Zuletzt konnte BA den Reiseerinnerungen lauschen, die dieses Schweizer Cool-Jazz-Trio, um es mal stark vereinfacht zu etikettieren, aus dem Fernen Osten mitgebracht hatte (-> BA 50). Schon bevor Christoph Gallio, Christian Weber & Marco Käppeli aufgebrochen waren, hatten sie im Juni 2004 eine ganze Reihe von Miniaturen und Hommagen eingespielt, wie sie für Gallio, der seit einiger Zeit nicht mehr in Zürich, sondern in Baden zuhause ist, so typisch sind. Widmungsträger seiner skurrilen Tunes, die fünf Mal unter 1 Minute bleiben und weitere fünf Mal unter 2 Minuten, sind ein Vogel oder ein toter Kater, das starke Geschlecht oder der Schwarze Kontinent, nette Nachbarn und verehrte Musiker wie Malachi Favors und Steve Lacy. Einige sind kleine, freilich ganz besondere Geburtstags- oder Hochzeitsgeschenke. Der in Gallios Soprano- & Altosound immer mitschwingende Lacy-Touch wird diesmal noch verstärkt durch den Mezzosopran von Sara Maurer, die Texte von Favors und von Gertrude Stein mit einem Duktus intoniert, der ein wenig an Irene Aebi erinnert. Immer wieder bin ich aufs Neue verblüfft und entzückt über die einzigartige Paradoxie, dass bei DAY & TAXI Abstraktion swingt, dass mit viel Sophistication Konstruiertes ganz und gar heiter und spielerisch klingt, dass man mit einer überschaubaren Zahl von Tönen so vielsagend sein kann. Dass sogar Simplicity und Noise ein Liebespaar sein können. ‚Trust‘ dreht sich um Vertrauen, ‚Love‘ um Liebe, ‚Joy‘ um Freude, ‚Run‘ um Tempo, aber ‚Go‘ kommt als Getrude-Stein-Loop nicht von der Stelle und ‚Calypso‘ ist beim besten Willen kein Calypso. Einige Tunes sind so launig, als ob der nun auf ‚Wolke‘ 7 schnurrende Kater Murr die tapsigen Pfoten mit im Spiel gehabt hätte. Die Kongenialität von Käppeli und Weber, der übrigens, wie weiter oben schon geschildert, mit weiteren Landsleuten von Gallio‘esker Sophistication, den Herren Wintsch & Wolfarth im Leo-Projekt WWW, am Lebensfaden guter Musik zupft, die lässt sich gar nicht genug loben.

FERIENGRÜSSE - Postkarten nennt der Badener Saxofonist Christoph Gallio die Miniaturen, die er für sein Trio DAY & TAXI komponiert. Sie dauern 30 Sekunden, manchmal länger, und sie bestehen aus einem Gedanken, einem einzigen Bild. Raffiniert gebaut, abgezirkelt bis ins Letzte, kommen sie trotzdem luftig und selbstverständlich daher, wie ein Ferienschnappschuss. Die hohe Kunst Gallios hört man, weil sie so unspektakulär daherkommt, zuweilen erst nach und nach, ähnlich wie bei Cartier-Bresson oder anderen Meisterfotographen. Die Partner Christoph Gallios in seinem Trio tragen allerdings das Ihre zur Kohärenz der Musik bei, Bassist Christian Weber und Schlagzeuger Marco Käppeli spielen jederzeit mit ernsthaftem Witz, zufälliger Präzision und unterstützender Eigenständigkeit.

