Gwilym has a longstanding trio with Yuri Goloubev on double bass and Asaf Sirkis on drums. From time to time they also add Klaus Gesing on reeds.

Yuri Goloubev
Born in Moscow Yuri studied at the Central School of Music and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory gaining a Masters degree in 1995 in Double Bass. He had already won first prize in the All-Soviet Union Student Competition in 1990 and as result became Principal Bass with the Ensemble XXI Chamber Orchestra from 1990 – 1991, then played with the famous Bolshoi Opera, and from 1992 – 2004 was Principal Bass with one of the world’s most noted chamber orchestras – The Moscow Soloists, directed by Yuri Bashmet. In 2002 Yuri became the youngest bass player ever to be awarded the prestigious title of Honoured Artist of Russia.

As a classical player he collaborated with many world famous musicians: Yuri Bashmet, Mario Brunello, Sarah Chang, James Galway, Gidon Kremer, Shlomo Mintz, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Thomas Quasthoff, Uto Ughi and Maxim Vengerov and performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues: New York’s Carnegie Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, London’s Barbican, Berlin Philarmonie, Sydney Opera House and many more. He also wrote jazz and chamber music works and bass transcriptions and arrangements, published in Russia, Germany and the United States, and recorded for EMI and Sony Classical.

Meanwhile Yuri turn his attention to jazz and began performing in clubs and festivals as a jazz bassist as well. His enthusiasm for jazz finally led him to all but abandon his classical career and devote himself to jazz as a performer and composer and in 2004 Yuri moved to Milan joining the Jazz faculty of Centro Professione Musica and in 2010 became Jazz Double Bass Professor at Trento State Conservatory.

Yuri is unique on making the near impossible switch classical to jazz.  His fluid playing, often likened to a wind instrumentalist, is immediately recognisable. His compositions and his instrumental abilities have been featured on nearly 100 CDs to date released by labels such as ACT, Universal, Abeat, Red Records, Basho and many more.

Collaborations include: Bob James, Kenny Werner, Ralph Towner, Gwilym Simcock, Julian Arguelles, Paolo Fresu, Tim Garland, Enrico Pieranunzi, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Klaus Gesing, Rosario Giuliani, Rick Margitza, Asaf Sirkis and many others.

He is currently on the faculty of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, where he teaches Jazz Double Bass and Harmony He also teaches Double Bass at King’s College in Taunton,  Wells Cathedral School and Hestercombe Centre for Young Musicians, a division Guildhall School.

www.yurigoloubev.com


Asaf Sirkis

Asaf Sirkis
Born in Israel, Asaf started his professional career as a drummer in the late 80’s and played with some of Israel’s Jazz luminaries such at Harold Rubin and Alber Beger. A few years after the recording of his first solo album ‘One Step Closer’ Asaf relocated to the Netherlands, France and finally settled in London around 1999 where he soon became one of the most active Jazz drummers around. During that time Asaf became a founder member of Gilad Atzmon’s ‘Orient House Ensemble’ and started his long time collaborations with renown saxophonist Tim Garland and pianist Gwilym Simcock. Asaf has been leading his own bands and projects such as ‘Asaf Sirkis & the Inner Noise’ – a band of an unusual line up of church organ, guitar and drum as well as the Asaf Sirkis Trio. He has been touring worldwide and recorded over 100 albums as a sideman, collaborator and as a leader. Asaf have been playing with many renown jazz and world music artists such as: Dave Holland, Jacob Collier, Tim Garland, Gwilym Simcock, Larry Coryell, Jeff Berlin, John Abercrombie, Bob Sheppard, Norman Watt-Roy (off the Blockheads), Wilco Johnson, Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt, Natacha Atlas, Dave Liebman, David Binney, Gary Husband, pianist John Taylor, Norma Winstone, Kenny Wheeler, Andy Sheppard and many more.

www.asafsirkis.com


Klaus Gesing

Klaus Gesing

soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, live electronics

Multi-instrumentalist Klaus Gesing is a writer, player, bandleader and teacher on the vanguard of jazz.

He got into improvisation at the age of 10, listening to an English clarinet player who regularly played on some music-minus-one tunes – coming from a battery-run speaker – in the pedestrian zone of his hometown Düsseldorf/Germany.

After some years under the inspiring guidance of his first saxophone and improvisation teacher, Johannes Seidemann at the Clara-Schumann Music School in Düsseldorf, he continued to be professionally trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague in Jazz (John Ruocco) and Classical (Leo van Oostrom) Saxophone – and finished his studies with a special remark for his compositions and artistic expression. He had additional studies with David Liebman.

