ROUZBEH ASGARIAN TRIO

A refreshingly vibrant melange of jazz, rock, pop and funk elements, combined with echoes of Oriental music and European avant-garde, has manifested itself in quite complex structures without even exuding the touch of academic detachment.

The unusual, almost exotic musical style, which combined such rare bars and rhythms, such as a 19/4 bar, such seemingly irreconcilable opposites, such as violently distorted guitar and even double bass sounds, in the jazz idiom with powerful drumming groove, has combined so harmoniously in the person of the native Iranian Rouzbeh Asgarian, to a personal style, that no wishes remain open even for discerning listeners. Asgarian is not only the composer of all song titles, but his advanced guitar playing dynamically pervades all musical structures.

The fact that he fully integrates his fellow players even in his most virtuosic parts is certainly also due to the artistic format of the same.

With Joe Hertenstein on drums, who initially studied music in Munich, Rotterdam, Berlin and Cologne and moved to New York City in 2007, and completed the Master of Arts in the Jazz course of Queens College, and the double bassist Stefan Rey, who completed his studies in the subject of jazz double bass with top grade in 2014 and has participated in several productions of the WDR BigBand and has worked with, among others, Vince Mendoza, Becca Stevens, Michael Mossman, Bert Joris and Bireli Lagrene, Asgarian will go on a musical journey that remains in the ears and also in the mind.

Composition:

• Stefan Rey: Bass

Joe Hertenstein as Drums Rouzbeh Asgarian as Guitar

"An eclectic mix of insane meter, cool jazz grooves and suspense-laden" Distortion elevates Asgarian to the upper level of European artists (...).

Criticaljazz.com 03/14 (Brent Black)

The German-Iranian guitarist Rouzbeh Asgarian shows on his new album Waiting, which he counts among the most imaginative guitarists of the younger generation. (...) the best example of how intelligent music is still written and played today.

Musikansich.de 05/14 (Ingo Andrushkevich)

"Rouzbeh Asgarian creates with his Melange an unusual music that remains in the ears and also in the mind." Interkultur Stuttgart 06/14 (Jürgen Spieß)

"Invigorating, melodic, energetic and open to individual expression (...)." Criticaljazz 07/14 (Thierry Giard)

Despite modern sounds and cool-scratchy funk, ‘Waiting’ seems romantic. Guitar and trumpet sing, the double bass springs, the drums pulsate, whether hard or plump, the sound is aesthetic, even with a rough fiber structure.

Jazzzeitung 06/14 (Stephanie Knauer)