Da anni il trio DAY & TAXI, guidato dal sassofonista, soprano e contralto, svizzero Christoph Gallio, oltre che dare concerti per il mondo, persino nella lontana Cina, lascia testimonianza dei proprii sviluppi sulla Percaso Productions. Una musica rigorosa, precisa, che fa delle brevi strutture l´impalcatura di un disco che si ascolta senza fatica nonostante le libertà concessesi. Christian Weber al contrabbasso e Marco Käppeli alla batteria completano il trio e si prendono i loro spazi con molta bravura. Gallio è un maestro dell´aforisma, e lo mostra subito dal brano d´apertura, "Ara", un frammento di meno di un minuto cui ne faranno seguito altri, composizioni in cui sembra distillare l´essenza della musica, con note che spuntano direttamente dal periodo passato a studiare con Steve Lacy. Al contralto assomiglia un pò a Roscoe Mitchell e nei brani più lunghi mostra una perfetta costruzione dei suoi assoli, coerenti nonostante l´uso di intervalli inusuali. Le articolate composizioni sono ispirate al linguaggio del jazz piú moderno ed al suo maestro Lacy, ed aggiornate sul piano melodico e ritmico, e costituiscono il fulcro dell´album. Su "New Music" (parole di Joseph Jarman) e "Curtains Dream" canta la mezzosoprano Sara Maurer, integrandosi nel gruppo facendo ricordare la voce ed il ruolo di Irene Aebi nel gruppi del famoso sopranista. Il trio sa essere compatto e mettere a fuoco con poesia le invenzioni compositive del leader, il cui pensiero musicale amalgama bene la lezione dell´avanguardia postfree americana e le sue radici europee.

This incarnation of DAY & TAXI, the ongoing project of Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio, welcomes the playing talents of double bassist Christian Weber and drummer Marco Käppeli, together with vocalist Sara Maurer who appears as a guest in two tracks. The smart choice of dividing the record in many segments - some of them lasting a little more than 30 seconds - highlights the extreme variety and the polyhedric culture of these artists, who tackle the music with the right attitude. We hear modifications of jazz formats, rock vamps, ironic swing that gets obliterated in favour of instant calypso recollections. And, what's most important, everything sounds absolutely un-sugarcoated and highly digestible - even if at the end of the CD you won't probably remember a single line or theme. One never experiences a seething feeling while listening to "Out", not even in the most complex pieces: the absence of excessive contrapuntal knots, mixed with a lucid interpretation of the spur-of-the-moment intuition that animates most of these tracks, and the musicians' notable technical fecundity yield an energizing album that fuses composition and improvisation into a whole that - as very rarely happens in new jazz - is both lighthearted and donative in terms of aural gratification. 

The Swiss trio, DAY & TAXI, has undergone several personnel changes during its 18 years of existence. Most recently, the one constant has been Christoph Gallio, who as saxophonist serves not only as its primary voice, but also as the composer of most of its music. DAY & TAXI’s repertoire cannot be described as Jazz in the traditional sense, though the definition of “Jazz” is a topic that is never entirely settled. Gallio doesn’t observe the familiar Jazz harmonies, the music contains nary a smidgen of Swing, it is too carefully considered in advance to be considered entirely free, and it avoids quotes or other Jazz signposts that some Jazz listeners admire and in which they find comfort. A better description for DAY & TAXIS’s approach would be that used by Cadence: “creative improvised music.” Gallio, almost always succinct to a fault, imagines and then writes his pieces as precise musical depictions of commanding sonic elements, such as overtones, intervallic leaps, unforced chirping or bendings of notes. The first track, “Ara,” approximates on soprano sax the sound of a bird with a clattering and warbling circling of the theme—and then it’s over in but 34 seconds. Similarly, the deceptively entitled “Calypso—deceptive because its rhythm is quietly locomotive instead of calypsoistic—sets up its minimalistically melodic concept, and then it ends, three seconds longer than “Ara.” However, brevity isn’t as important to Gallio as concision. He presents his aural statements with no more notes than necessary while allowing sufficient length to create the detailed visualization he intends. Not all of Gallio’s compositions are light and teasing, as is “U E I O Anne,” for instance, which, darting and fluttering unpredictably, is dedicated to graphic designer Anne Hoffman. “Boat,” which abandons the cheerfulness of many of the tracks on Out, proceeds slowly and tentatively as bassist Christian Weber provides much of the undulating motion while Gallio on alto sax roughens his tone and outlines a theme, once again brief, rather than indulging in over-embellishment. “Walter’s Year of the Years,” describing the year that 50-year-old German painter Walter Eisler fathered another child, starts with and interjects occasionally a phrase consisting of intervals of fifths before the trio breaks into free chattering and simulated mayhem in its middle section. The two startling tracks of Out are “New Music” and “Curtains Dream,” on which mezzo soprano Sara Maurer sings lyrics adapted from verses by Joseph Jarman and Gertrude Stein respectively, proving that Gallio’s interests are broader than mere free Jazz improvisation over changes. Rather, he intends to startle and suggest vivid images or engaging personalities through sonic snapshots, rather than through musical murals.

