Twentieth Anniversary 2009
... the music of pianist Georg Graewe, cellist Ernst Reijseger and percussionist Gerry Hemingway is so fresh, so special. They have found a way to create music unburdened of stereotypes, cliches, and precedents, music that is not dependent upon jazz or classical music for a context, and refers to them only tangentially. This is Improvised New Music, which is free to draw on any source without selling its soul to do so. Art Lange, Chicago 1989
Photo Credit: Helmut Rizy (Wien)
20th Anniversary European Tour
November 13 - 20, 2009
November 13th - Antwerp, Belgium, BE
November 14th - Bochum, DE
November 15 - Koln, DE
November 16 - Vienna, OS
November 18 - Bimhuis, NL
November 20 - Elmau, DE
GRH soundcheck at the Museum in Bochum November 14, 2009
The GRH Trio, after another period of inactivity has returned to performing and recording with a recent tour marking the 16th year since the trio's inception. The exciting news is that we recorded three hours of music for Winter and Winter in a beautiful acoustic room in Munich (the reherasal room for the Munich Opera Orchestra). The recording and performances are nothing short of outstanding. Winter and Winter released "Continnum" from this session in January of 2006. Click here for a review by Tom Sedesko in May 2006 issue of Gaz-Eta.
a pic from the studio session in Munich (January 2006):
Graewe/Reijseger/Hemingway celebrated their 10th anniversary with a tour in the US in November of 1999. In June, 2001 nuscope recordings is released a recording of their performance in Ann Arbor from this tour.
Downtown Music Gallery web site review from Bruce Gallanter:
This is the seventh provocative and engaging release for this striking trio of international improvising masters for the consistently challenging Nuscope label. It was recorded live in Ann Arbor, Michigan in
November of 1999 - the tenth anniversary of this excellent trio. Georg Graewe plays piano, Ernst Reijseger is/was the amazing cellist for the ICP Orchestra and the Clusone Trio and Gerry Hemingway is perhaps the finest of all local improvising drummers and percussionists. Like all Nuscope releases, this one has well defined sound.
"Menuet" is the opening piece and it begins tentatively at first, but quickly builds as the abstractions get thicker and more certain. Gerry plays with his hands on the drums in a most natural way, as the cello and piano playfully expand their palettes - slowly things get more heated and ascend as the reactions and ideas are exchanged more quickly. "kindling" also starts out delicately, but soon the trio begins to buzz in sections - darker and more suspenseful eruptions take place as the fog becomes more dense and difficult to absorb readily. There is a completely natural flow of events, an undercurrent which connects the trio to another and to all who listen closely.
By the third track - "une geste plus rapide"
- the waters get even more dense and difficult and engaging -
the piano and drums start to fly quickly together, spinning a
furious web as Ernst also plucks more intensely - eventually exploding
together in a frenzy of dense activity and then winding down to
a more haunting and minimal section. On "zer-streuung"
the trio flies with a smoother, more swinging jazz flow - taking
off into the skies with inspired energy. Gerry takes a marvelous,
inventive percussion solo with more hands-on-drums wackiness while
Ernst begins bowing weird sonic spirits on his cello. These cats
consistently match each other's ever-inventive spirit - never
letting go of the cosmic flow - each section moves in waves from
quiet and trance-like to quick and explosive. This is a challenging
and moving set which is captured perfectly.
" La Bonne Vitesse" (RA 014) which features recordings from the band's performances in Istanbul in 1994, is available (in an unofficial version) from this site but because then less than optimum sound quality was pulled from release by Random Acoustics (for more info).
I am currently at work on a new work for three improvisors and orchestra entitled "Sideband". The three improvisors are of course this trio and I will you informed of performances of this work when it happens, hopefully in the not too distant future.
Photo Credit: Gert de Ruyter
Graewe,Reijseger and Hemingway sound as if they have been rehearsing for years. There is an exactness and a sweetness that seems almost unfeasible. Brian Morton THE WIRE, London 1990
Graewe,Reijseger and Hemingway are consistently establishing themselves as some of the most unique and challenging improvisers. Michael Rosenstein CADENCE, New York 1995
GEORG GRAEWE/ERNST REIJSEGER/GERRY HEMINGWAY
Flex 27 RA 007 CD
Pianist Georg Graewe has been working with Reijseger and Hemingway for some years. Flex 27 is a spare, judicious album of miniatures. There's no expressive Improv overload in sight - restraint dominates the game, and the trio play with immense mutual confidence. They have a disciplined way of building a succession of distinctive episodes within the slightly longer pieces, which amounts to exemplary group work. It's highly mobile music, stubbornly resistant to definition or stasis. Graewe presents his ideas in an fleeting, elusive way, Reijseger tends to fuller elaboration, and Hemingway makes an extraordinarily sensitive arbiter of what goes or doesn't go. It is perhaps his uniquely open approach that gives the trio its unusual flexibility. Will Montgomery The Wire - July 1995
GRAEWE/REIJSEGER/HEMINGWAY: Zwei Nachte in Berlin (Sound Aspects
049), The 
View from Points West (Music
& Arts 820)
Anyone working under the misconception that all free piano
must sound something like Cecil Taylor, lend an ear to German
pianist Georg Graewe (pronounced Gray-vuh). Forceful and deliberate,
he recalls Lennie Tristano's linear fluidity and Bill Evans' harmonic
delicacy, filtered through the 12-toned, tone-colored lens of
Anton Webern. The trio with Hemingway and Reijseger has been around
since 1989, and these two live discs offer a glimpse of the free-improvising
threesome as it develops its singular identity. Zwei Nachte in
Berlin,recorded over two nights at the Total Music Meeting in
'90, is the more animated and directly interactive of the two.
