Morello / Francel / Faller – Living is easy, mostly

Description

Paulo Morello – guitar
Mulo Francel – saxophone
Sven Faller – double bass

Three friends who have moved around the world in various formations over the years.
Three extravagant exponents of the European jazz and world music scene.
In this new trio, both their outstanding individual qualities as players and their blind interplay come into their own. Intimate interplay, multi-faceted grooves, virtuoso inventiveness and artful melodic counterpoint characterise the ensemble.
The fact that all three have also distinguished themselves as composers is reflected in the varied programme of selected original compositions.
The musicians report: “The songs were mostly written while we were working on this album. Whereas work is actually not an appropriate word for our lustful interactive play.”
So they retreated for days to Sven Faller’s studio and fine-tuned the songs.
Entre As Ondas (Between the Waves) is inspired by an adventurous musical sailing trip that Paulo Morello took part in as guitarist of Francel’s band Quadro Nuevo. It became the gentle wavy Bossa Nova.
On Just The Two Of Us Again, Francel plays his soprano saxophone extended to low A with virtuos-ity. He says of his composition: “I’ve always found it exciting to combine elements of tango, Latin jazz and Italian canzone with improvisation, which for me personally can border on the kitschy as well as the slightly weird.”
One For Nieb, on the other hand, the musicians dedicate to the German guitarist Helmut Nieberle, with whom they were on friendly terms, and who died all too soon. Here Morello unpacks his Gyp-sy guitar.
One More Gin For Elizabeth is a good old times foxtrot. Here, a wish of the trio that has become music is heard: to hang out with the English Queen at the bar for once in their lives!
Paulo Morello describes his SAD Blues: “This piece is a homage to our bass player Sven Faller and his hometown Schwandorf – the blues is not sad, but SAD, just like the car registration number of the Upper Palatinate town.

The musicians have been on the road for years, each in a 2-pack: Morello and Faller played numer-ous concerts together with the Belgian jazz icon Philip Catherine. Francel and Morello toured Italy and Germany with Quadro Nuevo. Faller and Francel met while studying music in the early 90s. Then they lost sight of each other because Sven Faller moved to New York. Here you can hear them united as a trio.
“Whenever we get together we have a blast.”

Living is easy, mostly!

Paulo Morello is considered one of the most versatile jazz guitarists in Europe. Together with Grammy winner Leny Andrade or Bossa Nova forefather Johnny Alf, Morello has performed at the most significant European and South American jazz festivals. He passed his baptism of fire in the Hammond Trio as a sideman of the legendary Jimmy Smith, whom he accompanied on his last Eu-ropean tour.
With his trio “Hammond Eggs” Morello toured internationally with soloists Randy Brecker and Bob Mintzer. In the successful project “Night of Jazz Guitars” he played with guitar legends such as the late Larry Coryell and Pat Martino.
He has also worked with Paul Kuhn, Billy Cobham, Airto Moreira, Ivan Lins, Raul de Souza, André Ceccarelli, Martin Taylor, Jim Mullen, Don Menza, Howard Alden, Roberta Gambarini and the or-chestras of the WDR and BR.
Morello currently performs extensively with his “Sambop” quartet, his trio with Belgian guitar leg-end Philip Catherine and his duo with Swedish guitarist Ulf Wa-kenius.
Morello is artistic director of the Jazz Institut Berlin and teaches there as a professor of jazz guitar.
Paulo Morello’s guitar sounds as if George Benson had moved to Rio de Janeiro,” says AZ München.
Mulo Francel has stood out like a beacon on the German saxophone scene for many years with his elegant, supple tone. He interweaves the high school of jazz improvisation with preferences for tango, Mediterranean musicianship and old European melodies. With his ensemble Quadro Nuevo he has toured to the remotest stages of the globe and twice won the Echo Jazz as best live act.
In the projects the Sax & the Sea and Mountain Melody, the wind player and globetrotter took on completely new challenges: Saxophone completely solo in different places near the sea, music rec-orded with adventurous fellow musicians on the peaks of myth-enshrouded mountains.
Mulo Francel is a musical bridge builder who turns to his listeners and fellow players with great passion in every single note.

Sven Faller has made a name for himself internationally with his melodic style on the double bass and as a composer. After studying at Mannes College of Music, he lived in New York for many years and travelled halfway around the world for concerts between Tromsø, Singapore, Istanbul and Rio. He has played with numerous well-known artists such as Larry Coryell, Konstantin Wecker, Georg Ringsgwandl and Pippo Pollina. At the latest since the publication of the concept album and book of the same name “Night Music”, he has also established himself as an author and narrator. The most recent result of this work is the stage programme “Transatlantic Stories” with actor August Zirner.