Subtone

Subtone stands in the forefront of today’s young innovative Jazz ensembles. Founded in 2005 in Berlin, its members now live in New York City and Cologne, holding degrees from Berlin’s University of the Arts and the Manhattan School of Music. Through innumerable concerts at home and abroad, as well as appearances at festivals like the Bohemia Jazz Fest in the Czech Republic and Jazz Baltica in Salzau, Germany with rave reviews, Subtone quickly established themselves as one of the most sought-after jazz ensembles in Europe. After two acclaimed albums, Subtone will release their third album “Morningside” on ENJA-Records in the Spring 2011. Subtone is the winner of the Jury and Audience Award of the International Jazz Competition “Tremplin Jazz d’Avignon” in France, and has been invited to the BMW Welt Jazz Award performance in Munich this coming March.
The individual members are all accomplished performers. Collectively, they have won prestigious awards like the Deloitte Jazz Award (Ruben Samama) and the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award (Florian Hoefner) and have collaborated with artists and groups like the Kurt Rosenwinkel Trio, Seamus Blake, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker and the European Jazz Orchestra.
With their own imaginative compositions, the five artists offer an inexhaustible selection, from the voluminous big-band sound to a bare-essential chamber music approach. In addition to the apparent mastery over their instruments, it is above all the implicitness with which they communicate that is so striking.
What makes Subtone stand out from other ensembles is the impressive artistic connection among the five musicians. The listener perceives this intense communication and fundamental understanding among all members of the band in the very first notes.