The three friends and colleagues Andreas Kurz, Johannes Ludwig and Alex Parzhuber have made intensive use of the last two years to end their evening after their day of teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with a trio rehearsal. From this, a working band in the truest sense of the word has developed, one that seeks and finds a common language. One that has established an open forum in which everyone can contribute whatever they consider valuable and want to try out.

All three are virtuosos on their instruments and yet always place melody and the deeper meaning of the music at the centre. They explore their compositions and improvise as a team, always focusing on maximum honesty and depth. This is how fascinating musical structures are created, which repeatedly take unexpected turns but still seem immediately familiar, even if you have never heard them in this way before.

The same applies to the internationally celebrated saxophonist Loren Stillman, who repeatedly enriches the trio by becoming a quartet. The American alto and tenor saxophonist has an impressive CV. Among other things, he has played in the bands of Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, has an impressive discography as a bandleader and is an absolutely extraordinary voice on his instrument, the likes of which are rarely heard. World class is no exaggeration in this case.

Stillman and Ludwig have been close friends for 15 years, and they had already played in a band with Parzhuber. So it is easy for the four of them to combine the aesthetics, sound and ideals of a band when improvising – everything fits, they know and trust each other and can simply let the music happen together.

The music on the new album radiates a very special calm and depth. Nobody has to prove anything; the world-class musician fits seamlessly into a collective, and something bigger and more special emerges. Many of the compositions have a song-like character and are earworms in the most positive sense. Although all four participants have contributed material, the result is a cohesive, absolutely stringent aesthetic that shows how much all four define themselves as composers, not only through their abilities on their instruments.

But the recording also gives great pleasure in terms of sound, because the outstanding acoustics of the Deutschlandfunk chamber music hall in Cologne did the rest to ensure that a very lively recording full of personality and soul could be created here.

Biographies of the band members:

Johannes Ludwig (alto saxophone)

Johannes Ludwig (born 1988) is a German saxophonist, composer and producer.
He works mainly in artistic projects in the broad field of contemporary jazz and related music..
His current projects are The Human Element, Heidi Bayer's Virtual Leak, the band Vagabond Souls, which recorded its debut album in 2021 at the Deutschlandfunk chamber music hall in Cologne, and the duo Nano Brothers. He is also currently producing an electro-acoustic pop EP and an ambient album. .
In recent years, his main projects have been the New York City-based band Immigration Booth, the Cologne-based Subway Jazz Orchestra and the Fearless Trio with Simon Nabatov and Fabian Arends. As a sideman, he has played with the WDR Bigband, Jürgen Friedrich semisong, the CCJO and the Johannes Enders Saxophone Quartet, among others. In 2021, he was featured as a composer and soloist with the WDR Bigband..
Composition plays an equally important role in his work, which is already documented on over 20 albums, more than 10 of which he has released as a bandleader. From 2014-2024, Johannes ran the label FLOATmusic together with Jens Böckamp. In 2023, he founded another label, Owl Way Records, to reposition himself..
He is a lecturer in big band conducting and jazz saxophone at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and curates the UpBeat Hohenlohe jazz festival. .
www.johannesludwig.com

Andreas Kurz (Bass)

Andreas Kurz (born 1979) studied contrabass at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich under Prof. Klaus Trumpf and at the Richard Strauss Conservatory under Paolo Cardoso.
Even before his studies, Kurz was a member of the Bavarian State Youth Jazz Orchestra and the German Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra. During the course of his career, he has played with greats such as Benny Golson, Rick Margitza, Vincent Herring, Don Friedman, Lynne Arriale, Karl Ratzer, Joe Locke, John Betsch, John Hollenbeck, Fritz Pauer, Ralph Lalama, Rudi Mahall, Nicholas Simion, Alan Jones, Miles Griffith, Nils Wogram, Rob Pronk, John Taylor, Bill Elgart, Wolfgang Haffner, Charly Antolini, Gustl Mayer, Dusko Goykovich, Ferdinand Powell, Paul Kuhn, Johannes Enders, Jamie Cullum, Max Mutzke, Peter O ́Mara, Rebekka Bakken, Harald Rüschenbaum, Geoff Goodman and Ack van Rooyen.
Concert tours have already taken him to Australia, the USA, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, France and the Czech Republic, among other places.
In 2009, Andreas Kurz was awarded the ‘Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis’; the following year, he won the ‘Neuen Deutschen Jazzpreis’ with the ‘Tim Allhoff Trio’.
Kurz can now be heard on more than 30 CD productions.
In 2014, his debut album under his own name, ‘Caught into something turning’, was released by Doublemoon Records. Now he is presenting his second release under his own name.
http://www.andreaskurz.com

