DER ROTE BEREICH - 10 years of "Der Rote Bereich"
An anniversary? The gentlemen with the strange suits, turned up collars and those extraordinary sideburns still seem bright and lively - yet, Der Rote Bereich has turned ten and there's a lot to celebrate. Due to its idiosyncratic music, its anarchistic humour, intelligent arrangements and original sound, Der Rote Bereich is regarded as "the most important representative of German avant-garde jazz" ( Der Tagesspiegel ) - though our gentlemen would only accept the term "avant-garde" if it wasn't to pigeonhole them. The group was founded in 1992 in Nuremberg by guitarist Frank Möbus along with bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall. The quintet was completed by American trombonist Marty Cook, Henning Sieverts on bass and Jim Black on drums - known from the New York Knitting Factory scene - with whom Möbus works up to this day in Carlos Bica's "Azul". Despite all the transformations the group has gone through, Möbus and Mahall have always had a forming influence through their quest for fresh sounds, their ambiguous compositions - inspired by pop and rock music as well as jazz and twelve-tone music - and their very own energetic way of playing, a way beyond any conventions, clichés and commercial considerations. They run contrary to one's musical preconceptions, amazing us with unexpected metric and harmonic changes or subversive ironic reinterpretations - thus seducing a much younger audience, to whom traditional jazz concerts had not appealed much hitherto. The group's first release, laconically entitled "Der Rote Bereich 1", had its live premiere at the Nuremberg "Jazz Ost West" festival in 1992 and was praised as "this festival's discovery" due to their "original music, inspired solos and stunningly new sounds en gross" (Nürnberger Nachrichten). From the beginning they played at big festivals, did numerous radio productions and with their distinctive style advanced to be the antithesis of conventional jazz. Three years later "Der Rote Bereich 2" was released - the line-up had changed to a quartet, the bass was left out and Hal Crook, long-standing member of the Phil Woods Quintet, replaced Marty Cook. "Jazzpodium" stated admiringly: "Since their first explorations of composed music and improvised music, the band has acquired veritable cult status. In Germany there is hardly any comparably complex, astonishingly simple, refreshingly self-ironic and at every moment interesting music." In 1998 - Möbus and Mahall had moved to Berlin - John Schröder replaced Jim Black on drums and the trombone was left out. "Der Rote Bereich 3" was released and for the next two years the trio would be touring throughout Europe, playing festivals like the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in New York, the JazzFest in Berlin, the Amsterdam Jazz Festival or the Triennale of Cologne, was sent by the Goethe Institute to tour Africa and was celebrated by "Jazzthetik" magazine as "one of the most exciting jazz groups in Germany". 2001 would turn out to be an extremely successful year. Up to then all albums had been released on the label Jazz4Ever Records. In January 2001 the new album "Love Me Tender" was released on the label ACT and Der Rote Bereich played big festivals like Montreux or Istanbul, were invited to do a "Jeunesse musicale" tour throughout Austria and were awarded the culture grant of the city of Nuremberg. Feature writers of newspapers such as "Die Zeit" and "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" were in rare agreement on their music: "...the three Berliners are amongst the best you'll hear in contemporary jazz..." ("Frankfurter Rundschau"), "...music by bright minds..." (Die Welt) Their music developed further - despite all continuity - and the conceptual changes due to Möbus' new compositions made a last transformation necessary: John Schröder was replaced by Oliver Bernd Steidle, regarded as one of the rising talents in Germany. And so, in March 2002 the three of them recorded their latest album entitled "Risky Business" (ACT 9407-2). This fifth CD was released in July 2002 and would turn out to be a milestone in the group's history. Der Rote Bereich derive pleasure from musical seriousness and as it was stated in the info that accompanied their very first CD: "Music deals with life, but life doesn't necessarily deal with music" - and this you can hear! To listen to their music is an intellectual as well as sensual adventure which is not for one moment a mundane voyage... When writing liner notes it's always difficult figuring out ways to promote a group without falling into the usual cliches - every group is innovative, the players maestros, the playing masterful and the group interaction intuitive to the point of being extra-sensory. In this case, however, such praise is no hyperbole. Der Rote Bereich literally translates as "the red area", and is a referral to the red zone which indicates distortion on the recording level meter of most recording machines. "Der Rote Bereich" is appropriately named; the group's music brazenly skirts the outrageous as it traverses the ground between sublime and ridiculous. (Marty Cook about "Der Rote Bereich")

