Arik Strauss Trio, Live in Berlin concert video

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In December 2019, Pianist Arik Strauss took his trio featuring drummer Andrea Marcelli and bassist Hendrik Nehls into the performance space at the Greve Studio in Berlin to record a live EP. The result of this session is presented on this EP titled appropriately “Live In Berlin”.

Following the release of his last studio album “Closing The Circle” the Arik Strauss Trio has been performing regularly. When asked about this live recording Arik stated “Since the release of the last studio album we’ve been playing the material a great deal and I’ve found the compositions have been evolving, often taking a different direction. I think one of the main factors in this was the addition of Hendrik on bass, who’s style is far more conversational. The live environment is very different to the studio and we felt that it was important to document this to document this.”

This video presents a number of the tracks also presented on the Closing the Circle plus a new solo track written by Arik as a tribute to his Mother who passed away late in 2019.

 

Arik Strauss is a pianist, composer/arranger and educator. Arik was initially trained as a classical pianist however in his twenties, being influenced by great jazz musicians, decided to go to New York to learn and master the art and language of Jazz. In New York he studied with Jack Reilly and later with Richie Beirach and performed with top musicians such as Ron McClure, Akira Tana and Shonzo Ono to name only a few. In this period Arik performed in many leading jazz clubs in New York as well as touring Japan including among others Birdland, Yardbird Suite and Blue Moon Philadelphia. During his stay in New York Strauss worked with Mercer Ellington as the arranger of a tribute to his father Duke Ellington.

In 1998 Arik returned to his native Israel where he was tasked with creating the jazz department and teaching at the School of the Arts in Jerusalem and later also in the Givaataim music school. It was in this period that Arik commenced his career as a leader recording a number of albums in various settings. Now some 22 years down the road Arik, has performed throughout world and produced 9 albums as band leader.

The concept of closing the circle is one very personal to Arik. As the grandson of the famous German philosopher Martin Buber, Arik’s family were able to flee the country just prior to the outbreak of the 2nd world war. Returning to the German capital in 2016 where he currently resides is indeed metaphorically “Closing the circle”. Soon after moving to Germany, Arik formed a new trio with Andrea Marcelli on drums and ex-pat American bassist Jonathan Robinson on bass. In mid 2019 bassist Hendrik Nehls joined the trio and it is this line-up that you will see in this extended video.

The music on this video is also available as an EP on Spotify and all other major platforms. In addition the EP is available for download on Bandcamp.

Last modified: April 26, 2020