Grow Dejan Terzić AXIOM

• 1 Blood 07:30
• 2 Addition 07:26
• 3 Growing (Live Version) 07:00
• 4 Present-Past-Future 08:32
• 5 Ruzica (Live Version) 07:48
• 6 Shoplifting 05:34
• 7 Reminescence 07:58
• 8 Chorale 06:57
• 9 Ennea 08:15
• Total Runtime 01:07:00

Info for Grow

The Axiom Quartet, in its current line-up, began working together in the summer of 2015, after its members had been carefully selected and – following some persuasion – had secured the backing of Dejan Terzić’s then-label CamJazz and its producer Ermanno Basso. Their first album, “Prometheus”, was recorded in New York in February 2016. A lot has happened since the band first came together in 2015 – although, strictly speaking, it wasn’t actually their first meeting: Dejan Terzić and Chris Speed had already been working together since 2004 and had made recordings together. But it was not until 2015 that they came together in the quartet line-up you hear today. Since then, Axiom has toured extensively throughout Europe and recorded another album, which was created in Udine (Italy) in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, and was finally released in 2022.

“Grow” is now the Axiom Quartet’s third album. It was partly recorded live on 3 May 2024 during a concert at the beautiful Teatro Reana del Royale in Udine. “Partly live” means that two of the tracks come directly from the concert, whilst the rest were recorded earlier that same day on the same stage. It is a complete live set featuring music by Axiom – without overdubs, without post-production editing, without corrections. The band, in its purest form, in real time.

Initially, Dejan was enthusiastic about the idea of a live recording – after all, he hadn’t released a live album for decades. Once again, our thanks go to Ermanno Basso, who encouraged us to take this step. Dejan was overwhelmed by the result.

The fact that the band has been playing together for over ten years has deeply shaped their musical understanding, their rapport and their shared approach to performance and improvisation. We had the privilege of developing and exploring these compositions in thirteen concerts prior to the recording.

Chris Speed, saxophone, clarinet
Bojan Z., piano, Fender Rhodes
Matt Penman, double bass
Dejan Terzić, drums

Dejan Terzić
was born in Banja Luka in what was then Yugoslavia. His family moved to Germany when Dejan was 3 years old. He began playing piano at the age of 6, and took up drums at 12, playing art first in rock and funk groups. His induction into the world of jazz came through the back door. Listening to Sting‘s album „Bring On the Night“, he was grabbed by the playing of pianist Kenny Kirkland and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. It was at this point that his exploration of the world of jazz began in earnest. In the summer of 1991 Terzic journeyed to the Vermont Jazz Center, run by the legendary Hungarian guitarist Attilla Zoller. Attilla proved to be a major influence on Dejan, encouraging him, and clueing him in on the subtleties of group dynamics and improvisation. During the same summer Terzic became a member of New York‘s Drummer‘s Collective, where he studied with among others, Marvin Smitty Smith and Bill Stewart.

Back in Germany, Dejan began studying at the conservatory in Wurzburg where he met up with drummer Bill Elgart, one of the most original creative players on the scene. Terzic‘s comment was, „… he brought me to some really different stuff…“ The next few years were hectic ones, filled with studies and gigs. His playing began to catch the ears of both musicians and the public – and his playing began to gather in the prizes – Young Bavarian jazz Lion 94/95, Best Drummer Krakow Festival 94, Best Drummer, Leipzig Festival 95, Best Musician, International Jazz Festival Oberkochen, 95. Nuremberg Cultural Prize, 97. Jazzprice by the City of Munich in 2004.

Chris Speed
(b. Seattle, Washington, 1967) is an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He studied classical piano from the age of five, and began clarinet at eleven. In high school he took up the tenor saxophone and began studying jazz. He later attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Speed has lived in New York City since 1992.

He leads or co-leads the groups Pachora (with Jim Black, Skúli Sverrisson, and Brad Shepik); Human Feel (with Andrew D‘Angelo, Black, and Kurt Rosenwinkel); yeah NO (with Black, Sverrisson, and Cuong Vu); and Trio Iffy (with Ben Perowsky and Jamie Saft). The latter two groups predominantly feature Speed‘s compositions.

