Lüdemann, Biondini & Dunston

With Nick Dunston and drummer Savannah Harris, Hans Lüdemann has started a new trio at the beginning of 2023 in Cologne’s LOFT. The impetus for this was the encounter at Cologne Jazzweek 2022. For Cologne Jazzweek 2023, Nick and Hans have now decided to invite the Italian accordion virtuoso Luciano Biondini as a trio partner for a new meeting.

Hans Lüdemann received the Rome Prize in 2021/22 and lived and worked for a year at the Villa Massimo in Rome. It was there that he met Luciano Biondini and the two performed duo concerts. The Italian Luciano Biondini is one of the great masters of the accordion and is known for his collaborations with Rabih Abou-Khalil and the singer Andreas Schaerer.

Hans Lüdemann has worked in his career with musical greats such as Jan Garbarek and Paul Bley and performs as a solo pianist and with his ensembles “Trio Ivoire” and “TransEuropeExpress”. Matthias Bäumel recently described him in the “JazzZeitung” as “one of the most important German jazz pianists.” At the end of Lüdemann’s year in Rome, Biondini and Lüdemann performed in a large project at the “Casa del Jazz” and recorded a CD – production there. Since then they have continued their collaboration, most recently with an appearance at the Jazzdor Festival Budapest 2023.

Lüdemann and Biondini’s duo program is based on their own compositions, which are the starting point for intense musical dialogues. The combination of the two instruments piano and accordion is unusual, but it offers a wide range of possibilities, as both instruments can change roles, be used as both melody and harmony instruments, or set percussive accents. The different temperaments provide high intensity and tension full of harmonic finesse and melodic richness, spiced with Mediterranean flair. In addition to great virtuosity, it is above all the range and constant variability of expression that gives this duo and their instruments a high degree of expressiveness.

In the trio with Nick Dunston, the musicians can fall back on this basis, but at the same time open up the sound and playing possibilities considerably into wide improvisational spaces. All three are united by their need for permanent communication in the music and the high degree of energy they bring to the interplay and develop together.