Chur (CH) - JazzChur Sommer Festival
Ahhh this has been great!!! What an amazing festival! Over the years we had played in Chur a couple of times and loved it every time! We’ve played at places like Klibühni and Postremise and this time we were invited to play at the Jazz Chur Sommer Festival featuring an incredible mix of artists and programmes. mathias and I arrived a day early, on the 29th, and caught a couple of tunes by fascinating composer Sarah Chaksad and her large ensemble. It's really great when there's one extra day involved where you get to arrive and discover the city. The next day I took a walk through the beautiful old town of Chur and though I’ve been here a couple of times before, I always discover new places, faces, beautiful views and this time also a very yummy cupcake bakery around the corner from our hotel. The rest of our Blue Piano crew arrived on the day of our concert. Sabina, Benjamin, Stano, Thomas, Ingrid and Hans all came together by train and arrived straight to our soundcheck in the afternoon. We were scheduled to be the opener of that festival day and started The Blue Piano round 17:30. Sabina and Benjamin opened the evening beautifully with ‘Ein kleines Lied’ and we, meaning the quintett Ingrid on percussion, Stano on violine, Hans on bass and mathias playing the piano, followed them right after, different version of the same melody ‘A Little Song’; Lied and song, song and lied and lied and song. So many familiar faces I discovered in the amazing audience that listened to us playing mathias’ Liedzyklus with open hearts and open ears. Thomas Müller from Jazz Dübi was there and Andrea Engi, who had invited us before and for a looong time organized the Jazz Club in Chur. Many old friends from mathias came, including someone he went to school with and someone who saw his first concert in Chur, I think it was somewhere around 1968 when mathias’ band was called either Candlelight or Peace, Love and Happiness : )…it’s true!
We had a wonderful time on and off stage : ) and enjoyed every note, every song of the Blue Piano leading up to its grande finale with the ‘Lydian Cow’. A poem mathias wrote himself using the pseudonym ‘Bulhelm Wisch’. It’s a crazy poem that turned into a crazy song : ). We could have played all night, we could have played all night : ) but we also couldn’t wait to listen to the artists and bands following us. I heard parts of an incredible solo set by Florian Favre and then listend to the one and only Corin Curschellas with an amazing band supporting her every move! WOW I knew Corin from mathias – they have recorded I think five albums together and she had toured with the VAO (Vienna Art Orchestra) a couple of times. But I never saw her live until then and she blew me away. It was truly inspiring and I’m still thinking about her versatility and blending of genres into one sound: her sound supported by, like I said, amazing musicians! Sometimes there are these nights where the energy just keeps on flowing and on that Sunday night at Jazz Chur Sommer Festival it kept flowing on and on, all night long! We all stayed up late (even mathias, even meeee), really late and talked, got to know the other musicians, drank some beers, talked some more, smoked a ciggy or two and then talked some more and had one more beer!
A big thank you to Rolf Caflisch and his wonderful team from Jazz Chur for making this happen and inviting us to this special festival!
Although I went to bed waaaay past my usual bedtime, the next morning I took the cable car up up up to the mountain top Brambrüesch (for the very first time). I hiked up and down the beautiful Swiss trails hoping to be back soon and play some more.
Yours Lia
P.S.: I started to practice some new Swiss German ‘Blitzt’s Z’Züri’ and ‘Öpfelbütschgi’!
