Tobias Meissl Trio

In the organizer's words:

Tobias Meissl - vibraphone & composition
David Dolliner - double bass
Valentin Duit - drums

The trio improvisationally interprets compositions by the band leader. While Tobias Meissl provides the initial material and thereby nominally acts as composer, the music is largely conceptualized in a way that it would sound completely different with another ensemble. Were the pieces to be played exactly like they are notated, they would work fine but for the most part that is not the idea. Valentin Duit and Tobias Meissl have been making music together in various contexts for over 20 years now and Ivar Roban Križić has been connected to them by a collaboration also already lasting for 5 years. This makes for deep musical trust and communication, leading to moments of, at times, uncanny mutual understanding. After sporadic trio performances in this configuration, Duit and Križić have played together in a myriad of musical situations as one of the most sought-after rhythm sections of the Vienna jazz scene. Within the Tobias Meissl Trio, through periods of intensive rehearsals since the fall of 2021, the collaboration in various sidemen-contexts, the ongoing work with the Valentin Quartett - with the same personnel completed by Robert Unterköfler on Tenor Saxophone - since the end of 2022 as well as regular performances such as a monthly concert at Café Frame in Vienna, there has emerged a shared sound as and an individual way of playing together as a group.
Hence, the compositions for this Trio have been written especially for this shared ensemble sound and playing culture for a while now. This way of loose interpretation is also consciously factored into the conception as well as, in some cases, the way of notating the pieces. Meissl understands his role as composer for this ensemble mainly in providing musical topics of conversation and setting up certain frameworks which are discussed together, explored or at times left behind, rather than building musical sculptures which are to be reproduced as exactly as possible. The composed material, in some cases complex and notated in great detail, serves mainly as a point of departure or entry into a network of relations and, on its own, is far from being "the piece". This piece emerges in the process of the developing variation of the material, which can be understood, approached and read differently from performance to performance. Stylistically, the music is inspired and informed by various traditions, but definitely comes out of a jazz approach of collective music making, while the aim is not any apparent (at least not intentional) allusion to or imitation of any concrete role models, but rather the synthesis of a self-contained sound.
The music allows for a high degree of freedom for individual expression and shaping, and the diverse musical interests of the bandmembers, ranging from Jazz(-related), contemporary classical, experimental, improvised, European classical music and different folk musics etc. are encouraged to find their way into the collective music making. For the most part, however, the pieces remain as a reference, varyingly from performance to performance, more or less obvious to the outside listener. This is to say that we are dealing with mainly structure-based improvisation, which, neverhteless, does not aim at ostensibly marking and pointing out those structures or emphasizing their repetition. The result often has a quasi "through-composed" character, perhaps one of improvisationally developing musical prose, the structure of which is not at all times obvious. The basic idea remains to understand a piece of music, independently of any degree of fixation in the notation, as not finished or closed - (ab)geschlossen -, and to recognize and acknowledge its mutable polymorphism and explore it for its (im)possibilities.
For those already in the know, this is nothing new and it is also clear that this has been around for a long time. For some, however, these thoughts might be new and possibly even interesting. To get a better image and reflection of what has been so thoroughly written about here, come to as many concerts of the Trio as possible!

https://www.youtube.com/@tobiasmeissl

Free admission - it is suggested to give an appropriate cultural contribution.
Free entry - it is suggested to give some money if you like the band.

The Peppi Guggenheim is a smokers' bar! Admission from 18 years!
The Peppi Guggenheim is a smoking bar! Admission from 18 years!

Live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/d-luJxrH-PI?si=guKFqOghgLD0JAMs

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