# Review: Jazz like a Bach sonata: The Michael Wollny Trio a brilliant open-air concert in Tübingen: Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2025/09/05/review-jazz-like-a-bach-sonata-the-michael-wollny-trio-a-brilliant-open-air-concert-in-tubingen-photos/
- Published: 2025-09-05T13:47:44+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Michael Wollny has brought not only his new live album “Living Ghosts” and his
uncompromising music to Tübingen.**

His loyal fans have also followed him – from Stuttgart, Böblingen, and even Konstanz.

Now they sit close together, listening intently to what the trio, featuring renowned
jazz pianist, American bassist Tim Lefebvre, and drummer Eric Schaefer, has to offer
this Friday in the cozy Sudhaus forest beer garden, how they combine their themes
and shape their sound.

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.jazzreportagen.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Wollny_Trio_sudhaus_6528_C_Rainer_Ortag.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

And then the three musicians plunge into their music, self-absorbed, detached, as
if reinvented for the moment.

The first improvisation, which culminates in the piece “When the Sleeper Wakes” 
from 2014, lasts about an hour.

Only then does Wollny address his audience, introduce his fellow musicians, and 
explain that they don’t actually have a set list, “they just start playing.”

Then he immerses himself in his music again, deconstructing themes with whimsical
imagination so that they are barely recognizable, demonstrating what fills the open-
air space behind the brewhouse with such sound.

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.jazzreportagen.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Wollny_Trio_sudhaus_6540_C_Rainer_Ortag.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

Immediacy is what they seek: sound, that is the key word. The trio of 47-year-old
jazz graduate Wollny embarks on a quest for the design of sound in their 90-minute
set.

Yes, the path, the search, is the focus. Immediacy is what they seek. The rigid 
structure blurs. Instead, there is lightning-fast fingertip playing, wild elbow 
taps on piano keys, and tender hammering into the interior of the grand piano.

None of this is noise, but rather a wonderful fit with the acoustic soaring heights.
The discussions after the concert nevertheless fluctuated in their assessment: While
some found the ambiguous jazz sounds “very detached,” others praised the “chamber
music quality,” “Wollny’s presence in playing the piano,” and one even described
the jazz as “as transparent as a Bach sonata.”

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.jazzreportagen.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Wollny_Trio_sudhaus_6551_C_Rainer_Ortag.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

One thing is certain: one witnesses a sometimes brilliant jazz demonstration, without
ever straying into a well-worn path or a jazz platitude.

Michael Wollny shines above all with his subtle timing and his presence. With strands
of medium-length hair draped over his face, the pianist leans low over the keys 
like a marionette with angular movements, listening intently to his accompanists,
searching for sounds with them, suggesting phrases, laying the foundation.

Then, all of a sudden, he breaks away again, plays freely, and bursts into furiously
fast runs.

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.jazzreportagen.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Wollny_Trio_sudhaus_6518_C_Rainer_Ortag.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.jazzreportagen.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Wollny_Trio_sudhaus_6485_C_Rainer_Ortag.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

Towards the end of the concert, the trio turns up the volume once again, and one
can sense from the blurring tones that their search for sound is now nearing its
end.

Almost. Because a much-acclaimed encore follows.

**Michael Wollny – Piano**
 **Tim Lefebvre – Bass** **Eric Schaefer – Drums**

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.jazzreportagen.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Wollny_Trio_sudhaus_6708_C_Rainer_Ortag.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.jazzreportagen.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Wollny_Trio_sudhaus_6536_C_Rainer_Ortag.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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