Pas­so Avan­ti live at NDR Kultur 

The Pas­so Avan­ti quar­tet is pre­sent­ing a new sym­bio­sis of clas­si­cal and jazz. The four high­ly vir­tu­osic musi­cians feel at home in both styles and move effort­less­ly between the gen­res, between inter­pre­ta­tion and impro­vi­sa­tion, between ten­der and impetuous.

In the extreme­ly flex­i­ble instru­men­ta­tion (vio­lin, clar­inet, gui­tar and cel­lo) cham­ber music is pos­si­ble in the best string quar­tet tra­di­tion as well as the fiery swing­ing of a Gyp­sy Jazz Com­bo. It is not only a com­bi­na­tion of jazz musi­cians with clas­si­cal musi­cians, but here, all mem­bers of the ensem­ble are edu­cat­ed in both styles. This is why new, clos­er forms of inter­ac­tion are possible.

The quar­tet does not sim­ply add to clas­sic melodies a swing­ing rhythm. Clas­si­cal and jazz are woven in a com­plex way and com­ple­ment each oth­er to form their own, uni­ver­sal lan­guage. The con­cept of inter­mix­ing, indeed merg­ing the two styles, also pre­sent­ed with an unusu­al instru­men­tal set­ting, is like a red line through the con­cert, build­ing up enor­mous ten­sion curves. The result is enter­tain­ing, ver­sa­tile and sim­ply vir­tu­osic — the intense musi­cal­i­ty of the four pro­fes­sion­als is con­ta­gious and inspiring.