Maggie Nicols and Irène Schweizer – two trailblazers in European music, two fighters for freedom. Maggie Nicols sang in London in John Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble, worked with Keith Tippett, Trevor Watts and Lindsay L. Cooper. Irène Schweizer played at the jazz café Africana in Zurich, toured with Pierre Favre and Peter Kowald, and was known for her appearances at the meetings of Free Music Production in Berlin.

What is less known is quite how important Irène Schweizer’s time in London was for her. She lived there as a young woman for a long time, and became familiar with jazz in Ronnie Scott’s club. Schweizer and Nicols met in the 1970’s as part of FIG (Feminist Improvising Group). They continued together when FIG became EWIG (European Women’s Improvising Group), performing in the 1980’s at the early Taktlos Festivals and at the legendary Canaille Festival, which took place at the Rote Fabrik in Zurich.

The trio Les Diaboliques with Schweizer, Nicols and the French bassist Joëlle Léandre is an important group doing pioneering work, fusing improvisation, jazz and dramatic elements. They have made several impressive CDs and a DVD documentary which are a testament to their art and their originality. Schweizer and Nicols have been performing duo concerts since the 1970’s. These are two great musicians whose dialogue is not just intentional, but also indispensable.

CD-recommendations: Irène Schweizer, George Lewis, Maggie Nicols, Joëlle Léandre, Günter Sommer. The Storming of the Winter Palace. Intakt CD 003.
Les Diaboliques with Maggie Nicols, Irène Schweizer, Joëlle Léandre. Live at the Rhinefalls. Intakt CD 059

On the Zurich scene, the trio Noisy Minority is like an institution. It is known for performing contemporary jazz as a group with its own expressive identity, as well as a jaw-dropping capacity to put its foot to the floor and speed up. Saxophonist Omri Ziegele, bassist and sound-sorcerer Jan Schlegel and drummer Dieter Ulrich have been in this trio together for twenty years, and each plays his part in a group capable of all kinds of dare-devil exploits and unexpected grooves, but can also float delicate themes. They have a way of hovering between free improv and their spontaneously hatched arrangements, and then of bursting free. They have a relationship with jazz and its tradition which is neither hidebound nor precious. In 2014 the trio invited the New York trombonist Ray Anderson to join them. A succession of concerts and festival appearances ensued in 2015, plus a CD Wrong is Right. For this London concert they have re-invited the UK trumpeter Percy Pursglove, with whom they performed for the first time at the 2016 unerhört! Festival in Winterthur in Switzerland.

CD-recommendation: Omri Ziegele Noisy Minority. Wrong is Right. Intakt CD 262