Since he moved from Vienna to Cologne, Nicolas Simion became an important voice on the european jazz scene, where he worked together with musicians like Mal Waldron, Tomasz Stanko, Dusko Goykovich, Archie Shepp, Charlie Mariano and Lee Konitz. The music of the band moves between hardbop and folk elements, beween powerplay and melancholy.
The German critic Walter Schätzlein wrote:
"When European Jazz remembers its own roots, it can find its own identity. One of the few, wonderful pieces of evidence is supplied by the Romanian Nicolas Simion. Like his models Béla Bartòk and George Enescu, he draws on the inexhaustible reservoir of his Transylvanian native country for his compositions, without neglecting the connecting points to bebop and hardbop. As bandleader and tenor player, Simion acts creatively and passionately: the scale of his expression is fascinating: from the aggressive to the meditative, from lyrical to hot."