DAY & TAXI é um projecto musical originário da Suíça e liderado pelo saxofonista alto e soprano Christoph Gallio. O grupo tem vindo a apurar procedimentos desde o final da década de 80, com entradas e saídas de pessoal. Nasceu como quarteto em 1988, com Christoph Gallio e Urs Blöchlinger (saxofones), Lindsay L. Cooper (contrabaixo) e Dieter Ulrich (bateria), mas entretanto, de quadrado passou a triângulo, com voz única de saxofone alto e soprano num dos vértices, preenchidos os outros dois pelo contrabaixista Christian Weber e pelo baterista Michael Griener. Em 2001, Gallio reformulou o Day & Taxi, que se tem mantido estável desde então, com o contrabaixista Daniel Studer, e o baterista Marco Käppelli. Gravado em 2004, e Zurique, Suiça, Out (Percaso Production 023) é um trabalho minucioso e delicado, variado no estilo e irrepreensivelmente bem tocado por músicos de sólida competência técnica, bons improvisadores. Gallio favorece a opção por temas geralmente curtos, miniaturas que nalguns casos têm a duração de breves segundos. Louva-se o espírito de síntese mas em certo sentido talvez fosse preferível não haver tantas interrupções, para que Out pudesse soar de modo mais fluido e contínuo, sem tantos cortes entre os 20 temas que os 50 minutos de exposição comportam. Aspecto menor, é certo, que em nada prejudica a qualidade das peças, e eventualmente reforça a sua marca expressionista, de tradição europeia, bem como as ocasionais incursões pelos lados do minimalismo, enquanto easpectos contrastantes com os elementos do jazz. Digamos que o que se perde em fluidez discursiva enquanto todo, ganha-se em intensidade emocional, condensada peça a peça nos tais curtos períodos de tempo. Por outro lado, o processo facilita o encontro de famílias musicais diferentes, do mesmo tipo das que vivem no universo de Steve Lacy, figura que Gallio assume como seu "mentor, professor e amigo". Sem dúvida que a música do trio acorda memórias de Lacy no ouvinte informado, despertando-o para um mundo sonoro que em muitos aspectos toma a música do improvisador norte-americano citação, pretexto ou ponto de partida. Influências que, ou se manifestam de modo explícito, ou se deixam apenas pressentir no som global do trio (a espaços, faz lembrar o excelente The Window, S. Lacy com Jean-Jacques Avenel e Oliver Johnson) e em particular no saxofone soprano de Christoph Gallio, tão rico em insólitas asperezas, como em movimentos suaves. O desenho melódico é fora do vulgar e as inesperadas variações rítmicas são uma constante. A participação da mezzosopranoSara Maurer em dois temas (New Music e Curtains Dream), e a dimensão onírica que transporta consigo, enriquecem ainda mais uma sessão que em trio era já de altíssimo nível. Sem dúvida que o DAY & TAXI merece maior reconhecimento por parte do público aficionado. A participação do trio no Vision Festival pode ser o princípio da correcção dessa “anomalia”, e Out, editado em 2006, aí está para ajudar à festa.

