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As the title suggests, the notion of 'time' pulls through the programme like a theme, connecting music from different parts of the world – traditionals, popular songs and original compositions – in performances of deep lyricism but also fleet-footed folklore. The repertory spans Albanian and Kosovan traditionals, American songs as well as originals by Rob and Elina.
Jazzwise said that "the sum of Duni and Luft's work together seems greater than their individual achievements, where concept and conceptualisation have combined to produce a classic.”
On this particular occasion, they are supported by the idiosyncratic sound of Swiss Flugelhorn player Matthieu Michel and one of the great contemporary British jazz drummers, Glaswegian native Corrie Dick.
Born into an artistic family in Tirana, Albania, in 1981, Elina Duni made her first steps on the stage as a singer aged
five, singing for National Radio and Television.
In 1992, after the fall of the communist regime, she settled in Geneva, Switzerland, with her mother, where she started studying classical piano and thereafter discovered jazz.
She went on to study on the jazz programme at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern. During this time, she formed the Elina Duni Quartet with Colin Vallon on piano, Patrice Moret on double bass and Norbert Pfammatter on drums. This represented a return to her musical roots, a combination of Balkan folk songs and jazz.
After two albums, Baresha (2008) and Lume Lume (2010), both on Meta Records, the quartet went on to release for ECM in 2012, Matanë Malit (Beyond the Mountain) and in 2015, Dallëndyshe (Swallow), which were praised by the wider European media for their lightness as well as their subtle manner of exploring Albanian folklore.
In 2014, Elina Duni released her first album as a singer-songwriter in Kosovo and Albania, entitled Muza e Zezë (The Black Muse).
In 2017, Elina Duni was one of the recipients of the Swiss Music Prize and started to work with the highly acclaimed London guitarist Rob Luft.
The project entitled “Partir”, featuring Elina Duni as a soloist (accompanying herself on piano, acoustic guitar and percussion), has been released on record in April 2018 on ECM and has received great reviews from the European press.
In 2020, Lost Ships was released on ECM records featuring Rob Luft, Fred Thomas and Matthieu Michel and was praised by the press.
In 2023, A Time To Remember was released with the same quartet on ECM Records.
Rob Luft is an award-winning jazz guitarist from London whose virtuosity has been compared to that of six-string legends John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola & Paco De Lucia. He was the recipient of the 2016 Kenny Wheeler Prize from the Royal Academy of Music, and he also received the 2nd Prize in the 2016 Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition at Montreux Jazz Festival. His debut album, Riser, was released on Edition Records in 2017 to widespread acclaim from the European jazz media. John Fordham wrote in The Guardian that it’s a “very sophisticated debut, but given Luft’s old-soul achievements since his early teens, we should have heard it coming”.
Subsequently, on the back of the success of his first album, Rob was nominated for a string of awards – Breakthrough Act in the 2018 Jazz FM Awards, Instrumentalist of the Year in the 2020 Parliamentary Jazz Awards and Instrumentalist of the Year in the 2019 Jazz FM Awards. In May 2019, Rob was selected as a BBC New Generation Jazz Artist. His eagerly-awaited second album, Life is the Dancer, was released in April 2020 on Edition Records to critical acclaim. Despite the intermittent global lockdowns of 2020, Rob made his debut appearance on the legendary German jazz label ECM Records with the album Lost Ships, a collaborative effort with Swiss-Albanian singer Elina Duni, and this was nominated in the International Album of the Year category in the 2021 German Jazz Prize.
Concert highlights for Rob include performances with artists including Django Bates, The Cinematic Orchestra, Arve Henriksen and Manu Katché. Rob is a regular member of a multitude of some of Britain’s finest modern jazz groups, such as The John Surman Quartet, Byron Wallen’s Four Corners & the Iain Ballamy Quintet. Additionally, his playing has been documented on a wide variety of albums over the past five years on famed jazz labels such as ECM Records, Edition Records, Ropeadope, Linn Records, amongst others.
Corrie Dick, a musician and composer specialising in euphoric, sonically-inventive drumming, is at the rhythmic epicentre of a new era of innovative British jazz. He is lauded for his dynamism, his melodic slant and for his playfully subversive take on style and genre. An artist of prolific and varied output, Corrie has long been an essential component of Laura Jurd’s music including Mercury Prize shortlisted Dinosaur; is a crucial co-pilot in Elliot Galvin Trio and Rob Luft Group; and co-writes music with an abundance of artists including alternative Indie band Ink Line. His 2015 release Impossible Things, which skilfully fused Celtic folk and contemporary jazz with new takes on African rhythms culminated in sold-out touring and concerts across the UK. Now, Corrie resets for an album which further embraces the eclectic whims of a child of the iPod shuffle generation – finding cohesion among disparate elements.
As a multi-instrumentalist who has recorded on piano, vocals, synth, guitar and trumpet, Corrie’s writing is uniquely colourful and his playing shaped by many perspectives. The new album Sun Swells showcases all of this. Anchored by a rock guitar trio but with layers of fruity surprises, surging vocal melodies are counterpointed by mercurial horn playing. There is captivating prose written by guest vocalists Dave Malkin of the English folk tradition and Greek-Norwegian Marianna Sangita.
Now an active participant in South East London’s evergreen arts scene, Deptford, the young master of contemporary drumming has studied traditional music in Ghana and Morocco where the grooves are rich and layered, and in his homeland, Scotland, where rhythm and melody have melded for centuries.
Alongside his ensemble work, Corrie has been exploring solo drum and percussion, most recently performing at King’s Place and Newcastle Festival of Improvised Music. Here, he demonstrates fresh perspectives of an instrument that glows with possibility, embracing the full gamut of dynamics and textures with slanted nods to music traditions of the world.
Born in Fribourg in 1963, Matthieu Michel is acknowledged as one of the great trumpeters and flugelhorn players of European jazz. He was a member of the Vienna Art Orchestra from 1992 and has worked with Susanne Abbuehl, Malcolm Braff, Richard Galliano and Daniel Humair. He has released seven albums in various line-ups with Swiss and international musicians on jazz labels ranging from the prestigious to the less known. He owes his seductive power to his unique timbre and flair for improvisation, as well as his qualities of introspection and lyricism.
