Tingvall Trio

The three players come from different countries. Despite the wide variety in their backgrounds, a level very much their own emerged from their creative alliance. Among the mentors who taught Swedish pianist Martin Tingvall his craft was Bobo Stenson. Jürgen Spiegel from Bremen, Germany gigged with artists like Nneka, but audiences were “boffoed” above all by his enormously multifaceted playing and the vividness of this percussion work. Double Bass player Omar Rodriguez Calvo from Cuba was already a sideman of Ramon Valle and Roy Hargrove among others. With the addition of Calvo , the music fluctuated back and forth between Scandinavian Jazz/Folk melodies and straight 4 rock rhythms obtaining a southern lightness that easily brought listeners to their feet. Meanwhile seen as one of Europe’s top jazz acts overall.

Over the last 10 years Tingvall Trio has evolved into an unparalleled success story for ‘Jazz made in Germany’. What was once a rough & tumble band from St. Pauli, Hamburg’s equally rough & tumble quarter for amusement of all kinds, is now regarded as one of the premier German export hits in its genre. And it’s certainly no coincidence that this ensemble has managed to unite different generations of listeners behind its musical concept so well that even today’s media-inundated young audience has been regained for Jazz. A brief summary: 3 ECHO JAZZ awards as Ensemble of the Year or Live Act of the Year, 5 JAZZ AWARDS respectively for more than 10,000 units of recorded audio media sold in Germany for each of their 5 studio albums thus far (SKP 9057 Skagerrak, SKP 9077 Norr, SKP 9087 Vattensaga, SKP 9107 Vägen, SKP 9137 Beat), live appearances in almost 30 countries, enthusiastic feedback in magazines such as Jazzwise (UK) and Jazz Life (Japan), not to mention newspapers & periodicals such as El Pais (Spain), DIE ZEIT (Germany), DER SPIEGEL (Germany) or La Stampa (Italy), and last of all, a No. 1 ranking for “Vägen” and No. 4 for the live album “In Concert“ (SKP 9127) on the German Jazz Charts.

This is the first studio album after a 3-year intermezzo. Simply entitled “Beat“. As the name implies, a terse symbol for the time signatures that have fueled Tingvall Trio on its way: catchy melodies, brilliant ensemble playing, no inhibitions about rubbing shoulders with popular music. Jazz that reaches audiences’ hearts and flirts using all the dynamics at a Rock band’s command. Once again the trio has banked on Stefano Amerio, ‘house recording engineer’ for ECM and grand master at his ARTE SUONO studio in Udine, Italy, to capture these pieces of music, all of which have once again been composed by Martin Tingvall. And here too it’s the irresistible blend of deep-reaching compositions like “Den Gamle Eken“ (‘The Old Oak’) and “Helig“ (‘Holy’), exuberantly popping stunners like “Spöksteg“ (‘Spook Steps’), the sinister “I Skuggorna“ (‘In The Darkness’), and magic moments like those in the stand-alone title track “Beat“ that conjure up the trio’s inimitable sound.  This time Omar Rodriguez Calvo has enlarged his sound spectrum in versatile ways by adding bowed upright bass, while Jürgen Spiegel has kit-upgraded his sound with an equally unusual and unexpected arsenal of percussion: washboard, garbage cans, picture frames and wood blocks, to name a few. With Martin Tingvall at the wheel, a pianist influenced by everything from McCoy Tyner to Black Sabbath, and music that allows poetry to flow, yet without masking the occasionally cryptic and darker side within his compositions.