About the concert
The Tom Friedrich Quintett is the epitome of a synergy of young up-and-coming jazz musicians under the direction of the jazz drummer living and studying in Leipzig and former member of the Bundesjazzorchester, Tom Friedrich.
The listener is offered in the original compositions of the bandleader from the very beginning a highly impulsive mixture of different rhythms, virtuosic improvisations as well as exciting composed routes - a characteristic of the quintet of other existing formations, with which Tom can skillfully merge the band in his line-up of tenor saxophone, trumpet / wing horn, piano, bass and drumset through different styles and play styles into a musical overall package.
Inspired, among others, by Brian Blade and his Fellowship Band, Wayne Shorter or Julian Satorius, Tom takes up traditional rhythms in a new guise combined with virtuosic sounds and flowing melodies in his pieces and at the same time arranges them with enough space for free improvisational design for his outstanding fellow musicians.
With Johannes Bigge am Piano, winner of the highly endowed Leipzig Jazz Prize, the Rhythmsection is equipped with a musician who, through his emotional playing, always lets the perfect subject sound out of the keys at the right moment. On the bass, Andris Meinig thrills as an irreplaceable link to the melody instruments with a convincingly rich and earthy tone.
On the wind instruments, Berthold Brauer, alumni of the Bundesjazzorchester, on the trumpet and horn and Maximilian Hirth on the tenor saxophone elegantly prove their instrumental variety coupled with a warm, harmonizing tone.
Pulsating rhythms full of motion and energy pour into developing free parts, each flowing transition within a composition may seep into persistent resting points or end in sudden densification and multilayered overlays.
As a contrast, the ensemble stands just as much for dreamy melodic works, space and space for every event and sound variation, which shimmer unexpectedly as a ray of light from nothing - accompanied by a lively interaction between the musicians, who on stage will always be remembered by the audience as a sympathetic symbolic unity, adjusted to the detail of each movement.