Jazz at JAKI: Florian Herzog "Almost Natural"

Double bassist and composer Florian Herzog presents his quartet, consisting of long-time companions from New York and Cologne, to the public for the first time. The culmination of years of composing and experimenting behind closed doors: twisted grooves, wild improvisations and wacky catchy melodies.

Herzog's new band has a top-class line-up: "Somewhere in the middle between Albert Ayler and Lester Young, radical and at the same time shyly pleading, in an unmistakable shape of its own," says music journalist Stephan Hentz about the playing of saxophonist Sebastian Gille, who is also a winner of the SWR Jazz Prize, among other awards. "A true revelation" writes Paolo Peviani about the New York-based pianist Elias Stemeseder, whose current projects include the Greg Cohen Quintet and Philipp Gropper's PHILM. In 2022, the Austrian released his first solo album on Intakt Records. Cologne drummer Leif Berger recently released "Hinweis auf die Sonne" - his first album as bandleader - is an active member of the local scene and stands out with his pointedly sensitive playing. Herzog himself is just as active as his band colleagues: Trillmann and the duo Rogue Amoeba with Berlin drummer Lukas Akintaya are among the projects in which he is involved as co-leader.