Weird Beard

Florian Egli (sax), Dave Gisler (guitar), Martina Berther (bass), Rico Baumann (drums). 

This band, according to Egli, “is full of a variety of personal characteristics, independence of spirit, and throbbing inspiration.” Egli is from the generation of European jazz for which this music was never entertaining or old-fashioned. They are looking for means of expression in improvisation which would have the power to convey the complexity of the inner world of a person who has a serious attitute to things. One cannot really escape from pulsating inspiration. But we must not forget the fact that this concept of jazz is primarily work in creativity and not creativity in work. 

Egli’s line up is already widely known, despite its youth; in 2014 Weird Beard finished second at the national competition for young jazz bands and almost received ZKB Jazz Preis. In April 2015 the quartet was selected to participate in the Swiss “performance” of the most prestigious and mass-profile jazz forums in the world – the German JazzAhead, held in Bremen. The leader of the band recently graduated from the University of Arts in Zurich (curiously, he was a student of Christoph Grabb – one of the participants in the first days of “MuzEnergoTour 2014!”). He actively performs, for example, in Lucern Jazz Orchestry and gradually collects a variety of European Prizes, composer grants and other regalia, the number of which is about to be transformed into quality.