe he amazed with a self-devised microtonal system and since then Chrisholm played with Root70, David Sylvian and others. Furthermore, he created music for films and installations of Rebecca Horn. In 2013 he was awarded the SWR-Jazz-Prize. Philip Zoubek studied in Vienna and from there resettled to Cologne in 2001. For over 10 years the unconventional pianist has been in contact with Gramss and also played with Louis Sclavis, Rudi Mahall, Simon Nabatov, Clayton Thomas and many more. His trademark is extensive preparation of the grand piano with aluminum pots, glasses and plastic toys, which decisively expand on Cage’s basic idea. Just like for their debut album, Slowfox has found a poetic guiding motif for Gentle Giants as well, and its words were interspersed throughout the titles in the track listing. Since the order of the compositions on the album obviously follows a tonal dramaturgy, some of them now randomly carry peculiar names like “Were”, “To Be” or “The”. The entire quote – “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music“ – is accredited to Friedrich Nietzsche, Gramss says, but it is uncertain if it really originated with the philosopher. What is for sure though, is that the clarity and deeper meaning of the sentence Slowfox very well. The trio’s nuanced music can make the mind dance and its listeners will definitely not be declared insane.”