The Schlippenbach Trio has been an institution on the European improvised music scene for over fifty years now. Von Schlippenbach started the trio In 1970, with Evan Parker on saxophone and Paul Lovens (in recent years Paul Lytton) on drums. Except for many performances on different continents, in December each year they went on their famous European Winterreise.
In 2020 the line-up of the trio changed, with clarinetist Rudi Mahall and Norwegian drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen joining Alexander von Schlippenbach for the New Schlippenbach Trio.
Alexander von Schlippenbach about the trio: “To my earliest favorites in jazz, which also gave me an idea of sound, certainly belong the Benny Goodman Trio’s with Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa 1940/50. The absence of the bass – nowadays often overturned – gives the music a certain context: more clearness and transparence. Later I got further confirmation of that by listening to the live recordings of Cecil Taylor, Jimmie Lyons and Sunny Murray at Café Montmartre.
Evan Parker, Paul Lovens and myself started a trio in 1970. From the very beginning we were playing just improvised music. Within 40 years we produced a good amount of albums on FMP, Psi, and INTAKT Records. We performed on many important European festivals and the Goethe Institut has sent us on tour to Asia, Australia, the USA and Brazil. Every year we did the Winterreise: an established regular tour in the beginning of December.”
