“Urs Leimgruber’s mastery of the saxophone is so protean you could easily be fooled into thinking you are listening to a whole range of other instruments. He produces drum beats, the sound of guitars or the echoing resonnance of gongs at will. His playing seems almost de-instrumentalized, free of any implicit meaning and, despite its complexity, almost unexpectedly stark. Sound in its purest state. The ten pieces here sound like a manifesto set to music, an audible thumprint, a soundcard with a unique code that only responds to the personal breath of the artist.” Bert Noglik, CD Blue Log Leipzig.

For Tonight’s Roulette concert, saxophonist Urs Leimgruber teams up with local trumpeter Peter Evans and cellist Okkung Lee for an evening of free improvised music.

Urs Leimgruber (saxophones), born in Lucerne, Switzerland, is a key member of the European scene of contemporary improvised music. He specializes in solo concerts and performs regularly with the Urs Leimgruber/Jacques Demierre/Barre Phillips Trio and with Quartet Noir (with Marilyn Crispell, Joelle Léandre, Fritz Hauser) in Europe, Canada, USA, Japan, and Cuba. His countless collaborations have resulted in successful concerts and recordings with Fred Frith, Steve Lacy, Lauren Newton, Evan Parker, Keith Rowe, Günter Christmann, Sunny Murray, Thomas Lehn, Günter Müller and many others. He has also been engaged for New Music projects with Ensemble SIX, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet and the ARTE Saxophone Quartet. During the 1970s, he was the co-founder of the Electric jazz and free-music group, OM.