The Rubini quartet
is a new ensemble created in Berlin in winter 2018. Focused on improvisation, its music travels intuitively through a repertoire that includes both original compositions and classic songs from various composers such as Misha Mengelberg, Johnny Dyani and Herbie Nichols. The four musicians have been playing together in various projects through the years and share a strong “common memory” as much as the will to create new material to feed that very memory.
This approach pushes the quartet away from styles and aesthetics, towards the core of collective improvisation.
Achim Kaufmann
He was awarded the German SWR Jazz Award in 2001, and the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff award in 2015.
“For many years, Achim Kaufmann has been one of the most inspiring and exciting personalities of the European jazz and improvisation scene. His music bears witness to great harmonic subtlety and structural depth. A brilliant pianist and composer, his reflected exploration of tradition has led him to a nuanced, contemporary sound language that encompasses poetry, energy and abstraction in equal measure.”
Tobias Delius
He has worked in Europe and overseas with among others Steve Lacy, Louis Moholo’s Viva-la-black, Bill Frisell, Mark Feldman and Trio Clusone, Misha Mengelberg, Steve Beresford, Jeb Bishop, Kent Kessler, Nora Mulder & Hamid Drake and Ray Anderson.
Delius has a duo with bassist Wilbert de Joode, forms a trio with keyboard player Cor Fuhler and various drummers (Louis Moholo and Paul Lovens to name two), and initiated the Trio San Francisco with reed players South African Sean Bergin and Italian Daniele D’Agaro. He has formed apa ini, a group with Wilbert de Joode, Hilary Jeffery (trombone) and Serigne Gueye (djembe).
He can be heard in a variety of groups, including Available Jelly, Hammeriver, Sean Bergin’s MOB, ICP Orchestra, Chris Abelen Quintet, Joost Buis and his Famous Astronotes, Frank van Bommel Quartet and Curtis Clark.
Antonio Borghini
Through these years he played, toured and recorded with many musicians such as Han Bennink, Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, John Tchicai, Leo Smith, Cristiano Calcagnile, Edoardo Marraffa, Pasquale Mirra, Vincenzo Vasi, Mirko Sabatini, Fabrizio Puglisi, Francesco Bigoni, Stefano Bollani, Aldo Romano.
In 2009 he moves to Berlin and quickly becomes part of the so-called “echtzeitmusik” scene. Out of countless musical meetings he co-founded “Hook, Line and Sinker”, a music theater ensemble with Tristan Honsinger, Axel Dörner and Tobias Delius; “Der Lange Schatten” with Michael Thieke and Håvard Wiik; “Die Hochstapler”, with Pierre Borel, Louis Laurain and Hannes Lingens; “Schnell”, a bebop-trance trio with Christian Lillinger and Pierre Borel. He is also regularly playing in Tristan Honsinger’s company “Hopscotch” and Alexander Von Schlippenbach quartet.
Cristiano Calcagnile
He extensively tours all over the world invited by international festivals and venues for jazz, rock and avant-garde music. He played at London Jazz festival, Meldown Festival, Vortex, Bimhuis, Porgy&Bess, North Sea festival, Polar Spectacle, Umbria jazz, Novi Sad, Melbourne, Helsinki, Jakarta, Tunis, Mumbai and Lisboa.
Among his most important collaborations: Anthony Braxton, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Tristan Honsinger, Buch Morris, Ernst Reijseger, Cristina Zavalloni, Cristina Donà, Stefano Bollani, Gianni Mimmo, William Parker, Mark Feldman, Gianluca Petrella, Xabier Iriondo, Monica Demuru, Tomeka Reid, Rob Mazurek, Jeff Parker and many others.