Thursday, 13 March 2025 8 p.m.
MUG – Munich Underground at Einstein Kultur
Gianni Mimmo, soprano saxophone [I]
Elisabeth Harnik, piano [A]
Clementine Gasser, cello [CH]
About a dozen years after their debut recording,the Wild Chamber Trio, a cross-alpine meeting of the Italian Gianni Mimmo, Swiss Clementine Gasser, and Austrian Elisabeth Harnik, luckily decided to pick up the threads again, and will take us on a joyride through the land of jazz energy and classical sonority without a road map.
The idea of playing improvised music in a “chamber” setting dates back to the early 60s, when cool-jazz reed player Jimmy Giuffre stepped further away from convention in the company of the then-young, now-legendary Steve Swallow and Paul Bley. Compared to the explosive, confrontational, blues-steeped flights of his more-famous contemporary Ornette Coleman, Giuffre’s drumless music was one of an intimate, boundless, searching dialogue.
Sixty years later, the trio continues the conversation, navigating through sounds of considerable variety and surprising originality. All three constituents possess the prerequisite musical skills for high-level free improvisation. They have the musical ears and brains to pick up and instantly expound upon the most abstract statements of their partners, and the physical ability to execute each impulse seamlessly.
The real liberating factor in the group, however, is the huge range of effects the musicians conjure from their actual instruments. The possibilities for new textures expand with each successive minute of their musical conversation. When the trio deals in notes, their dialogues show deep invention and expert cohesion, but when they play with sounds, they attain near-telepathy.
The improvisations open with powerful collective statements of atmosphere, and at moments of climax, the ensemble sound is an overwhelmingly rich cacophony, leaving the listener with the wish not to let the concert ever end.
Location: MUG – Munich Underground at Einstein Kultur
Entrance fee: 15 Euro, members of Offene Ohren e.V. 12 Euro, free admission up to 21 years (inclusive)