Well-known avant-jazz groups Speed has performed with are Tim Berne‘s Bloodcount (with Berne, Jim Black, Michael Formanek, and sometimes Marc Ducret); The Claudia Quintet (with John Hollenbeck, Matt Moran, Ted Reichman and Drew Gress); Jim Black‘s Alasnoaxis (with Black, Sverrisson, and Hilmar Jensson); and The Clarinets (with Oscar Noriega and Anthony Burr). The Collaboration with Dejan Terzic began in 2003 with Dejan’s former Band Underground.They have released 4 Albums together.

Bojan Zulfikarpasic
He started playing piano at the age of 5. As a teenager, he started playing in bands on Belgrade jazz scene, where he received an award as the Best Young Jazz Musician of Yugoslavia award in 1989. In 1986 studied with Clare Fischer at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. He was influenced by the traditional Balkan music playing in an army orchestra during his military service in former Yugoslavia, which would influence all his subsequent work. He moved to Paris in 1988, playing with Noël Akchoté, Julien Lourau, Magic Malik, Marc Buronfosse, Henri Texier and other renowned French musicians.

In 1993, he recorded the debut album with his Bojan Z Quartet with Label Bleu, followed by Yopla!. In 1999, he was engaged in multi-ethnical project Koreni (Roots) with musicians such as Karim Ziad from Algeria, Kudsi Erguner from Turkey, and Vlatko Stefanovski from Macedonia.

His solo piano album Solobsession (2001) brought him wider worldwide recognition. On Transpacifik (2003) he started collaborating with American jazz musicians Scott Colley and Nasheet Waits, and continued on Xenophonia (2006) with Ben Perowsky and Ari Hoenig, as well as Frenchman Remi Vignolo.

He often uses the combination of acoustic piano with Fender Rhodes electric piano, often playing them simultaneously, and recently is claimed to be the inventor of „Xenophone“, a hybrid instrument, based on the customized Fender Rhodes electric piano. It can be heard on Xenophonia.

In 2002 Bojan Zulfikarpašić was granted the title of Chevalier de l‘ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and received the Prix Django Reinhardt for Musician of the Year from the French Académie du Jazz, and in 2005 he was granted the European Jazz Prize as the Best European Jazz Musician. www.bojanz.com

Matt Penman
Originally from New Zealand, Matt Penman moved to the U.S in 1994 to attend Berklee College of Music, and in 1995 to New York, where he maintains an international performing, recording and teaching schedule as one of jazz music’s most in-demand bassists.

He is an established member of the SFJazz Collective, an 8-piece composer’s collective devoted to presenting the original works of its members as well as arrangements of the jazz greats‘ oeuvre. The Collective features some of the finest composer/improvisers on the scene, including Mark Turner, Stefon Harris and Miguel Zenon. In 2009, Matt founded a collaborative quartet with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks and Eric Harland called James Farm. The band released their debut album in 2011 on Nonesuch Records.

In addition to his main projects, Matt performs regularly with John Scofield; in trio and in quartet with Joe Lovano. He is a member of Nils Wogram’s Root 70, and Breve, a drummer-less trio with Hayden Chisholm and John Taylor. Other collaborators have included Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Werner, Dave Douglas, Chris Cheek, Seamus Blake, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Guillermo Klein, Rebecca Martin, Nicholas Payton, Fred Hersch and Madeleine Peyroux.

As a teacher, Matt has led workshops throughout Europe, and was an Artist- in- Residence at the Brubeck Institute in Stockton, California in 2007. He was also on the faculty of the 2009 Banff Workshop for Creative and Improvised Music.

Matt‘s projects as band-leader include the co-led album ‘Flipside’ (Naxos, 1998), ‘The Unquiet’ (2001) and ‘Catch of the Day’ (2008), both on the Barcelona label Fresh Sound. He is featured on well over 100 recordings on various labels.

This album contains no booklet.