although most of the jazzfest we took in was free/improv, there was one group that did a structured set. lucas niggli, who i swear i've seen before, has a new group called "zoom".

with nils wogram (trombone) and philipp schaufelberger (guitar), niggli guides the group from behind his drumkit. the group moves quick, but has a high-strung edge to it as they attempt to keep to niggli's tight scores. in this regard it reminded me of susie ibarra (and trio). still, they played really well. we had a good time listening to wogram's tromboning (what is the verb for the act of playing the trombone?) and schaufelberger's intense guitar work.

through the show wogram kept turning to niggli and asking him before he said anything to the audience (might be a matter of less foreign stage experience, i'm not sure). at one point niggli told us they were about to perform "space waltz" and wogram whispered to niggli if he could tell the joke. "lucas usually tells this joke, but it is so funny i want to tell it this time. we like to dance. in europe we have this dance that is very popular. maybe you've heard of it. it's called the waltz." and so began the space waltz.

these are all players worth following. i think they have a few albums, also worth checking out i'm sure.

show at the roundhouse performance centre, vancouver, july 3, 2004