The drummer and band leader Lucas Niggli, with his trio ZOOM and quintet Big ZOOM, provided the big surprises at many festivals last year: the band's concerts in Moers, Saalfelden, Willisau, Münster, Schauffhausen count among these festivals' highlights. «Unbelievable how the genre-idioms from blues, rock and jazz styles are paired up among each other in the controlled gesture of new music,» said the journalist Marcus Maida after the performance at the Moers Festival. «Everything swings and runs into each other in great suspense and results in a meaningful, organic whole that gives enough cause for enthusiasm». And the writer Peter Weber writes about BIG ZOOM, «Niggli makes rhythms out of sequences of notes, sets them up on his drums, uses his playing to conduct behind the horns, bass, and guitar, and steers with finesse, with pressure and fury. The music thus created peels out of itself, runs through itself, constantly transforms itself, grows out of itself, gains height, suspends bridges across the entire twentieth century». Both new CDs capture concert excerpts of this forward-looking band. On Rough Ride (Intakt CD 082), ZOOM can be heard in its original trio with the trombonist Nils Wogram and Philipp Schaufelberger, recorded in Saalfelden and Schaffhausen. On Big Ball (Intakt CD 083), the clarinetist Claudio Puntin and the bassist Peter Herbert join up with the core group, recorded at the jazz festival in Willisau and jazz club Moods. Both CDs, Rough Ride and Big Ball document the great moments ofcurrent jazz music and show the state of today¹s artistic atmosphere, the musical chemistry of the present.

Cover art: Eliane Binggeli, Pino Esposito
Liner notes: Marcus Maida
Photos: Francesca Pfeffer

All Compositions by Lucas Niggli (SUISA). Recorded live on two tracks Nr 1,2 and 5 at Jazzfestival Saalfelden (A), August 23, 2002, by Martin Leitner for Radio 1/ORF. Nr. 3, 6 and 7 at Jazzfestival Schaffhausen (CH), May 23, 2002, by Martin Pearson for Radio DRS. Nr. 4 at Jazzclub Moods (CH), March 14, 2002 by Martin Pearson for Radio DRS. Edited and mastered December 16, 2002 at Platinum One by Martin Pearson. Produced by Intakt Records and Lucas Niggli. Executive production: Patrik Landolt. Published and copyright by Intakt Records