If asked for the reason, why he put his guitar trio together, Claus states smiling,
"To my ears, nothing can compare to the sound of a fine piano trio ...
and I´ve always been a person, who likes challenges ..."
After the first gig, there were two reasons to keep the trio working:
Uwe Urbanowski - the "basstronaut". His sound and groove were the
foundation for numerous recordings with numerous artists such as
Zawinul Syndicate´s Allegre Correa or the Vienna Art Orchestra.
His solo CD "strings and fingers" was voted number one by Austria’s
renowned jazz critic Giselher Smekal.
Walther Grossrubatscher - as "housedrummer" in Vienna’s renowned
jazz club “Jazzland” he accompanied numerous great jazz artists such as
Woody Shaw, Pete & Conte Candoli, Horace Parlan, Lew Tabackin, Johnny Griffin,
Jon Hendrix, Gene Harris, ...
And they all loved him.
Very soon the three musicians found their joy in searching for the unpredictable
and never playing too "straight ahead" - but at the same time never denying their roots in mainstream jazz and blues.
Claus refuses to give a definition of the music "jazz". and so, instead of
philosophical or sociological thoughts, he gives a very simple inside tip:
"as a musician, sometimes all you want to do is sit on your ass and play the
nicest song that comes to your mind as well as you can in this very moment -
without compromising to any trends, may these be world music, avantgarde
or whatever. And if then nobody in the band falls into any kind of egotrip, a great
evening is almost guaranteed."
At live concerts communication among the musicians and with the audience
plays an important part. And a little self-mocking Claus states, "The unique selling point of the trio is probably only made possible by the moderate volume we choose at our gigs: after each tune the applause of the audience is much louder than what we just played."
The trio hesitated to go to the recording studio at first. After all it was the great Mick
Goodrick, who once said, "Recording music can be viewed as a way to kill music"
but also - sounding a little less dangerous -, "Recording is like going for a walk on the
beach and then turning around to see the footprints you have left behind."
In December 2008 the trio decided to leave some footprints.
According to the climatic circumstances in middle Europe, these are probably
footprints in the snow rather than in the sand and so suited for melting away rather than
for being blown in the wind.
Anyway, the title chosen is still pictures. That’s how it sounded on this very day.
It sounded different on every day before and it will sound different on any day to come.
And that´s just fine ...