Die magische Ziffer lautet zwanzig. Zwanzig Stücke von halb- bis einminütigen Miniaturen bis hin zu ein paar längeren Stücken, hat Christoph Gallio auf seinem zwanzig Jahren alten PERCASO-Label mit Weber & Käppeli versammelt. Zu hören ist ansprechend avancierter Schweizer Trio-Jazz, zu lesen sind artifizielle Liner Notes von Peter Z Herzog, Joseph Jarman, Gertrude Stein und Gallio selbst, zu sehen ist liebevolle Kleinarbeit am Cover von Yoshitomo Nara. Viel Herzensengagement steckt in dieser Musik – nicht nur im „Love“ benannten Stück #9 – und in ihren Begleiterscheinungen. Womöglich bietet diese feine Combo wenig Überraschendes oder gar Neues. Nichts desto trotz besticht diese sympathische Handschrift eines zeitgenössischen Statements zwischen Komposition und Improvisation. Kleines Budget, grosser Charakter.

Day & Taxi Out
 Percaso Production 23 // Gallio, Voerkel & Frey 
Tiegel
 Atavistic ALP261CD

Nearly 25 years separate these trio sessions, but they confirm the consistent musical aptitude of Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio. However, considering the 13 tracks on Tiegel, are all improvisations, whereas the 20 [!] tracks on Out are all his compositions, the discs also track the increased musical sophistication of the Zürich-based reedist.

Tiegel was actually the name of the co-op trio formed by Gallio, and more senior Swiss musicians, Peter K Frey, who plays bass and trombone here, and Urs Voerkel, who improvises on piano and drums. That band lasted until 1983. In 1989, after studying in Paris with American soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, Gallio formed the oddly-named Day & Taxi trio, which exists to this day. Different bassist and drummers have filled out the band. On Out, his most recent partners are veteran drummer Marco Käppeli and new bassist Christian Weber, who has recorded with multi-reedist Hans Koch and pianist Michel Wintsch. Gallio plays alto as well as soprano saxophone on this CD, while mezzo soprano Sara Maurer guests on two tracks.

This is quite a change from 1981 where then Gallio-associates Frey had been involved with Free Music in Switzerland since the mid-1970s, and Urs Voerkel had been part of a trio with British trombonist Paul Rutherford and German drummer Paul Lovens. Voerkel must have felt right at home then on the few improvisations here where Frey reveals hitherto unheralded talent on trombone.

Contrapuntal and guttural, his output connects with the saxophonist’s harsh double-tonguing, quickly framing Voerkel’s splashes and cross-sticking on unattached cymbals. The drummer’s cyclical piano patterning is featured along with tail-gate ‘bone color on “Improvisation #9”, as Gallio’s choked split tones finally turn to spetrofluctuation, creating brass-band-like colors when combined with Frey’s output. There are other piano forays as well, highlighting the drummer’s metronomic chording and more conventional comping. However, like Maurer’s pleasant, but somewhat mannered vocalizing on the other CD, the game of musical chairs on Tiegel is secondary to the work of the three in standard trio configuration.

Unlike some other pieces, which find the saxman exhaling distracted, near- inaudible peeps and short chirps, the more-than-nine-minute “Improvisation #5” and “Improvisation #8” are notable precursors to Gallio’s future work. On both interestingly enough, his sound is already close to Lacy’s, before he studied with the older American.

Nasally balladic on the first piece, his tone is low key and parlando, involved with a growly, yet microtonal reed investigation as the drummer confines himself to rolls and cymbal pops, and the bassist to fastidious, single-string plucks. When the reedist’s sound hardens for the tune’s final variation, the tempo accelerates as well with string slapping and snare rattling, ending with an extended cymbal resonation.

Frey is most in his element on the second piece, dramatically building up the almost standard jazz line – complete with Art Blakey-like Hard-Bop drumming – with dark overtones from ricocheting bass strings and near-the-peg investigation.

Two-and-one-half decades on, Gallio appears to have been influenced by Lacy’s elegant, art song cycles as well as his matchless tones. Although seven tracks count in at one minute or less, Gallio also seems to have picked up a Ken Vandermark-styled tendency to dedicate nearly every track to some person or another. Furthermore, with experience that has now had him play with musicians as disparate as American drummer Rashied Ali and British sound-singer Phil Minton, Gallio, who also trained as a visual artist, creates themes here that reference experimental sounds, song cycles Harmolodics, Energy Music and more conventional jazz and New music forms. Sometimes, as on “Strong Six”, the performance even consists of a blues miniature played on alto saxophone.

