Friday Night Party: PRO ART (D)
Which madman still voluntarily drags five to six hundredweight in the form of Hammond organ, Leslie cabinet, and Fender Rhodes piano onto the stage these days, indulges in a four-part brass section, and then boldly plays music that consistently ignores all the "styled" and "trendy" sounds that are currently so prevalent as background noise on quota radio? When you experience the Ilmenau fusion band "Pro Art," you can understand why. The band simply has fun with the groove. A word that is often misused and loved; here it truly lives.
The formation, founded during the excitement for jazz-rock in the summer of 1973, is today a living legend of the Thuringian music scene. About a hundred musicians have left their footprint over the years, whether for a short or long time. One can safely call the group a talent forge, as the cross-connections and networks with numerous actors from the East German jazz & blues scene are diverse and hardly manageable. Band leader Andreas Geyer, who works the seemingly ton-heavy Hammond organ, has played and continues to play in formations such as "Elektrotischlerei," "Andi Geyer Trio," "Andi Geyer Quartet," and in Dieter Gasde's "Travelling Blues Band" and "Gumbolaya," as well as with Eddi Janta in the reformed cult band "ergo" by Waldemar Weiz in 2006. Saxophonist Tom Hahnemann previously enhanced the ranks of "Keimzeit." Among the known members of "Pro Art" from recent years are trombonist Christian Kohlhaas, guitarist Christoph Bernewitz, bassist Matthias Eichhorn, and drummer Henning Luther, who have since become part of various lineups of Clueso.
None of the founding members have been around for a while. Presently, the band is a mix of seasoned Thuringian blues and soul musicians and young “wild” musicians who grew up with the music of the "old" and connect it with what their current feeling of life is: Nu’Jazz, trip-hop, and drum’n’bass. Here, fathers play with their sons. Especially in recent years, the band has continuously rejuvenated. With each newcomer, the long-term established numbers become more colorful and diverse. What comes out is traditional but fresh. The bassist grooves like a clockwork, dry as bones yet laid-back, paired with a drummer who plays in such a wonderfully edgy and modern way that a rhythmic foundation is created, on which Andi Geyer's "fat" Hammond B3 can really let loose. The old Fender Rhodes sparkles, the guitar fires, together with the four-part brass section, they push the soul, funk, and Latin riffs into the ears of the dance-hungry. Many original pieces alongside cover versions of Johnny Guitar Watson, the Crusaders, or Dr. John come from the stage. The band has a large reservoir of music, but the most exciting are the ever-emerging improvisational stretches when "Pro Art" simply "grooves" again.
Lineup:
Andi Geyer org, ep
Tom Hahnemann ts
Marco de Vries g
Jan Roth dr
Stefan Kerth b
The brass section led by Tom Hahnemann is completed into a quartet by musicians on alto saxophone, trumpet, and trombone.
Text: Fred Ulbricht
Copyrights Photos: Tino Sieland
Doors open: 19:00 Uhr
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
