Sebastien Ammann’s Color Wheel | RESILIENCE

The award-winning pianist, composer, and bandleader Sebastien Ammann (born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland) is a modernist in every sense, some might even say an avant-gardist. Like the Shepherd’s Tree found on the African continent, Ammann has extremely deep roots. While in Geneva, Ammann performed with internationally known artists such as Maurice Magnoni, Stefano Saccon, Jeff Baud, Béatrice Graff, Manu Hagmann, David Meier and Rafi Schilt. Early in his career, he also became an effective leader and conceptualist, leading his band “Schwytzromand Formula,” which brought together two musicians from the German part and two musicians from the French part of Switzerland, as a way to erase the language barrier. In 2006, Ammann offered his debut album, “Orange” (2006) with the Ammann Trio, featuring bassist Manu Hagmann and drummer Rodolphe Loubatière. 

While in New York in 2008, he studied privately with Jacob Sacks, Marc Copland, Fred Hersch and Garry Dial. Further studies with David Berkman, Antonio Hart, Michael Mossman and Howard Brofsky earned him a Masters degree in Jazz Performance from Queens College in February 2011. During his studies, Ammann was awarded the Sir Roland Hanna Fellowship award in recognition of special achievement, and quickly, “forged collaborations with saxophonist Caroline Davis, reedist Ohad Talmor and trombonist Samuel Blaser.” – Bill Meyer, DownBeat Magazine. Ammann is the leader of the Sebastien Ammann Quartet featuring the aforementioned Talmor, bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Eric McPherson (their first album, Samadhi, on Freshsound/New Talent, 2013 garnered praise from Dave Sumner of Bird Is The Worm, “sets off gracefully, quietly, and with a gliding motion as placid as skaters on a frozen pond. This is one of those albums whose opening statement is so indelible as to resonate throughout the entirety of the recording . . . that sublime opening statement speaks through the expressions to follow.”. Mr. Ammann is a member of Gene Ess’ Fractal Attraction, Nick Biello Sextet, Jake Leckie Quartet, and has collaborated with musicians and projects such as Kris Davis’ Massive Thread, Tony Malaby, Billy Drewes, Le Zhang Quintet, Mark Ferber, George Schuller, The Gary Douglas Band, Dana Leong, John Hébert, Sean Conly, Michael Sarin and many others. He regularly performs in venues and festivals all over the USA and Europe.

The centerpiece of Sebastien Ammann’s career is as the leader of Sebastien Ammann’s Color Wheel, a band featuring some of New York City’s most compelling and fearless artists, saxophonist Michaël Attias (Renku, Anthony Braxton, Paul Motian), bassist Noah Garabedian (Ralph Alessi, Ravi Coltrane, Andrew D’Angelo) and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell (Michael Formanek, Uri Caine, Dave Douglas, Brass Against). Ammann and co. proudly announces the release of their second album, Resilience, available on Chris Speed’s Skirl Records March 20. The band’s first album, Color Wheel (Skirl Records, 2017) was very well received by numerous publications in both the U.S. and internationally, including DownBeat Magazine, where Bill Meyer said, “he makes music that balances accessibility with rigor,” and Something Else! which proclaimed the album was a vehicle for, “Ammann’s bracing and transcendent compositions that opens up wide both the plotted improv spigots.” Stephen Graham added on Marlbank that this music is, “avant spiky free-bop flavoured by the New Cool containing a pleasantly plangent sourness that the born to run jaggedness from piano and sax offset so effectively and ease into consummate fluency.”

On Resilience we find ourselves listening to a group of five musicians who have become quite close since performing and recording together for many years. And, you can hear their camaraderie in the music. Ammann elaborates, Color Wheel has been together since 2012 and the members have become close friends; outside of Color Wheel, we’ve played in many different bands over the years. This is important to me, working with people I can trust. These musicians have a wide range of musical colors and approaches they can use. As my music is informed by a wide spectrum of influences, I need people who can navigate complex written material as well as wide open improvisation.” Ammann’s goal with Resilience was to compose pieces that each had their own distinct identity, while showcasing the musicians and their singularities. “With some compositions, like Yayoi and Untangled, the emphasis is on form, while with others, such as Aylan Kurdi and Resilience, the focus in on a certain feeling. Pedestrian Space is an example of working on texture within a frame, thinking in terms of mass. We also cover two tunes that I’ve been playing a lot over the years, Afterthought by my friend Dave Scott (trumpet), and King Korn from the album Turning Point by Paul Bley, who has been one of my favorite pianists after listening to his album Open To Love in my early twenties. While composing the music for Resilience I was thinking about ways to convey specific information to the musicians while giving them freedom to interpret it in a variety of ways, expressing their personalities. This has been my new focus while writing music,” said Ammann.

Resilience was recorded by Michael Perez-Cisneros and Alex Haley on June 11, 2018 at Big Orange Sheep (Brooklyn, NY); the album was produced by Sebastien Ammann and Jake Leckie, and mastered by Alan Silverman at Arf Mastering (NYC)

Yayoi - Inspired by the work of Japanese visual artist Yayoi Kusama. In this piece, the aim was to create a narrative by connecting sections that have different textures and creating a flow in the composition.

Untangled - This piece has a longer form that takes the listener through a variety of sonic worlds.

Castello di Traliccio - The title “Castello di Traliccio” (trellis in English) comes from an Italian book I was reading. The concept of the trellis came to my mind in this piece where the solid groove creates a solid structure through which a rubato melody is woven. The simultaneous occurence of metrical and rubato rhythm introduces an element of indeterminacy that creates an interesting counterpoint.

Resilience - This piece attempts to evoke John and Alice Coltrane’s sound, which I often turn to in order to find serenity and a sense of grounding. I wrote this with the idea of finding hope, meaning and stability through building our community in a time where both the political climate and the state of the environment don’t offer signs of a bright future.

King Korn Revisited - One of my favorite Carla Bley compositions.

Aylan Kurdi - A work inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis and the human tragedies it created. The melody has a lamenting quality and floats over a repetitive and circular accompaniment.

The Traveller - Written for a dear friend who travelled to 160 countries and was one of the smartest people I knew. The composition is a harmonic exploration using simple harmony as a base and superimposing a variety of structures over it.

Afterthought - A beautiful tune by my friend and trumpeter Dave Scott

Pedestrian Space - Inspired by the work of visual artist Fred Sandback, who, by stretching lengths of yarn horizontally, vertically or diagonally at different scales, creates an experience of space by creating invisible panes, creating volume with no mass. The idea of this piece is to create texture by layering multiple rhythms that can then morph into different shapes.