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VEIN

There certainly is no special need any more to mention the fact that today most jazz piano trios are deeply attached to musical interplay (even though this fact is worth to never be taken for granted!).

And yet, even with the most subtle, most distinguished form of interplay there is always one in the trio who plays the part of the primus inter pares – the pianist, of course (usually and by definition leader of the group).

That's exactly where pianist Michael Arbenz, drummer Florian Arbenz and bassist Thomas Lähns come up with their own idea of musical interplay. In fact, what they aim to achieve with their music - their understanding of music - is nothing less than the greatest possible balance of their three voices - starting with the way they work out their own compositions and arrangements, and going right through to the soloistic parts, fully assigned to all three of them.

The result is a stupendous musical togetherness, packed with surprising melodic, rhythmic and dynamic turns, played with highest precision even in the most complex, distorted and twisted passages of their compositions, arrangements and solos.

Vein Trio al Piccolo Teatro di Milano

by Paolo Peviani
January 23, 2019

Vein Trio Jazz al Piccolo--Orchestra Senza Confini-XXI Edizione Piccolo Teatro Strehler Milano 21.1.2019 Il concerto di apertura della ventunesima rassegna Orchestra Senza Confini ha visto salire sul palco del Piccolo Teatro Strehler gli svizzeri Vein Trio, al secolo Michael Arbenz al pianoforte, Thomas Lähns al contrabbasso, Florian Arbenz alla batteria. Vein come “vena," vocabolo che anche in tedesco racchiude in sé tutte le sfumature che ha nella ...

Album Review

VEIN: VEIN plays Ravel

Read "VEIN plays Ravel" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 13, 2017

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), the classical French composer/arranger, was an early embracer of jazz. He included elements of the then new music into some of his own later compositions. Jazz has--since the 1940s, initially under the guise of what became called the Third Stream, pioneered in part by Gunther Schuller--often married classical stylings with the quintessentially American music that got its start down in New Orleans. The Swiss trio VEIN has gone full immersion with the classical side, taking ...

Extended Analysis

VEIN featuring Dave Liebman - Jazz Talks

by Phil Barnes
April 22, 2015

This collection documents the first studio recording of Swiss trio VEIN with American saxophonist Dave Liebman over a single afternoon in Basel. VEIN had approached Liebman, perhaps best known for his Saxophone Summit recordings with Joe Lovano and Ravi Coltrane, as far back as 2009 seeing in him a like minded spirit perfectly at ease with either the jazz tradition or something more expansive. While this special quartet had played live together before, documented on the live album Lemuria, this ...

Extended Analysis

Vote For Vein: Three People Can't Be Wrong!

by Dave Wayne
May 6, 2014

Working in a piano trio these days, it's really quite hard to stand out with so many amazing players in the piano trio biz. Think about it. You have to compete with The Bad Plus, Satoko Fujii, Keith Jarrett, The Dawn of Midi, Vijay Iyer, Marcus Roberts, and a zillion other innovative and talented musicians using the exact same instrumentation. Yet, for all of the activity in this particular area there's always a new piano trio on the horizon with ...

Nice work, get it! Incredibly creative piano trio. - Rolling Stone

This set captures the core group's inspired fusion of traditional jazz-trio methods and wittily deconstructivist impulses...a focused and dynamically creative set. The Guardian, John Fordham