Free jazz is dead, long live jazz!
"The Trilogy" from Stuttgart improvises around common standards.

A morning drink at "'s Café" in Sindelfingen:
Free jazz is dead, long live jazz!

"The Trilogy" from Stuttgart improvises around established standards

New space, new events, new guests:

"'s Café" in Sindelfingen's Turmgasse hosted a jazz brunch with the Stuttgart trio "The Trilogy." Nearly 50 guests filled the small space at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. The newly renovated room was bright and welcoming, and offered a complimentary breakfast buffet.

Jazz on Sunday, the traditional family day of the Christian West, especially in the morning when nerves aren't yet set in by the day's rhythms? A cheap prejudice, because "free jazz belongs to a bygone era; it was music by musicians for musicians." Double bassist Branko Arnsek of "The Trilogy" categorically excludes self-indulgence on the instrument—but not free improvisation: "We orient ourselves toward the established standards of classic jazz."

The sheet music promises Miles Davis's "Someday My Prince."

Gary Burton and Keith Jarrett. But: "The theme doesn't even last a minute," the trio's pieces are grouped, varied, and improvised around it. Under one premise: "We can't just appeal to ten people." Is there a commercialized, popular jazz swinging between the lines? Not at all. The musical understanding of the "Trilogy" is based on different standards: "Jazz has always borrowed themes from mainstream music, from musicals, from pop music. But we develop them further using the means of its own medium, in close contact with the audience," explains pianist Rade Soric.

The three guys should know: Soric, from Düsseldorf, and drummer Hans Fickelscheer are studying in Stuttgart, double bassist Branko Arnsek in Bern – jazz, of course, "if you can even study jazz," Rade Soric clarifies.

He doesn't answer the question he himself poses: "The diploma is important. With it, you can work as a music teacher."

Future prospects? The "Trilogy" has only been playing together for six months. The prospects for jazz are better today than they have been in a long time. "More and more promoters in the region are focusing on jazz music. Just recently, Nina Simon had a classic jazz track in the charts. We have a kind of irregular, ongoing engagement at the Heslach Schützenhaus," says Branko Arnsek, assessing the situation positively.

And perhaps soon another at "*s Café" in Sindelfingen.

Because there, the trio presented classic jazz themes in a coordinated way, arranging the pieces without rigidly adhering to the basic concept. "The Trilogy" shares a common understanding: "You are your own composer when you play. And yet, composition plays less of a role than the interaction between the musicians and with the audience."

AXEL NOVAK SZ 1990