AVA Trio

THE GREAT GREEN - out in March

AVA Trio takes you back to Ancient Greece; a time where the colour ‘blue’ did not exist. Were the Greeks not able to see blue? Every day, our nameless hero, a simple fisherman, looks at 'The Great Green’, as they used to call the Mediterranean Sea. Surely, its colour is not the same as the verdant hues of the trees and leaves, or is it? Employing all five senses, he begins his quest for the truth.

The psychedelic journey begins with tasting the Tears of Didima. Stripped of all the senses besides ‘touch’, he escapes a Maze and surrenders back to the vast waters of The Great Green. He then washes ashore on Timanfaya, a cursed island of putrid smell. Despair in this barren land is interrupted by a faint sound of bagpipes and drums in the distance - he gets rescued. On the boat filled with joy and music, he suddenly sees: The Great Green is not green, after all. As they sail to Tsamikos, The Great Green reveals his true colours, in a million different hues.

On their fourth album The Great Green, AVA Trio stretches the boundaries of jazz, improvised and maqam music, creating a personal approach they like to define as Mediterranean Avantgarde.

Click here to pre-order on Tora Records

“Wondrously the listeners were able to experience two sets in which rhythm became noise, noise became melody and melody became rhythm. The tonal possibilities of the instruments were meticulously researched. ” Wiesenbacher Woche Magazine 

"While a folkloric influence initially dominated the music, which was otherwise heavily influenced by improvisation, this increasingly gave way to a freer interpretation and a vibrant, rousing sound. While Doronzo let his heavy instrument utter angry screams, the bass of the Dutchman of Turkish origin began to sing longingly in the high register, danced around by magical Mediterranean-style rhythms. You have to remember the trio." Mittelbayerische Zeitung

"Their Saturday night concert has become one of the most entertaining events of the year. At the end of the concert, everyone stood up dizzy. How could we have prepared for a two-hour Mediterranean cruise? It exceeded all expectations." JazzMa Magazine, HU 

Founded in 2015 in Groningen, the Netherlands, AVA Trio consists of Giuseppe Doronzo from Italy on baritone saxophone, mizmar, hulus, sola; Esat Ekincioglu from Turkey on double bass; and Pino Basile on frame drums and cupaphone. Doronzo, Ekincioglu, and Basile are erudite and virtuosic guides, navigating through these rich and diverse sonic surroundings. Their destinations need no justification; their music is timeless.

AVA Trio’s successful debut release Music from an Imaginary Land in 2017 has placed the band on “Best Debut Album” picks for National Public Radio (NPR), All About Jazz and El Intruso International Jazz Critic Pool. The band has toured extensively across Europe and China, taking part in Doek Festival Amsterdam, ZomerJazzFietsTour, Barletta Jazz Festival, OCT-Loft Shenzhen Jazz Festival, XiHu Blooms Music Festival, Shanghai World Music Festival, to name a few. With the release of their second album “Digging the Sand” on , the group continued to mine the imagination and avoid the cliché-riddled and well-worn paths.

In the upcoming season, AVA Trio embarks on a new quest of archeo-musicology. Their brand new EP Ash - released on February 24, 2023 on Tora Records - depicts the lost sounds of the ancient cities of Knossos and Pompeii, buried under volcanic ash.

Giuseppe Doronzo - baritone saxophone

Esat Ekincioglu - double bass

Pino Basile - percussions

AVA Trio embarks on an archeo-musicological quest  to the ancient cities of Pompeii and Knossos - buried under volcanic ash.  We witness the moments before the volcanic explosion through the perspective of Master Scourus - a prosperous garum-maker in Pompeii and a mysterious priestess of the forgotten Minoan Empire.

“Over two eventful tracks totaling 20 minutes, the trio create magical, evocative sounds that mix ancient and modern.” The Wire - Andy Hamilton

"It's like listening to an audiobook without text."  Kraut Nick Magazine (DE)

"Special EP by this international trio. Immediately the extraordinary group sound jumps into the ear. It's not only fascinating, it also hides a deep emotionality" Trouw (NL)

"The listener quite quickly falls into jaktations, in constant bending of the body, as happens with the Sufis in their rituals." Jazzhalo (BE)

"These musical archaeologists really bring out the best in music history, under which you like to let yourself be buried. Timeless splendor!" Subjectivisten.nl

"Radical and saturated with some kind of mystical atmosphere" JazzQuad (RU)

“a remote pulse evolving between legend and reality, research and contemporary cultural awareness” Percorsi Musicali, IT

"... Their outstanding performance is overwhelmingly thrilling. Actively based in the Netherlands, where innovative performers gather, Ava Trio can be said to be the most fascinating jazz trio that deserves attention." Musica Terra (2023, Japan)

"an extraordinary experience for even the most demanding jazz or progressive lover...the listener is hit with hope." his VOICE Magazine (CZ)

"Like the Mediterranean region itself, “Digging the Sand” is an array of ethnic sounds, full of dichotomies; melancholy and intensity, exotic yet grounded in fundamentals of Western and non-Western music. It is immersed in dreams, mystery, and melancholy but with moments of intensity that suggest whirling dervishes."   All About Jazz 4/5* -(Karl Ackerman)

"The flowing, modally sprung and atmospherically rich Digging The Sand can only enhance the reputations of three improvisers of refreshingly literate cross-genre experience" Jazz Journal, UK 4/5*

“Between dream and melancholy, mystery and light, with varying intensity, the members of the trio install an eminently personal aesthetic... Full of finesse and melodic ideas, this album awakens the senses and is a real listening pleasure.” Culturejazz.fr

“Whether you call this jazz, Balkan or Middle Eastern music – it’s really all of the above – it’s one of the most delightful albums of recent months.” New York Music Daily, USA

"Digging The Sand explores a variety of moods, features close interplay between the three players, and is both subtle and colorful. The accessible yet explorative music is well worth hearing several times." Scott Yanow, USA

"...world jazz genre and ancient folk, giving it a slightly avant-garde sense... incantatory Eastern spells throughout, brought by ritualistic rhythms and the intervallic exoticism of specific scales" Jazztrail, USA