Three guys from Zurich generating jazz full of energy. Music that floats never hesitates or drifts away, but surges straight to the crest of a mountain wind then surfs direct to the valley floor to work the land with razor-sharp rhythms and soulful sounds. Rusconi Trio is THE alternative to nuclear power and remote heating, a musical blast furnace, a high-pressure area headed straight at YOU.
-David Hesse
The three musicians were all just in the early twenties when they met in 2001. And each of them was still studying at a famous college of music – in Zurich, Lucerne and Bern. But things simply clicked between Stefan Rusconi (piano), Fabian Gisler (bass) and Claudio Strüby (drums), so they lost no time in getting together and founding RUSCONI, one of the most promising formations in contemporary jazz. Since then, they have given countless concerts both at home and abroad, and have released two CD‘s. And since then, audiences and critics alike have been impressed by the way the three Swiss musicians breathe new life into the classic jazz trio, filling it with groove and poetry. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote: "This is the subtlest piano jazz, with harmonic progressions often reminiscent of classical music from the Romantic era, though the pulse and the swing were never missing, and the lyrical melodies never descended into mere purring."
Now RUSCONI releases its début "One up down left right" on the Sony label. "The line-up as a classic jazz trio is a stroke of luck for us", says Stefan Rusconi. "One important point for us is the compression of our mutual action. This can find expression, for example, in the beauty of a melody and the intention to get to the heart of it together at just the right moment. Melody, rhythm, harmony, structure, sound – these are the cornerstones of our musical cosmos."
The new album features twelve of the group‘s own compositions, all of which underscore the creed of its leader, Stefan Rusconi: "I love music produced amidst the creative tension between more sound-oriented, European music on the one hand and the rhythmic emphasis of the American jazz tradition on the other." And we hear this typical RUSCONI sound straight away in the opening track, "Playbox", which grab‘s the listener‘s attention with its pulsating rhythms, balladesque lyricism and magic pull. But this is no more jazz in its pure form than the title number, "One up down left right" with its taut groove, or the lively high-tempo number "Helsinki". Here, too, the music is permeated by pop and rock influences, with the distinction that they are now subjected to a treatment as complex as it is laden with tension. But the RUSCONI team is also very capable of expressing itself more gently, as can be clearly heard in jazzoid urban nocturnes like "Bribe the Wrong Guy" and "So Far".
