The WHO Zoo CD was released as a double CD (acoustic & electric) in 2014 but here are presented as separate recordings. In the AUR-14 edition the acoustic pieces are featured.
The trio of Michel Wintsch (Geneva, Switzerland), Bänz Oester (Bern, Switzerland) and Gerry Hemingway (from NYC now living in Luzern Switzerland) began touring and recording together in 1998. As the trio has developed it's sound and conception, a compelling evolution has developed from the diverse compositional and improvisational sensibilities of all three members. What has grown from those sensibilities is an openness, a willingness to listen and dig deeply into the uncharted terrain of open improvisation. The WHO trio are now clearly three musicians whose refined listening yields an uncommon musical sensitivity, an unspoken agreement that the collective creation is priority over individual contributions, and an honesty and immediacy that engage every audience in every context.
Bill Shoemaker wrote this about the Trio in 2002... The trio repeatedly stretched the conventions of the modern jazz piano format to the brink of disfigurement, without crossing over into pat deconstructivist gestures. Each player exerted a determined independence in developing materials; but as in the case of Paul Bley's classic trios, there is a spaciousness immediately asserted that each player's mobility is easily incorporated into the work.
All three musicians have excellent skills: Wintsch can unleash withering unison lines that suddenly splay to create dizzying contrapuntal mazes: Oester has a deft sense of leading with a big sound and letting phrases build in its wake; and Hemingway has a seemingly bottomless reservoir of ways to shape the pulse on a second by second basis. WHO Trio provides a truly open forum for them to roam.
This recording is available as a double CD, which is still in print and can be purchased from gerryhemingway.com/auricle.html
credits
released October 14, 2014
AUR-14
The WHO ZOO - Acoustic
WHO trio
Michel Wintsch: piano
Gerry Hemingway: drums
Bänz Oester: double bass
All works by Michel Wintsch (SUISA), Baenz Oester (SUISA), Gerry Hemingway (GEMA/BMI)
Track 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6 recorded February 13, 2012 and later mixed in
Bern, Switzerland at Hochschule der Künste Bern by Benoit Piccand
Track 4 recorded November 29, 2011 in Jerusalem, Israel
in performance at the club Yellow Submarine
Track 7 recorded October 25, 2013 Xylème Studio,
Geneva, Switzerland by Michel Wintsch
Edited & produced by the WHO trio
Mastered by Christian Guggenbühl
Photo: Fribourg portrait (2013) Jordan Hemingway
Cover Photo: Michel Wintsch
Design: Gerry Hemingway
Auricle Records is the artist owned label established in 1978 by composer, percussionist, visual artist and songwriter Gerry Hemingway. For more information visit his website.
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