Nils Wogram's Root 70 - Fahrvergnügen (2006)

Led by German trombonist Nils Wogram, the creative jazz quartet Root 70 was formed in 2000. All four bandmembers were born (or, as the group's name suggests, rooted) in the '70s -- two in Germany and two in New Zealand -- and their performing and recording careers have included a number of international collaborations. Beginning with his 1994 debut disc recorded in New York, Wogram has released over 20 albums as a leader or co-leader in a wide variety of settings ranging from post-bop to free improvisation, collaborating with the NDR Bigband and helming such ensembles as his Septet, his Quartet, and his Nostalgia threesome. New Zealand-born saxophonist Hayden Chisholm, who first met Wogram during the '90s when both musicians were studying at the University of Music and Dance in Cologne, Germany, has explored microtonal playing and worldwide music traditions in addition to his forays into more straight-ahead jazz forms. Likewise, German-born drummer Jochen Rueckert met Wogram at the conservatory in Cologne during the '90s; after graduation Rueckert moved to Brooklyn and has performed and recorded with various N.Y.C. musicians including, in the drummer's own quartet, saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Brad Shepik. Root 70's other native New Zealander, bassist Matt Penman has an extensive discography as a sideman and several recordings as a bandleader since his debut disc in 2002; a N.Y.C. resident and also a contributor to the Brooklyn creative jazz scene, Penman is a member of the SFJAZZ Collective, James Farm, and, incidentally, Rueckert's quartet along with Turner and Shepik.

Root 70 plays broadly appealing post-bop and modern creative jazz, and while the quartet might be seen as taking a more conservative musical approach than, say, Nils Wogram's duo with fellow trombonist Konrad Bauer, his trio with pianist Simon Nabatov and drummer Tom Rainey, or his duo with Kazakh-Turkish improvising vocalist Saadet Türköz, Wogram has nevertheless used Root 70 as a vehicle to explore a variety of intriguing jazz concepts. The band's eponymous debut arrived in 2001 on the 2nd Floor label, and the core quartet lineup of Wogram, Chisholm, Rueckert, and Penman has remained unchanged for all of Root 70's subsequent recordings, despite Rueckert and Penman's homes across the pond in N.Y.C. and a move by Wogram from Germany to Zurich, Switzerland. The Enja release Getting Rooted arrived in 2003, followed by two Root 70 albums in 2006: Fahrvergnügen on the Intuition label and Heaps Dub on Nonplace -- the latter finding the quartet taking a left turn into the world of electronica-infused, dubbed-out nu jazz with tunes by Flanger and Burnt Friedman & the Nu Dub Players arranged by Chisholm and Friedman himself.

In 2008 Nils Wogram & Root 70 were back with another album on Intuition, On 52nd 1/4 Street (subtitled Conceptual Works I), a set of original Wogram compositions (with one by Chisholm) intended to seem like interpretations of jazz standards. For 2011's Listen to Your Woman (Conceptual Works II) released by Wogram's own NWOG label, Root 70 explored the blues on a set of originals -- eight by Wogram and one each by the other quartet members -- recorded using vintage equipment, and in 2014 the band returned with Riomar (Conceptual Works III), featuring atmospheric chamber jazz compositions penned by Wogram (with one Rueckert piece) for the quartet plus three string players, violinist Gerdur Gunnarsdottir, violist Gareth Lubbe, and cellist Adrian Brendel. © Dave Lynch