Gesing has been awarded Best Soloist at the Jugend Jazzt Competition in Germany/NRW (1988), Best Soloist at the Middelzee Jazz Festival (1994), the Van Merlen Jazz Prize (1995) and Best Soloist at the Vienne International Jazz Competition (1996). He put out several CDs in Duo with Glauco Venier (“Klaus Gesing and Glauco Venier play Bach”, “Klaus Gesing and Glauco Venier play Songs”) and began to collaborate with Norma Winstone in 1999.

As a leader, the well received debut album “First Booke of Songes”, was followed in 2006 by “Heartluggage”, recorded and performed by Gwilym Simcock on piano, Yuri Goloubev (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (percussion). Described in a recent review in All About Jazz as “one of those hidden gems that commands attention from the get-go”.

His long-standing partnership with Italian pianist Glauco Venier led to the stunning trio with Norma Winstone and five critically acclaimed albums on Universal and ECM.

“Chamber Music” (2004, Universal Universal);
“Distances” ( 2008, ECM 2028),
“Stories yet to tell” (2010, ECM 2158) and finally
“Dance without answer” (2014, ECM2333).
“Descansado – Music for Films” (2018, ECM 2567)

The second album, Distances, earned a Grammy nomination and a prestigious Académie du Jazz award.

He appeared on the ECM album – Anouar Brahem’s “The Astounding Eyes of Rita” (2009, ECM 2075), a CD that is dedicated to the memory of the lately deceased Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish. On this album Klaus Gesing appears playing only Bass Clarinet, an instrument that has become increasingly important during recent years.  In 2014 he played on a new album by the Tunisian Oud player Anouar Brahem,”Souvenance”, (2014, ECM 2423/24) featuring Francois Couturier on piano, Björn Meyer on bass, and a 18 piece string orchestra on which Klaus Gesing delved further into the combination of bass clarinet and live electronics.

In 2011 he produced „loopspool“, a video made in Switzerland, where he presents his duo with American born percussionist Jarrod Cagwin. This project focuses on extended live-looping on a purely acoustic basis, bringing the use of computer in the process of acoustic music making to an all new level.
The work on “loopspool” led to Klaus Gesing’s first Solo project “reaLTime”,  on his own label, Edition TonSpuren, in 2015. A critic remarked that Klaus Gesing “on reaLTime elicit[s] from it [the bass clarinet, (KG)] a range of expression not heard since John Surman.” (Tyran Grillo, All about Jazz)

In 2016 he produced his new loop-solo work “sound of mind” (2016, Edition TonSpuren) on which he put the focus on the compositional possibilities of live looping. The piece was commissioned by the Italian organisation Consorzio Il Mosaico. They co-funded the work of the African Gregoire Ahongbobon, who has created a network of alternative treatment for the mentally disturbed in Ivory Coast and Benin/Africa.

In 2016 he released “amiira” (2016, arjuna-music, AMAC-CD711//AMAC-LP711) by the trio “Gesing_Rohrer_Meyer”. This ensemble – featuring Swedish bass player Björn Meyer on his six-string electric bass, and Swiss drummer Samuel Rohrer – concentrates on crossfading improvisation and composition on a very contemporary level, using live electronics with an analog approach.
In 2017 “amiira” was licensed and published on Hermes Records, an Iranian Label concentrating on improvised music in all its forms.

As a composer – next to writing the main body of the musical material for his own projects and contributing extensively to the music of the ECM releases with Winstone / Gesing / Venier – Klaus Gesing‘s commissions have included a music soundtrack composed for the the Stadtmuseum Gmunden, Austria. He also composed a soundtrack to the 1928 silent film, “Joan of Arc” by the Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, in collaboration with Italian organist and director Paolo Paroni. As a member of the ‘Jazz Big Band Graz’, two of his compositions appear on the album “A Life Affair” released by Universal Music (2004). In 2013 he was commissioned  to write “Vom Himmel hoch” by the Coro Friuli Venezia Giulia / Italy to a piece for 40 voices mixed choir, soprano saxophone and bass clarinet.

Klaus Gesing has so far collaborated with (among others): Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, Björn Meyer, Anouar Brahem, Samuel Rohrer, Francois Couturier, Paolo Paroni, Khaled Yassine, Gwilym Simcock, Asaf Sirkis, Yuri Goloubev, Glauco Venier, John Taylor, Johannes Berauer, Dave Liebman, Christian Muthspiel, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Uli Rennert, Jazz Big Band Graz, Paolino dalla Porta, Wolfgang Puschnig, Peter Herbert, Jarrod Cagwin, John Hollenbeck, Henning Siewerts, Helge Andreas Norbakken, Mario Brunello

www.klausgesing.com/