Nils Wogram – trb
Hayden Chisholm – sax
Matt Penman – b
Jochen Rückert – dr
Vertigo Trombone Quartet
Nils Wogram – trb
Andreas Tschopp – trb
Bernhard Bamert – trb
Jan Schreiner – trb
Nostalgia
Nils Wogram – trb
Arno Krijger – org
Dejan Terzic – dr
Muse
Nils Wogram – trb
Kathrin Pechlof – hrf
Hayden Chisholm – sax
Garreth Lubbe – vl, va
ROOT 70 celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025. Trombonist Nils Wogram, saxophonist Hayden Chisholm, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jochen Rückert form one of the most stable formations in jazz history. Making music for two decades with an unchanged line-up is not only remarkable in itself, but in the case of ROOT 70 it is particularly impressive because the band has not chosen the easiest path:
Hayden Chisholm and Matt Penman come from New Zealand and knew each other from an early age. Chisholm came to Cologne via Switzerland as a teenager. Around the same time, Nils Wogram returned from New York to the conservatory in Cologne, where he met Chisholm and Jochen Rückert. The latter had already played independently of the saxophonist in New York with Matt Penman. Rückert played drums in Wogram’s quartet and when the trombonist asked the drummer who he would like to play bass with, he chose the New Zealander from New York. In the meantime, Chisholm was playing in a trio with Rückert and Penman and invited Wogram as a guest one evening in 1999. “It was the first time the four of us had played together in this combination and I said, this concentration of people is something special, we have to do this for longer than just one gig,” recalls Wogram. Nils Wogram put on his hat and forged a band out of four musicians who were very close musically, a band that would function according to Alexandre Dumas’ principle of “one for all, all for one”. “It always takes one person to catalyze things and get to the point,” says Wogram.
In May 2000, ROOT 70 gave their first concert under this name at the MoersFestival. It is unusual that four personalities, who are such strong individualists not only on their instruments but also as musical characters, nevertheless achieve a highly symbiotic band sound. The four protagonists feel connected by a similar musical value system and are committed to a comparable basic aesthetic. The group builds the tension of its concepts on the contrasting nature of the musicians, which constantly leads to new overlaps, breaks, changes of perspective and convergences. Each of the four has found their place in the band, which is flexible and takes account of their personal differences. If it were otherwise, the salt in the soup would be missing.
After the first three albums, the band switched to concept albums, for which Wogram cites two reasons: “Avoiding arbitrariness gave us a conceptual framework that didn’t allow us to digress eclectically. This focus was helpful when composing and programming. The other reason was the precise exploration of a theme. We didn’t just want to scratch the surface, we wanted to go into depth. We were interested in the question of how freedom can be explored and found within certain boundaries.”
What brought the four musicians together in the beginning still connects them today. ROOT 70 is more than a musical institution, a success story documented on eight albums. ROOT 70 is a utopia that has become reality – the reconciliation of opposites without violating the individual claim of each part of the whole.
Can a pure trombone quartet be entertaining and amusing without losing itself in the abysses of popular music? It can. With its third album OPENNESS (NwogRecords, release date 13.9.2024), the VERTIGO TROMBONE QUARTET with Nils Wogram, Jan Schreiner, Andreas Tschopp and Bernhard Bamert shows that trombone can be fun and four times trombone can be fun to the power of four.
OPENNESS is characterized by an incredible lightness, sophisticated cheerfulness and unconditional openness in all directions. This is not to say that the music is not sophisticated and virtuosic. On the contrary. But Wogram speaks of a charming source of error that one must be able to allow. He also calls it a healthy perfectionism.
Even on the last album of his long-term formation ROOT 70, Nils Wogram displayed a relaxed attitude that is not typical of either contemporary jazz or the trombone. And as the synchronicity of events often plays out, Tschopp, Bamert and Schreiner have arrived at exactly the same level of serenity. Four friends, who never run out of things to talk about, meet in a pleasant situation and simply start talking about whatever comes to mind. No one is the spokesperson, no one wants to be right or take center stage. And yet everyone gets their say with their attitude, their ideas and their urgency (to stay with the image of the trombone).
“We’ve gone through a process as a band since our first album in 2014,” confirms Nils Wogram. “In the beginning, we started out with the message that we would overcome the difficulties that the instrument brings with it. On the third album, we can look back in a relaxed way and let go. Of course, we all have very different approaches. This time we did it in such a way that each piece is designed by the respective composer. They also have the right of veto if they don’t like something. But despite this diversity, it wasn’t difficult for us to find a common line from the outset.”
Strictly speaking, OPENNESS is a live album. The mood conveyed in the music reminds us that “live” is nothing other than a translation for “alive”. OPENNESS features a variety of melodies, timbres, moods, artistic attitudes, individual preferences and constellations within the group. Nothing is defined, everything is open. The four trombonists succeed brilliantly not only in freeing themselves from all expectations, but also in pulverizing every expectation of the listener.
According to Tschopp, Wayne Shorter once said that the opposite of fear is not fearlessness, but openness. On this album, not only does each member find an adequate place with their individual characteristics, but also every listener can settle into the songs, regardless of where their musical socialization is located. In this respect, OPENNESS is more than just a piece of music. It is a real pick-me-up. A utopia at exactly the right time.
