Robert Morgenthaler, Tanel Ruben, Urs Roellin, photo: Mara Roellin

Robert Morgenthaler tromb, efx (Switzerland)

Urs Röllin g, efx (Switzerland)

Tanel Ruben dr (Estonia)

The Swiss duo Morgenthaler/Röllin has played together for more than twenty years and are showered with positive reviews as an ‘innovative duo at the musical frontier’. Estonian drummer Tanel Ruben, named Jazz Musician of the Year in 2008, joined the duo in 2018 to form a power trio that seems to understand each other blindly. ‘Tanel Ruben has become one of Estonia's most influential and famous jazz drummers, known as an extremely active and versatile musician.’

cover by ralph schraivogel

Following ‘Hello Mr. Z’, which was dedicated to Frank Zappa, they now present ‘Alarmstufe Rot’, a carefully produced work that showcases their band sound even more powerfully. After many concerts in Switzerland and abroad, the music has now become mature and, thanks to its playfulness and blindly trusting interplay, seems to come from a single source: light-footed and cheeky. What is anything but banal in terms of form, with many breaks and twists that keep listeners entertained, is effortlessly held together by a common thread. No pigeonholing, just free-flowing creativity, moving between different musical worlds. This challenges our listening behaviour without overwhelming it and makes us curious about what is to come. Their musical experience makes the music unique and they always develop their unmistakable band sound in the here and now.

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Cover by Urs Saegesser

Actually, it's not too much of a mystery. Behind the mystical project name “Mister Z” is no one no less than Frank Zappa, the grandmaster of musical fusion, with whom many impossible elements could be combined to form an astonishingly coherent whole. Didn't he also write the legendary phrase, which people still like to use today, that jazz wasn't dead, but would only smell a little funny?

Meanwhile, there are a number of bands whose jazz interpretation does not stink at all, but come without a musty, mushy after-taste. The trio, formed by Swiss trombonist Robert Morgenthaler and his permanent partner, guitarist Urs Röllin, with drummer Tanel Ruben from Estonia, is undoubtedly one of them. The three recorded an album in the spirit of the idol who died in 1993, in which they flowed “mind open” through nine lively songs and managed to transfer their fun one to one to those listeners who are eager for an alternative to music consumption dominated by playlists.

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