Jazz at JAKI: Christoph Grab’s Blossom

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"This is visionary no-nonsense jazz with the power of the former Loft Scene, a pinch of Mingus and a dash of David Murray. With Grab, sophisticated time changes and powerful swing are not mutually exclusive. He still plays his horn with the earthiness of a Ben Webster and the intervallic joy of a Bennie Wallace. (...)" This is how the German jazz critic Hans-Jürgen Schaal describes the new album BLOSSOM in the magazine Jazzthetik. The Swiss jazz magazine Jazz'n'more writes: "The debut album contains everything that characterizes the conciseness and freedom of jazz. (...) The nine tracks offer plenty of collective ramifications and eruptions, always grounded by catchy motifs, flowing improvisations and a rhythmic punch. With BLOSSOM, Christoph Grab has created a band that can play very anchored and very free at the same time. More than merely interacting, it functions as a single organism. (...)"

Christoph Grab is currently active internationally with his jazz projects RAW VISION (with Graupe, Lüscher, Walser, Paratte) and REFLECTIONS (with Thöni, Tschopp, Oester, Baschnagel) and his Hammond trio TOUGH TENOR. Besides his work as a freelancer in the Swiss jazz scene, he belongs to many permanent formations e.g. Zurich Jazz Orchestra, Christoph Steiner's Escape Argot, Reto Anneler's Stille Post, ELLINGTONALITY, Axel Fischbacher Oktett, etc.
His intensive involvement with live electronics and his performances with toys hacked and modified into sound machines also gained him attention in the electronic and DJ scene.
In addition to his active musicianship, Christoph Grab has been a professor of saxophone and improvisation at the Jazz Faculty of the Zurich University of the Arts since 1998.