The classically trained pianist Jean-Paul Brodbeck has become a creative epicentre of the Swiss jazz scene and is also looked upon beyond the national borders as one of the most significant voices of contemporary jazz. As a member of diverse groups, Brodbeck has over the years developed his own style of piano playing, deeply rooted in jazz tradition, founded in lyrical Romantic elements, characterized by a sensitive spontaneity and enjoying a high recognition value. In 2007 he gained international recognition with his album Song of Tchaikovsky. Following a period of intense work with various international luminaries such as Johannes Enders, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Billy Hart and Andy Scherrer, and eight releases as band leader, Brodbeck, spurred by the desire to play in an intensely cooperative working band, formed in 2015 his Swiss Trio , consisting of himself, the young bass talent Lukas Traxel and rhythm virtuoso Claudio Strüby, who had already been accompanying Brodbeck for ten years, on the drums. Starting with songs from Brodbeck's pen, the virtuoso musicians celebrate artistic openness in an urgent ensemble performance that extends the art form of the piano trio in a fresh and contemporary fashion. As Florian Keller states in his liner notes: "The three friends distil their musical essences in active engagement with the fundaments of the jazz tradition and thereby go beyond pure traditionalism with the shimmering pop sensibility of the songs. With their modern, fine-tuned trio sound, they amalgamate centrifugal forces of canonical Romanticism and the Groove of 1970s music into a graceful sound that moves elegantly through varied musical sceneries. This trio is a musical organism, defying the gravitational force of the schematic when it roams weightlessly in the wide open spaces of the balladic, only then to sweep nimbly through hard-edged landscapes of Groove with the same serenity."
