cosmopolis.ch Open in urlscan Pro
80.74.140.143  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

GET https://cosmopolis.ch/

<form class="header-search" method="get" id="searchform" action="https://cosmopolis.ch/">
  <input class="header-search__input contacts__input" type="text" name="s" id="s" placeholder="Search">
  <button class="header-search__button green-btn" type="submit" name="submit" id="searchsubmit"></button>
</form>

Text Content

Cosmopolis

 * 
 * 
 * 

 * Politics
   * Afghanistan
   * Algeria
   * Argentina
   * Australia
   * Austria
   * Brazil
   * China
   * Economy
   * Egypt
   * Estonia
   * Europe, EU, Euro
   * Foreign Aid
   * France
   * Georgia
   * Germany
   * Greece
   * Hungary
   * India
   * Indonesia
   * Iran
   * Iraq
   * Ireland
   * Israel
   * Italy
   * Japan
   * Latvia
   * Liberalism
   * Malaysia
   * Mexico
   * Moldova
   * Niger
   * North Korea
   * Pakistan
   * Palestine
   * Peru
   * Philippines
   * Poland
   * Portugal
   * Red Cross
   * Russia
   * Saudi Arabia
   * Slovakia
   * South Korea
   * Spain
   * Sri Lanka
   * Switzerland
   * Syria
   * Taiwan
   * Thailand
   * Transnistria
   * Tunisia
   * Turkey
   * Ukraine
   * United Kingdom
   * United States of America, USA
 * History
 * Art
 * Film
 * Music
   * Classical music
   * Jazz
   * Popular music, world music
 * Lifestyle
   * Cocktails
   * Cosmetics, perfumes
   * Famous chefs
   * Interior Design
   * Pens
   * Restaurants
     * Amsterdam
     * Barcelona
     * Berlin
     * Budapest
     * Copenhagen
     * London
     * Madeira
     * Madrid
     * Paris
     * Riga
     * Rome
     * Vienna
     * Warsaw
   * Tea
   * Travel stories
   * Watches
   * Wine
 * Travel
   * Amsterdam
   * Belgium
   * Berlin, Germany
   * Brienz, Switzerland
   * Egypt
     * Aswan
     * Cairo
     * Cairo Media-City (near the Pyramids)
     * Giza
     * Luxor
   * Florence, Italy
   * Geneva, Switzerland
   * Hamburg, Germany
   * Helsinki, Finland
   * Hong Kong, China
   * InterContinental
   * Lisbon, Portugal
   * London, UK
   * Lucerne, Switzerland
   * Lviv, Ukraine
   * Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
   * Madrid, Spain
   * Munich
   * Naples, Italy
   * New York City, USA
   * Paris, France
   * Riga, Latvia
   * Rome, Italy
   * Spain
   * Tallinn
   * Travel stories
   * Venice, Italy
   * Verbier
   * Vienna, Austria
   * Vilnius, Lithuania
   * Warsaw, Poland
   * Washington D.C., USA
   * Zurich, Switzerland

Index / News / Tiny Bell Trio


TINY BELL TRIO

Mar 05, 2001 at 00:00 2954

Dave Douglas on trumpet, Brad Shepik on guitar and Jim Black on drums. Concert
review: Alte Kaserne, Winterthur, Switzerland

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailWhatsAppTumblrDiggReddit

History of Tiny Bell Trio

The Tiny Bell Trio with Dave Douglas on trumpet, Brad Shepik on guitar and Jim
Black on drums is one of the rare truly innovative and exciting trios around.
Founded in 1991 as a group who played in the Bell Café in Soho, New York City,
its name reflects the fact that in the beginning they had to play in a tiny
corner of the mentioned cafe, often ignored by the public who did not actively
listen to them. The trio has gone a long way since their days as an obscure
background ensemble in a cafe.

Formed soon after the arrival of Shepik and Black in New York, the trio’s
repertoire is largely influenced by traditional East European folk music that
Douglas has explored with accordionist Nabila Schwab before. Their first CD,
released in 1994, was simply entitled The Tiny Bell Trio. The same year, the
trio went on their first European tour. The following year, their second album,
Constellations, was released. To promote it, they toured North America as well
as Europe. Besides European folk music, especially from the Balkans, the trio
also began to include other musical influences into their sound, ranging from
classical composer Robert Schumann to George Brassens and Herbie Nichols.

