The Meier Group
Nicolas Meier (g) Gilad Atzmon (reeds) Tom Mason (b) Asaf Sirkis (d)
Swiss guitarist Nick mixes middle eastern, flamenco and Latin influences with acoustic contemporary jazz. His quartet features musicians very much at home in this multi-cultural world, Gilad Atzmon and Asaf Sirkis.
London based Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier is one of the rising stars of a vibrant British jazz scene, his trademark sound, as heard on his Naim albums, a mixture of Methenyesque jazz and spicy Turkish and world music rhythms. The Meier Group have toured extensively in Europe, sharing the bill with the likes of Elvin Jones, Brad Meldau, Trilok Gurtu and Bill Evans and this yea’rs extensive UK tour includes the London International Guitar Festival. While in 2006 Meier and his band won the prestigious Grand Prize Of The Jury and 1st Prize Jazz Guitar at Jazz a Juan Revelations 2006: A competition open to the finest new jazz musicians and bands in Europe and run by the legendary Jazz A Juan Festival. But he is becoming increasingly well known in his adopted country as well where his Meier group features brilliant Israeli world-bebop saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, bassist Tom Mason and drummer Asaf Sirkis where last year’s tour in support of his second album Yüz (the first Orient was released in 2006) saw Meier and co play to packed houese across the country.
Meier draws on a multitude of influences: Jazz, Flamenco, Latin and middle-eastern music are all passionately explored in a series of heartfelt acoustic modern jazz originals and all represent part of Meier’s musical and personal world. His wife Songul is Turkish and he has spent time there and in Spain and ‘Orient’ draws on the melodies and rhythms of both countries. Writing in the Guardian, John Fordham described Meier as" elegant in tone and bubbling with ideas... his originality as a writer, a player and a team leader dispatches any doubts" and described his debut album Orient as ‘a seductive balance of strong themes, inventive improvising and dynamic variety’.
Visit the website at: http://www.meiergroup.com/
Abbreviations: as alto sax; b acoustic bass ; bjo banjo; bsax bass sax; cl clarinet, ct cornet; d drums; eb electric bass; eg electric guitar; fl flute; flg flugel horn; g guitar; org organ; p piano : sousa sousaphone; t = trumpet; tr trombone; ts tenor sax; viol violin; voc voice.