Some moments seem chamber music-like, others tend more towards jazz or ambient, if one wants to orient oneself towards such genre fixed points in the topography of sounds. Ultimately, Wogram, Bamert, Tschopp and Schreiner have decided against stylistic definitions. The four musicians move with the greatest possible freedom within the open framework they have created for themselves. The choir of four wind players creates unexpected nuances and overtones. Some are reminiscent of strings, others of keyboards or drums, especially as tuba, melodica and subtle percussion are also used. At some moments, you might even think you are listening to a full big band.
By simultaneously accepting the limits of their instrument and expanding the spectrum of its possibilities, the four great musicians make the best that music can be.
In July, NOSTALGIA TRIO spent a week at Studio Nord Bremen, where they recorded their new album THE WALK, which will be released on NWOG Records in fall 2025. The recording space is a former ballroom and has been used as a recording studio with the finest analog recording technology since 1967. The building also offers a band apartment where the musicians lived as if they were in a shared flat during the recording period – ideal conditions for a relaxed recording session.
And that’s what it’s all about this time: Nils Wogram got his inspiration and contemplation from regular long walks. It’s about getting into a flow and letting the music flow, just like when walking. This resulted in compositions with a song character, which were recorded together by the trio in the great acoustics of the large ballroom. Loose, airy, relaxed and concentrated. Timeless music with depth and sophistication interpreted by a well-rehearsed trio that was founded in 2004 and has been performing live in its current line-up since 2012.
The album NATURE was awarded the Echo Jazz in 2015 and THE WALK sees itself as a further development of the original album concept.
The fact that Wogram masters Albert Mangelsdorff’s instrument, the trombone, with more virtuosity and daring than almost anyone else of his generation in the world contributes to his reputation as a pioneer of contemporary jazz “Made in Germany”. His trio NOSTALGIA takes the opposite approach: back to the swinging and grooving jazz feeling of the 50s and 60s of the last century, when jazz was still at home in the Blue Note or on 52nd Street, and brilliantly masters the balancing act between a nostalgic retro sound and the curious exploration of his own sound structures. Wogram succeeds in conveying an authentic attitude to life in the shortest possible way, without having to present a musical instruction leaflet or a marked hiking map. He simply sets off and takes the listener with him.
The choice of his fellow musicians plays a large part in this. Since jazz organist Arno Krijger plays the bass pedally, he plays the chords with his left hand and the melodies and improvisations with his right. On this basis, Wogram can build the pieces differently. But he also appreciates another quality in Krijger: “Arno is not an organ-playing pianist, he just plays the organ. His self-image gives the organ tonal nuances that are an absolute gain in terms of content.” Wogram not only appreciates drummer Dejan Terzic’s intuitive feel for beat, groove and fire, but above all his sensitivity to dynamics and form.
All or nothing! No half measures! While many other artists experience routine and wear and tear over the course of their careers, Nils Wogram has come to the realization that every new project is also his first project. This is particularly evident on his current CD MUSE (Nwog records, 2021), which he recorded with harpist Kathrin Pechlof, violist and overtone singer Gareth Lubbe and Wogram’s long-time companion Hayden Chisholm on saxophone. But why start again with a completely new band when the trombonist has achieved everything a jazz musician can achieve with bands such as ROOT 70, NOSTALGIA TRIO or the VERTIGO TROMBONE QUARTET and alongside Aki Takase, Simon Nabatov, Bojan Z, Michel Portal and many others? The answer is as simple as it is complex: because Nils Wogram simply cannot help but give in to his impulsive artistic curiosity and, despite everything he has achieved, see what is waiting for him over the horizon.
And so everything about his band MUSE is actually completely different to what we are used to from Nils Wogram and his circle. The only constant remains Hayden Chisholm, a musician who has fully shared the trombonist’s obsessions for decades and who, despite his willingness to take risks, always gives him a little support, not only musically but above all as a person. Wogram has also played with the Berlin-based Kathrin Pechlof and the South African Gareth Lubbe in various settings, but there has never been a line-up like the one on the album MUSE and it is probably unique in music history. The visionary, who never searches just for the sake of searching, but uncompromisingly “finds”, is all the more motivated to make the impossible possible and the unheard audible.
MUSE is a quiet album. Every note counts. Sound is the decisive component. “Allowing this calm, sensual music without questioning from the outset whether it would work in the form of a CD or live performance was the main focus for me,” says Wogram. “I simply like this aesthetic. But it can only work if I implement it consistently. For me, consistency is directly related to clarity. Music with a strong mood always releases strong emotions.” The constellations and transformations in MUSE’s compositions are as varied as the incidence of light at different times of day. The individual sounds interpenetrate each other with such transparency that it is not always possible to tell exactly whether it is harp or viola, or where the multiphonics of the trombone begin and where Lubbe’s overtone singing ends. Chisholm’s saxophone permeates this play of sound lights like a ghost, constantly mediating between physicality and intuition. The harp, a very quiet instrument, to whose level all other sound sources must or are allowed to engage, sets the tone color. For the first time in the long history of his music, Wogram has recorded an album sitting down in order to engage with the demands of the harp from all sides. Kathrin Pechlof, on the other hand, soaks up the input from the trombone, saxophone, viola and voice in her thousand and one strings. This almost fairytale-like harmony is the basis, not the result of the interplay. In this way, it is also very easy to listen to the four participants listening to each other from the outside.