In 1997 followed the album Live in Europe, which is a mix of Serbian,
Macedonian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Klezmer, classical and jazz influences. Their
original blend of “Balkan fusion” is always full of humor. The album is the best
account available of the trio’s live performances. Of course, if you have the
chance to see the trio in the flesh, don’t miss it. Nothing can beat the real
thing, a live performance. The latest release of The Tiny Bell Trio is 1999s
Songs of Wandering Souls.



Dave Douglas: Soul on Soul, 2000. Order the CD from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk.

Biography of Dave Douglas

For the biography of trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas, born in Montclair, New
Jersey, in 1963, as well as CD and concert reviews with some of his other
groups, check the following articles: Dave Douglas’ Sextet and Dave Douglas’
Charms of The Night Sky. In autumn 2001, Dave Douglas is to release a CD
recorded with Tom Waits and a bigger ensemble.

Guitarist and composer Brad Shepik was born in Walla Walla, WA, in 1966, and
raised in Seattle. He moved to New York City in 1990 where, a year later, he
became a member of the Tiny Bell Trio. He leads his own quintet, the Commuters,
featuring Peter Epstein (saxophones), Skuli Sverisson (bass), Mike Sarin (drums)
and Seido Salifoski (dumbek and percussion). Their first CD is entitled The
Loan. Shepik is also a regular member of Pachora, Babkas, the Paradox Trio and
the acoustic trio Tridruga. He has also worked and/or recorded with Paul
Motion’s Electric Bebop Band, Carla Bley’s Escalator over the Hill, Charlie
Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Yuri Yunakov’s Bulgarian Wedding Band, Tim
Berne, Steve Swallow, Kenny Werner, Julian Priester, Andy Laster, Jerry
Granelli, Jay Clayton, Ken Schaphorst and Franz Kogelman.

Drummer Jim Black was born in 1967 and grew up in Seattle, WA. As a teenager, he
played music ranging from garage rock to big band swing. In 1985, he was
admitted to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Already as a
student, he recorded albums, performed in Europe and taught summer classes at
Berklee. In 1999, he moved to Brooklyn, NY, and soon afterwards became a member
of the Tiny Bell Trio. Jim Black has also been touring and recording with
Pachora, Human Feel, Tim Berne’s Bloodcount, the Ellery Eskelin Trio and Uri
Caine’s Mahler Project. He leads his own quartet, Beat Table, featuring Skuli
Sverrisson, DJ Olive and Ted Reichmann.

Sheet music by Dave Douglas

Concert review: The Tiny Bell Trio in concert at the Alte Kaserne in Winterthur,
Switzerland, March 3, 2001

The Tiny Bell Trio’s concert in Winterthur was a superb demonstration of the
fact that avant-garde music does not have to be boring or deadly serious. It was
Dave Douglas’ third performance at the Alte Kaserne within a year. He had
already convinced with two of his other groups, Dave Douglas’ Sextet and Dave
Douglas’ Charms of The Night Sky(the 2000 Downbeat Critics’ Poll awarded them
best album of the year for Soul on Soul; Dave Douglas was also named Trumpeter
and Artist of the Year).

In its 10th-year of existence, the Tiny Bell Trio has definitively become a
reference for creativity and pure joy of playing. As Dave Douglas confessed the
Tiny Bell Trio has now a repertoire of some 100 pieces, more than half of which
they can play anytime – and that’s what they are doing on their current concert
tour. At the last moment, they decide on what to play.

Most of the compositions played in Winterthur can be found on the trio’s former
CD releases, but a few new tunes were played as well. Impressive was the range
of music Dave Douglas on trumpet, Brad Shepik on guitar and Jim Black on drums
dwell on. Among the compositions very freely incorporated into their distinctive
sound one finds the classical music of Robert Schumann, jazz tunes by Thelonious
Monk, Roland Kirk and Wayne Shorter, European Klezmer and folk music from the
Balkan, lullabies and film music.

After a wild and furious introduction, the second tune played by the Tiny Bell
Trio was On Shot from the album Songs for Wandering Souls. Dave Douglas started
off the elegiac ballad, soon afterwards joined by his sensitive partners. The
Tiny Bell Trio is no one-man show which exclusively relies on Dave Douglas. Jim
Black is an outstanding and much sought after drummer. He is no simple rhythm
provider. Like Douglas, he is a virtuoso. He uses little bells, rattles, a
violin bow and many indescribable instruments. Black continuously helps to break
up established, well-known forms of music and transforms them into something
new. The Tiny Bell Trio is an ensemble of constant, restless change. There is no
standstill and no uninspired moment. Guitarist Brad Shepik was the most
melodious and harmonic of the three musicians, playing a key role in holding his
two more experimental friends and the trio together.

