Trio Bravo:
Mark Chaet
violin
Giorgio Radoja
piano
Sergej Sweschinskij
double bass
Adam Tomaszewski
marimbaphon and percussion
Zsolt Dombovari
cello (tracks no. 1 + 16)
Bartek Mlejnek
kontrabass (tracks no. 1,16,17,18)
Michael Joch
percussion (tracks no. 1 + 16)
Maria Schneider
marimba (September, Pizzicato)
Sascha Gutmann
piano (Wolga-Flüsschen)
The career of Trio Bravo+ founder Marc Chaet has never been without its obstacles and setbacks.
But none of them has kept him from looking into the future: His first music teacher diagnosed him
with a bad sense of hearing, and yet Chaet would turn into a virtuoso violinist and composer. The
authorities considered him a political risk, but the perestroika reversed his exclusion from college.
Today, Chaet has gauged the entire spectrum of his talents on a total of eight studio full-lengths,
vivid concert recordings and soundtracks. Fifteen years after founding Trio Bravo+, it is finally time
for a retrospective - although, as was to be expected,
Plus has turned out anything but a
conventional compilation.
On the one hand,
Plus makes a point of returning to the roots of the ensemble. Even some of their
most ardent followers may not be aware that, in their early years, Trio Bravo+ were still playing on
the streets and in small bars, its members having only just arrived in Germany from the Ukraine.
Balkan and Klezmer constituted the stylistic pillars of these performances, which would gradually be
expanded by the telepathic interactivity of chamber music and the rhythmical drive of rock. On the
other hand, the album also contains brand-new tracks as well as re-recordings of some of their
„classics". The result is testimony to the remarkably wide range of their expressivity: While tracks
like "Darf ich bitten" or "Liebesleid" emphasise their romantic, bittersweet and delicate side,
"Montag" or "Rondo Ukraine" develop from hypnotic piano- and drum-grooves on top of which
Chaet's violin rises to blissful flights. "Wolga-Flüsschen", meanwhile, a remaster from the ensemble's
debut "Auf dem Weg", closes the album on a note of wistful memories.
The album also contains the final recordings of the Trio Bravo+ with Sergej Sweschinskij on double
bass and Adam Tomaszewski on percussion. The dissolution of this classic line-up this year marked
the end of a fruitful chapter for Chaet, who then decided to take the ensemble into a different
direction. By working with an entirely new group and a provocative program called "Chamber music
reloaded", he has infused some of his older songs with an entirely contemporary urgency. Which only
proves that the more things change, the more they stay the same:
Plus may see Mark Chaet
reminiscing about the past, but his gaze is still pointed straight into the future.
