About The Event
Putting a band together can be a long quest to find the right mix of personalities; but sometimes it happens organically, as a result of perfect serendipity. Such is the case of pianist and composer Simon Raab’s new project. Raab met his future musical partners Štěpán Flagar, Martin Kocian, and Michał Wierzgoń in 2015 at a jam session in Linz, Austria, the city where he was finishing his studies, and where the other three had recently begun theirs. It became clear to all four of them that there was some potential there, and so that impromptu session marked the beginning of what now is the quartet Purple Is The Color.
The band’s music borrows from the rich jazz quartet tradition but does not shy away from incorporating elements of pop and folk music, weaving it all together into a modern soundscape. In that sense, one could say that there is something distinctly European about their sound, one that stems from an eclectic mix of cultures as well as the ever-present influence of classical music, more so than from a blues-driven tradition as is the case of many American bands.
Purple is the Color hits all the right notes when it comes to finding the right flow between composition and improvisation – this is a group with a strong individual sound and most definitely a band worth keeping an eye on!
