Trevor Watts & Stephen Grew (GB)

Trevor Watts: Saxophone
Stephen Grew: Piano

“The two call themselves a duo, and there is no doubt that this is indeed duo music. Trevor Watts and Stephen Grew are not playing against each other, they are about collective creativity.” (Steve Day) Indeed, it has been said more than once after concerts of this duo that it sounds as if there is a real consubstantiality in their playing. They use the full range of dynamics and techniques that they have developed over the course of their different careers. Trevor Watts’ roots go back to the beginnings of improvised music, as a founding member of the pioneering Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME) in the 1960s, and Stephen Grew has been part of the improvised music scene since 1994, performing regularly nationally and internationally as a soloist and in numerous collaborations. The combination of their playing styles leads to a very powerful and deeply felt experience, but also to very delicate interplay. The music seems relaxed and “on the edge” at the same time, like all truly improvised music. Relaxed because it is played that way, and on the edge because no one, least of all the musicians, knows where the journey is going. But the aforementioned affinity of essence is the glue that makes the whole thing work so well together.

Since the 1960s, Trevor Watts has been at the forefront of numerous innovations in jazz/world and improvised music as a saxophonist, percussionist and composer. He is the only living founding member of the legendary Spontaneous Music Ensemble. He also founded Amalgam (with Keith Rowe of AMM) and in the 1980s his Moire Music Group, which included Veryan Weston, Peter Knight, Phil Minton, Lol Coxhill and many others. His Drum Orchestra (1980-1997) consisted of musicians mainly from Ghana. Other prominent musicians* he has worked with include Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy, Antony Braxton, Irène Schweizer, Kent Carter, Marilyn Crispell, Rashied Ali and Steve Swallow. “Stephen Grew is one of the most committed and imaginative pianists in Europe.

His playing, free from the constraints of traditional harmonic, melodic and rhythmic structures, is a virtuoso tour de force of dynamic extremes, percussive effects and spontaneous atonal flourishes, by turns surprising, witty and breathtaking.” (Steve Mead, Manchester Jazz Festival) His music is entirely improvised, and he has toured nationally and internationally as a soloist and in groups for 30 years. He has played and recorded with Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, Howard Riley, Trevor Watts, Pat Thomas to name but a few. “Grew accomplishes what few innovators besides Cecil Taylor, Ahmad Jamal or Keith Jarrett can: he creates entire sound worlds that emerge from a fusion of craftsmanship and imaginative boldness.” (Darren Bergstein, DMG)

Admission: 15/12/6 € (normal price/reduced price/Berlin-Pass)

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8H3-ONICEE
Due to a technical error, the audio quality of the concert recording is severely affected by noise. We apologize for this and will replace the livestream with an edited re-upload of the concert documentation as soon as possible.

19.00 soundwalk with Thomas Gerwin

The concert is part of the contemporary music month: https://www.field-notes.berlin/mdzm