The fact that Axel Kuhn called his new trio album “Zeitgeist” leads us to understand it programmatically. “We do not want to be the umpteenth...

The fact that Axel Kuhn called his new trio album “Zeitgeist” leads us to understand it programmatically. “We do not want to be the umpteenth variant of a conventional piano trio, which too often sounds like Brad Mehldau and employs this typical jazz approach.” For the 35-year-old bassist and his congenial long-time partners Ull Mock on piano and Marcel Gustke on bass, it is more about rejuvenating jazz with current grooves and catchy melodies from pop and rock. It is not at all a matter of currying favor superficially and riding smoothly on populist trends, but on the contrary to fit the sound of this generation into the parameters of jazz with optimum virtuosity, intelligence and sustainability. Axel Kuhn has been considered as one of the most interesting figures in the contemporary music scene in Germany. He is a go-getting, versatile bandleader, bassist and composer, who already has participated on 20 recordings. Ull Mock did not undergo any typical jazz socialization, but instead slowly found his way to popular music and jazz from classical music. He and Marcel Gustke have a kind of spiritual kinship to Axel Kuhn and together form a musical organism, moving conficently between stylistic boundaries without thereby nipping the individual strengths of the protagonists in the bud.