It takes a lot of human qualities and musical potential for a working band to stay together for 25 years and continuously create a unique work of the highest quality during this time.
This was probably the case when the four musicians Nils Wogram, Hayden Chisholm, Matt Penman and Jochen Rueckert met spontaneously for a session in the spring of 2000 and had the feeling: this fits!
The first public concert took place in the same year under the name Root 70 in the festival’s big tent in Moers, but not yet with their own compositions; it was more of a trial balloon. But festival director Burkhard Hennen and WDR jazz editor Ullrich Kurth probably already had an inkling of what they were presenting on stage. The first concert of the first tour in the fall of 2000 took place in the sold-out LOFT, the premiere in women’s clothing. Why? Because they wanted to and could: they were young heroes of the Cologne jazz scene at the time and their living room (Michael Rüsenberg) was the LOFT. And since no other label was interested in their first CD Root 70, it was released on LOFT’s own label 2ndFLOOR Edition.

It would fill several pages to mention all the concerts and experiences of the band members at the LOFT here, be it the legendary double solo concert by Nils and Steve Lacy in 1998, his duo and quartet concerts with Simon Nabatov, the concerts as part of the TRIΔS projects, the countless concerts by Hayden – e.g. his trio Breve with Matt Penman and the unforgettable John Taylor – or the 10 PLUSHMUSIC festivals curated by him.
In September 2012, we were able to experience the preview of Root 70 with strings with Gerdur Gunnarsdottir, Garreth Lubbe and Adrian Brendel at LOFT, after which the CD Riomar was recorded at Deutschlandfunk.
And although both have lived in New York for a long time, Jochen and Matt have been and still are frequent guests here, either as sidemen or with their own projects.

For the anniversary, they have invited Theresia Philip, Shannon Barnett, Nellie Hächler and Gareth Lubbe as guests. A meet & greet full of memories of old times and, in addition to the compositions from the last CD The Pristine Sound of Root 70, a meeting of eight outstanding musicians will make this anniversary concert a special event.

We congratulate the band on their silver jubilee and hope that they might even be able to “gild” it.