After the ballad followed a fast-paced jazzy tune with a roguish touch – present
in all the twelve compositions, six played before and the other six performed
after the break. Dave Douglas did not only blow the trumpet, he literarily spoke
on it, whistled and gurgled and invented a lot of noises unheard before. At any
moment, the trio was enjoying the concert, especially Jim Black with an ecstatic
smile all over his face.

None of the compositions was a simple tune with one melody in one style, but all
were complex arrangements with references, allusion and reminiscences to
marching parades, Mardi Gras, free jazz, klezmer, Bulgarian and Hungarian tunes,
to Miles Davis and children’s rooms. Melodramatic moments here and there were
immediately transformed into fun and joy. At the end of the first part, in a
composition previously recorded, the influence of Robert Schumann’s Fünf Stücke
im Volkston op. 102, was feasible. A frenetic joyful tune with a stronger East
European folk element.

The second part started off with Shepik’s guitar playing a blue tune with a
Spanish touch. It was the first and only thoroughly serious moment of the
evening. The second tune offered allusions to fanfares and solemn music, Klezmer
and Balkan folk music. Impressive was the fact that there were no pauses between
the highly complex compositions. The blind understanding of ten years of playing
together paid off. The trio had just arrived from New York City, but at no
moment did one get the impression of jet lag in the musicians playing.

In another tune, Dave Douglas blew all sorts of staccato sounds, accompanied by
dark and melodramatic drumbeats by Jim Black, who created a gloomy atmosphere.
This was the highlight at a concert entirely consisting of outstanding
performances. It was followed by a joyful tune with beats like cracks of the
whip by Jim Black, an orgiastic experience.

The penultimate compositions of the official program was Kurt Weill’s The
Drowned Girl, in a version with the Tiny Bell Trio’s blend. Thanks to the
public’s enthusiastic response, two encores followed later, Czardas from the
album Live in Europe. It was to illustrate how rather naive and sometimes
awkward the Tiny Bell Trio sounded at its obscure beginnings in Soho. The second
encore was Thelonious Monk’s Ask My Know, introduced by Dave Douglas with the
words: “But after this, please be merciful” – the trio started to pay tribute to
the transatlantic travel. You thought jazz was dull, a thing of the past, a form
of music that had become outdated? The Tiny Bell Trio is the most exciting live
experience out there at the moment. Sheet music by Dave Douglas.



Photo of Dave Douglas. Photo provided by Jazz in Winterthur.


Tiny Bell Trio: Songs for Wandering Souls, 1999. Order it from Amazon.de,
Amazon.com.



Tiny Bell Trio: Live in Europe, 1997. Get it from Amazon.de, Amazon.fr,
Amazon.com.



Tiny Bell Trio: Constellations, 1995. Recorded in 1995 at Swiss Radio DRS in
Zurich. Get it from Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk. Sheet music by Dave Douglas.



Tiny Bell Trio: The Tiny Bell Trio, 1994 (2000). Order it from Amazon.com,
Amazon.co.uk.

Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation. Februar 2004. CD bestellen bei Amazon.com,
Amazon.co.uk.

Dave Douglas: A Thousand Evenings. RCA Victor/BMG, Oktober 2000. Bestellen bei
Amazon.de.

Dave Douglas: Soul on Soul. RCA Victor, Mai 2000. Bestellen bei Amazon.de.

Dave Douglas: Charms of the Night Sky. Winter & Winter, 1998. Bestellen bei
Amazon.de.

Dave Douglas: Stargazer. Arabesque Records, 1997. CD bestellen bei Amazon.de,
Amazon.com.


POPULAR ARTICLES

Albrecht Mayer and the Orquestra Clássica da Madeira
Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg
The Madeira Flower Festival Concert starring soprano Viktorija Miškūnaitė
Mena House Hotel history
The Madeira Classical Orchestra plays Baruch Berliner and Beethoven
Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi
Cosmopolis
 * Index
 * Links
 * Feedback
 * Privacy Policy – Imprint

We are not responsible for the content of any page we link to, either on this or
any other page.

Copyright www.cosmopolis.ch Louis Gerber All rights reserved.




✓
Danke für das Teilen!
AddToAny
Mehr…