It's also a sharper recording, with Hemingway's bright metals
and Reijseger's cello mixed to the foreground. Listen, about six
minutes into the half-hour-long opener Muss Musik Nun Erklingen?
as the trio simultaneously grazes a static patch, Graewe riding
a damped note, Reijseger performing some arco alchemy, and Hemingway
summoning shimmering harmonics by rubbing his cymbals. Reijseger
alone is astounding, practically turning his instrument inside-out,
using it as a percussion box, guitar, miniature bass, and sometimes
sounding as cellistic as Pablo Casals. As the track pulls to a
close, Hemingway's swinging hard, Reijseger's speed walking, and
Graewe's doing his best Lennie-Bird. 
The
View From Points West documents a transcendent evening seven months
later at the du Maurier Jazz Fest in Vancouver. Working in a limited
dynamic mid-range - they never raise too raucous a ruckus and
rarely dip down into hushville - the trio manages to generate
tension, movement, drama, and points of devastating intensity.
Like Zwei Nachte, this disc begins with a long, constantly morphing
piece Lighthouse followed by a series of shorter excursions.On
Monk-ey-ing Graewe drops Thelonious-licks into a scattered field
of sound. The ever-welcome ghost of Tristano reappears on the
disc's most openly playful track Strange Picnic (fusionheads,
check Reijseger's hot chops!), while on Dig, Drill, Dump, Fill
the unit turns pointillistic, Hemingway mixing wood blocks, vibes,
and kit for maximum color. John Corbett
March 1995 DOWN BEAT
GRAEWE / REIJSEGER / HEMINGWAY, FLEX 27, RA
007
Take Gerry Hemingway, add his long - time companion, Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger, and German pianist Georg Graewe, mix this concoction together and stir for a few years, then watch the fireworks fly! No doubt, what this drum-cello-piano trio achieves on their fourth album, Flex 27 (following on the heels of the hot as hell marvel of Zwei Naechte in Berlin), is pure magic. Sure, they're exclusively involved in pure, instantaneous improvisation, which is not always the easiest stuff for the more conservative jazz crowd. Georg's piano delivery (light and precise one minute, stop-and-go and fiercely moving the next) blends in so well with Ernst's cello plucking and Gerry's persisitent, understated (hushed!) but swinging drum work, it's too difficult to list all the superlatives that come to mind. Mind-boggling music.Tom Sekowski, EXCLAIM, March 1996
GRAEWE / REIJSEGER / HEMINGWAY, SATURN CYCLE, Music & Arts CD 958
The new release from this amazing trio was
recorded live in Koln, Germany in 1994. Improvisational for the
most part, structural motifs guide the listener through an dazzling
array of mind bending virtuosity. While the improvisation is astounding,
one gets the feeling that these pieces were composed and rehearsed;
the uncanny ability of these three to anticipate complex chord
changes and tempo shifts are unique attributes.
The first two cuts "La Bonne Vitesse (approximation 1&2)" commence with the whirling dervish piano voicings of Graewe. Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger provides the bass, rhythm and arco cello solos. Hemingway is a "musicians" drummer. Known for being a fine and inventive percussionist, Hemingway has over the years also led a brilliant ensemble which included Reijseger and Micheal Moore (thus, two thirds of another great band called Clusone). Hemingway's subtle percussives and Reijseger's walking and talking cello run complement to Graewe's introspective and probing ideas.
Things heat up again. On ensuing cuts like "Future Reference" and "Saturn Cycle," tempos change on a dime, the band swings hard and everyone is having a blast. The pace is remarkable. Twists and turns, sudden stops adds up to obvious group awareness. The ability of this trio's internal cognizance is awe inspiring.
Fear not, this not a blatant chops fest. The compositions are collective works. Thoughtful, penetrating and unpretentious, this music takes you on a journey. A journey of ideas, interplay and fascination.
Graewe is a singular talent with a sparkling voice that deserves to be heard. Saturn Cycle contains the various elements of free-jazz, chamber music, and hard swing, and is an appropriate title for this recording, as the musicians all put themselves to the limit. Reviewed by: Glenn Astarita, 1998
compact discs
SONIC FICTION (1989) Hat Art CD 6028
ZWEI NACHTE IN BERLIN (1990) Sound Aspects CD 049
POINTS WEST (1991) Music & Arts CD 820
FLEX 27 (1993) Random Acoustics CD 007
SATURN CYCLE (1994) Music & Arts CD 958
LA BONNE VITESSE (1994) Random Acoustics CD 014
COUNTERFACTUALS (1999) NuScope CD1010
Georg Graewe
Ernst Reijeseger
Gerry Hemingway