“Hearts”, the more-than-6½-minute longest track, with its heavily vibrated saxophone lines, is a celebratory dedication to Lacy. Operating on top of four-square bass lines and adagio stops from Weber, and a low-key drum rumble from Käppeli, Gallio varies his textures from smooth, interactive pecking to guttural, mucousy, hard split tones.

In contrast, “Love”, with minimal bass and drum backing finds the alto saxophonist framing a centre section of post-Aylerian squeals and split tones with legato, romantic and fanciful simple lines. “Joy”, mixes Energy Music and Harmolodics, as Dancing In Your Head-like slap bass plus doubled flam and pops from the drummer, evolve in triple counterpoint with Gallio spinning and squeaking elongated textures that feature irregular vibrato.

Finally, there’s “Run”, which scampers along agitato to reflect its title. Again on alto, the saxophonist limits his tongue-slapping and spitting to the finale, instead constructing soulful slurs that use tremolo intensity vibrato to contrapuntally ring-around-the-Rosie with Käppeli’s wood-block clips, rolling snare-drum bounces and double tempo ruffs and rebounds – plus Weber’s allegro bass echoes.

Engaging in both miniature and regular-sized compositions, Gallio proves himself poster boy for of 21st Century accommodation to many styles and musics. Still, like the other CD, Out just misses first rank by the great number and brevity of its tunes. Next time out, perhaps collecting compositional thoughts for a 10-to-20-minute stretch may be a goal.

Zwanzig Eigenkompositionen, manche so kurz, dass sie Miniaturen oder Fragmente genannt werden können, hat Christoph Gallio mit seinem Trio Day&Taxi unter dem Titel «Out» auf dem eigenen Label Percaso veröffentlicht. Skizzenhaft, zuweilen surreal und nie voraussehbar wirkt Gallios Musik, die ganz stark von der Improvisation aus geht. Der Autodidakt, der seit 1977 mit Namen wie Irene Schweizer, Urs Voerkel oder Fred Frith zusammen gespielt hat, verwendet in seinem Trio kein einziges Harmonieinstrument. Gallios unverwechselbare Musik, die weit weg ist von modischen Klängen, ist geprägt von Rhythmus und Melodie. Sie zeugt auch von feinem Humor und Poesie. Letztere kommt in zwei Kompositionen gleich selbst zu Wort: Die Gastsängerin Sara Maurer interpretiert «Curtains Dream», ein Gedicht von Gertrude Stein sowie Joseph Jarmans «New Music», dessen Anfangsstrophe eine passende Beschreibung von Christoph Gallios Musik sein könnte: «Of the new music, whenever you are asked what it is, say: it is spirit ...». 

One of the great things about this year's Vision Fest is that it featured a number of Europe's best musicians (Paul Rutherford, Klaas Hekman & Torsten Muller), as well as a great and under-recognized trio called Day & Taxi. This trio is led by soprano & alto saxist, Christoph Gallio with an evolving rhythm team. They've been around since the early nineties and have some half dozen discs so far. The line-up for the Vision Fest included Christian Weber on bass and Michael Griener on drums, although drummer Marco Kappeli can be found on this disc that was recorded in 2004 and released this year. 'Out' features some twenty tracks, all but two under 5-minutes, a bunch under one minute. Christoph writes these odd tunes that have unpredictable rhythmic twists and turns. What I dig about this music is that it is always interesting and unpredictable, yet is never very far out. It is as if Christoph has these little ideas or fragments that need no development, since they are still engaging in more subtle ways. I am often reminded of Steve Lacy's trio and the way they dissected and shined on Monk songs. I also dig the way Christoph sputters and bends notes on his sax without the harsh sonorities that often make most folks feel uncomfortable. In concert, he does some silly dancing around and makes some funny faces, adding some humorous spice to his charming blend creative playing. Some of that infectious spirit is also apparent when you hear this music on its own.