KLAUS BRU’S: I HAVE A NEW BAND NOW

I Have A New Band Now was founded in 2010 by European expats then living Taipei / Taiwan: Saxophonist Klaus Bru (now London-based), who electrifies his C-saxophones to guitar level, bassist / composer / arranger Martijn Vanbuel (now based near Brussels), and Italian drummer and Youtube drum clinician Pietro Valente (based in Padova). The name tells that Jazz musicians rarely play in just one project at a time (and the members of I Have A New Band Now are absolutely no exception to this rule).

Trying to describe the music: I Have A New Band Now plays Jazz-Folk-Rock honed by diverse ingredients like backbeat-driven Rock’n’Roll, melodies that could have originated in the mountainous Balkans, melancholic circus tunes in odd meters, reverberant ballads bordering on cheesiness, faint traces of Baroque music, and three tablespoons of Free Jazz. With their common lust for improvisation the New Band members explore these diverse, at times clashing elements and melt them into one compact sound which is audibly inspired by the analog rawness of the 1970’s.

I Have A New Band Now‘s particulars are Bru’s eclectic style on electrified C-Melody and C-Soprano saxophones, often resembling the sound of an electric guitar. Valente adds intriguing rhythms and colourful percussive textures, and Vanbuel’s bass guitar lines and chords convey a harmonic richness that surpasses the concept of ordinary bass playing. All music is written by the New Band’s members.

I Have A New Band Now have toured in Asia (Taiwan, Hongkong, China), as well as in Austria and Italy. In 2013, the group appeared at the LOFT Jazz Festival in Shenzhen, China.

Klaus Bru, prolific and active in varied music styles and various scenes, is one of a only handful of saxophonists performing exclusively on the rare C-Saxes, which he likes to electrify.

Klaus Bru was born in Germany, currently based in London, graduated with distinction from the Music University in Graz/ Austria. He lived in Vienna, being a protagonist of the Austrian jazz scene, and in Berlin, which saw him doing sound and performance art in underground galleries and off-venues. In 2001 he moved to Taipei/Taiwan. In Asia, he became infused with indigenous musics from various parts of the world, and worked in film and theater music. He performed with many musicians of the vibrant Taiwanese music scene such as Shih-Yang Lee (piano), Hui-Chun Lin (cello), Luo Chao-Yun (pipa), Terry Hsieh (sax), Yu-Ying Hsu (piano). During an extended stay in Beijing in 2014, he worked with Chinese improvisors Li Tieqiao, Li Jianhong, Li Daiguo, Aming Liang, and recorded with drummer Stephen Roach and guitarist Adam MacGregor.

Klaus Bru is the co-leader of the award-winning world music improvisation ensemble KaDaoYin, which has published 2 CDs, which both won awards in Taiwan (Taiwan Indie Music Award 2011, Taiwan Golden Melody Award 2013. Klaus Bru has collaborated with an abundance of musicians from spread-out fields, among them Ingrid Jensen, Peter Herbert, Lukas Ligeti, Marc Ribot, Anthony Coleman, Sunny Murray, Franz Hautzinger, Bernhard Fleischmann, Oliver Doerell (of “Dictaphone” and “Swod”), Sabu Toyozumi, the late sound artist Christof Cargnelli, Turkish guitar virtuoso Bilal Karaman, Hubl Greiner (of “Blech”), Michael Moser (of “Polwechsel”), Martin Stepanik (of “Lovely Rita”), plus more recently in London with singer Cleveland Watkiss, multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson, percussionist Beibei Wang, free jazz legend Terry Day, the London Improvisers Orchestra, and up and coming musicians such as Rob Luft, Phelan Burgoyne, Huw V Williams.

Martijn Vanbuel, from Belgium, is a sought-after acoustic and electric bassist, composer, arranger, teacher, and lecturer.

Martijn Vanbuel studied jazz at the Lemmensinstituut of Leuven, Belgium and at the Conservatoire Superieure in Paris. After a brief stint in Shanghai, he came to Taipei in 2006, and quickly became an integral part of a thriving music scene, working in jazz, pop music, world music, free Improvisation. He was a long-term member of Sizhukong, a Taiwanese group fusing Chinese music and Jazz, for which he also worked as a composer. He has played and recorded with jazz greats such as Ari Hoenig, Tony Lakatos, Joel Holmes, Tyler Blanton, and almost every jazz musician. He is leading the folk jazz group Orbit Folks, which produced two full length albums, and one live DVD, and won the “Taiwan Grammy” (Taiwan Golden Melody Award) in 2010 and 2013. Martijn Vanbuel, who speaks fluent Chinese, taught at National Tainan University of the Arts in Tainan and at Zhong Shan University in Kaohsiung. In 2014, he moved back to Belgium, where he now performs with musicians both of the old and new generation, such as Steven Delannoye, Tim Finoulst, Lionel Beuvens, Reinier Baas, Ernst Vranckx, Ewout Pierreux, Bart Van Caenegem, Bart Maris, Bert Joris, to name just a few.

Pietro Valente is a drummer, bandleader, and Youtube drum clinician from Padova/Italy.

Pietro, who started to play the drums at the age of 8, entered the Music University of Rome in 2001, and graduated with distinction in 2006. The same year he was nominated best drummer at the Umbria Jazz Winter festival, and won a scholarship from the Siena Jazz Clinics. In 2009  Pietro was chosen Young Italian Talent of the Year by the music association Circolo Jazz Verona. Since then, Pietro has performed in Europe, the United States and Asia at venues and festivals such as Umbria Jazz Winter, Taichung Jazz Festival, Shanghai JZ Festival, International Music Meeting, Veneto Jazz, Festival di Verdura, Noto in Jazz, Vicenza Jazz, Shenzhen Jazz Festival. “Tales from the Far East”, his first album as a leader, is inspired by his travels in Asia. It was promoted with a tour in China and Taiwan in 2012.  In 2014, Pietro released his second album “Entering The New Era”.