03/03/2015, 21:30

MARC MANGEN TRIO

The personal style of Marc Mangen is strongly shaped by his constant research on new harmonic and melodic possibilities. Nevertheless, eclectisism is of the utmost importance to him. As a consequence, he cannot be associated with a particular jazz style. To be precise, his music is perceived as timeless. Over the years a huge collection of jazz themes of all kind was created. These themes are most of the time subject to an evolutionary process. From time to time, and especially after being performed with other musicians, parts of themes are rewritten, sometimes even completely transformed.

Each theme has a concept of it's own; the interpretation is in a sort of way part of the composition. It does not mean that there is only one correct performance, it is rather a variable concept. The recordings are actually snapshots. The trio is used to render the music in many different ways. There is nothing such as an ideal interpretation or the only true one. Two days later it could have been completely different. The most important thing is the melody, it shows the way to the music to be played, which is mainly based on improvisation and interaction.

Marc Mangen started his musical education in the conservatory of Luxembourg. Still in his teens, he moved on to the conservatory of Strasbourg (France) where he spent four years studying with the illustrious French classical pianist GÉRARD FRÉMY and with French jazz great BERNARD STRUBER.

But, as almost every jazz musician of his generation, he is mainly self-taught. Very early, he had the chance to play with the best musicians of his area, from whom he learned all the basics and beyond. He played virtually every style of music with many different bands. But, for some years now, he focusses on pure jazz piano, his first love. 

Boris Schmidt was also born in Luxembourg. He started to play music when he was 7 and his first instrument was the classical saxophone. Later he also learned to play the piano and took lessons in harmony. At age 15 he began to attend jazz workshops in Rossignol (B) with ALEXANDRE PLUMACKER, NICOLAS DORY, JACQUES PIROTTON and ANDRÉ KLENES as first jazz teachers. in 1999 he taught himself the electric bass but soon he switched to the double bass. After one year spent with MARC DEMUTH he decided to deepen his knowledge with masters such as HEIN VAN DE GEYN, FRANS VAN DER HOEVEN, ULI GLASZMANN, JOHN RUOCCO and ERIC INEKE at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (NL) where he obtained his "Bachelor of Music" in 2007. 

Niels Engel is born in one of the smallest countries in Europe (Luxembourg), drummer-percussionist he grew up in a family where music had its tradition over more generations. His musical career started at the Conservatory of Esch-sur-Alzette (L) where he studied mainly classical music (clarinet, classical percussion, solfeggio, classical harmony, chamber music, orchestral playing and brass band).

After some years, he got more and more into jazz music and especially into drums. At the age of 16, he had his first drum lesson in the same conservatory and just a few months later, he won the “Young European Soloist Competition” in Luxembourg and became one of the last 20 finalists of the “European Drummer Competition” in Germany. At the age of 18, he finished his degree in drums (1rst price) at the Conservatory of Esch-sur-Alzette. A year later, he was accepted as a full-time bachelor student for jazz drums at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (NL), where he studied with JOOST PATOCKA, STEFAN KRUGER, FRITS LANDESBERGEN and ERIK INEKE. In 2009 he moved to Amsterdam to finish his bachelor’s degree with MARCEL SERIERSE and MARTIJN VINK at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. 

In 2010 he won prestigious competitions as a sideman such as the “Prinses Christina Concours” and the “Grote Prijs van Nederland”. He is currently working as a percussionist at the Luxembourg Military Band. Over the years he worked with great musicians such as PETER BEETS, JOE FONDA, ARCHIE LEE HOOKER, JOHN RUOCCO, JESSE VAN RULLER, JASPER BLOM, ACK VAN ROOYEN, FRANS VAN DEN HOEVEN, BEN VAN GELDER, HARVIE S and many more.