Alexander Parzhuber (drums)

Alexander Parzhuber, (*1996) is a young drummer, composer, mixing/mastering engineer and university lecturer from Cologne.
From October 2014 to March 2020, he completed his Bachelor of Music with a major in jazz drums at the Cologne University of Music and Dance under Prof. Jonas Burgwinkel, Alex Vesper and Dietmar Fuhr.
During his studies in Cologne, Alexander was a member of the German National Youth Jazz Orchestra from 2016 to 2018, where he worked with artists such as Niels Klein, Jiggs Whigham, Randy Brecker, Jörg Achim Keller, Pablo Held and the WDR Big Band, and played various tours worldwide.
In 2020/2021, a DAAD scholarship enabled him to study for a year in France at the Conservatoire Supérieur National de Musique et de Danse de Paris with, among others, Drè Pallemaerts.
Currently, Alexander mainly plays in his own artistic projects, such as the Parzhuber Trio, The Human Element, Kurz/Ludwig/Parzhuber, Simon Nabatov Trio, La Campagne, Vagabond Souls and Byrd Dhillon.
As a sideman, he has played nationally and internationally with Simon Nabatov, Nathan East, Tineke Postma, the WDR Big Band, the Subway Jazz Orchestra, the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, projects by Fabian Dudek, Heidi Bayer's Virtual Leak, Simon Oslender and the Jacob Manz Project.
In addition to live performances, Alexander regularly mixes and masters albums, such as River - The Human Element, Percussion EP II - Felix Hauptmann, Janos Löber 4tet and records drums for artists such as Lisl and Lisa Spielmann. Since the winter semester of 2021/22, Alexander has been teaching jazz drums at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.
https://www.alexanderparzhuber.com

Loren Stillman (tenor saxophone)

Renowned saxophonist and composer Loren Stillman has earned worldwide acclaim for his contributions to modern jazz and praise from respected publications such as the New York Times, Downbeat Magazine, Jazziz, Jazz Times and National Public Radio. Trained under jazz greats such as Lee Konitz, David Liebman and Ted Nash, Stillman has established himself as an innovative and influential voice in the genre.
With an extensive concert history that spans the United States, Europe and Japan, Stillman's artistic reach extends beyond the bandstand. His impressive portfolio includes collaborations with the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, the Paul Motian Trio 2000+2, Carla Bley, John Abercrombie and Michael Formanek's Ensemble Kolossus, among others.
At the beginning of his musical career, Stillman received awards such as two Outstanding Performance Awards (1996 & 1998) and the Rising Star Jazz Artist Award (2004) from *Down Beat Magazine*. A scholarship holder at the Manhattan School of Music (1998) and the New School (2002), Stillman further cemented his reputation by reaching the semi-finals of the Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition in 2002.
In recognition of his compositions, Stillman was honoured with the CMA/ASCAP Award in 2005, followed by the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award. His own releases, including Going Public (Fresh Sound 2013), Winter Fruits (Pirouet 2008) and It Could Be Anything (Fresh Sound 2005), have received rave reviews from respected media outlets such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, BBC Jazz Review, Jazz Man Magazine and Downbeat Magazine.
Nate Chinen highlighted Stillman's influence by including his 2014 album ‘Going Public’ in the list of the most important albums of the 21st century in the book *Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century* (2018).
His most recent awards include the ARPA grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2022.