Frank Möbus

guitar

Frank Möbus received his education at the Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1985 to 1989, from which he graduated with a Prof. Music Diploma, cum laude, and apart from this he studied privately with Jerry Bergonzi in Boston from 1989 to 1990. He is the bandleader of "Der Rote Bereich" (5 CDs for Jazz4Ever Records and ACT and radio productions for BR, SFB and Radio BB, many jazz festivals, etc.). Besides this he has been a Co-Leader of the band "Azul" since 1995 (2 CDs and video clips for Polygram/Emarcy/Traumton and Enja records), with which he has done various radio productions, numerous festivals and club gigs in Portugal, Germany and the Azores. He has appeared at the following festivals: the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival NYC, the Trytone Jazz Festival Amsterdam, the Jazzfest Berlin, the Triennale Cologne, the Instanbul Jazz Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and many more. He has been an ACT Recording Artist since July 2000. He has played at a number of festivals and club gigs with Carlos Bica's "Azul" in Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and Germany. The tour with "Le petit chien" in Germany and Switzerland resulted in a CD released in September 1999 under the Enja label). He has appeared at concerts with
the Oli Bott Big Band, the Rolf v. Nordenskjoeld Big Band, the Maria Babtist Big Band, the Reiner Tempel Big Band (CD released in October 1999 by Jazz4Ever Records). In 2000 he worked with Erdmann, with whom he had concerts, released a CD and done radio productions (the album features Daniel Erdmann (sax) Frank Möbus (g) Johannes Fink (b) John Schröder (dr) released in October 2000 by Jazz4ever Records). He has also done concerts, studio recordings and video productions with the "Geffen" Trip-Hop Project, tour (5/01) and radio productions with "Stalwart" (featuring: Ed Neumeister, F.M., Drew Gress and Tom Rainey) in Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

Daniel Erdmann

saxophone

Daniel Erdmann was born in 1973 in Wolfsburg. He has been playing saxophone since 1984. He moved to Berlin in 1994 when he started studying at the Hanns Eisler School. He performs and composes within the framework of 'Contemporary Jazz'. He lives in Paris and Berlin. Daniel has performed with Aki Takase, John Schröder, Conny Wahnschaffe, Tony Buck, John Betsch, Volker Schlot, Joe Williamson, Jaak Sooäär, Francois Tréberge and many other musicians. He has done tours and performed in clubs in Canada, France, Estonia, Denmark, Italy, Holland, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Belgium, Luxemburg, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, USA, Austria and Germany.

Oliver Bernd Steidle

percussion

Oliver Steidle was born in Nuremberg in 1975. He has lived in Berlin since 2001. He started having piano lessons at the age of 7, and when he was 11 he took up percussion. From 1998 to 2000 he studied at the Meistersinger Conservatory in Nuremberg with Holger Nell, Wolfgang HafFner, Ralph Peterson and Jim Black. He has played with Richie Beirach, Alexsander von Schileppenbach, Aki Takase, Nils Wogram, Johannes Bauer, Rudi Mahall, Peter Bolte, Norbert Scholly, etc. He has recorded several CDs: with Der Rote Bereich - 'Risky Business' on the Art Record label, with John Schroder - 'Trio' on the Konner Music label. He has appeared at festivals in Hong Kong, Korea, Estonia, Portugal, France, England and Poland.