Florian Weiss

"Exceptional chamber jazz at its finest."
(Sonic Magazine)

"Alternate Reality offers us sensitive, sometimes hot, sometimes cool and funny, always outrageously entertaining music."
(Weltwoche)

"A magical brew."
(Jazzthing)

"Woodism is one of the most promising young Swiss bands."
(Aargauer Zeitung)

"The audience was rightly enthusiastic."
(All About Jazz)

Florian Weiss is considered one of the most exciting and versatile Swiss trombonists. His quartet "Woodism" has been taking off on the European jazz scene since 2014 and has won numerous prizes, including the Zürcher Kantonalbank Jazz Prize and its Audience Award as well as the BeJazzpreis Transnational Prize and is supported by Pro Helvetia's Jazz Promotion Priorities. The jazz press called the band's music a "magical brew" (Jazzthing) and praised the quartet for its daring, original sound, which moves in the stylistic space between cool and free jazz. The quartet obeys no other dynamic than its own and has done everything it can from the outset to avoid being pigeonholed. In spring 2021, the band's third album "Alternate Reality" was released on Nils Wogram's label nWog Records, and in November 2024 they will present - also on nWog Records - their next album "Inner Garden"

Florian Weiss proves with his playing how differentiated the trombone can sound, agile and well-dosed. He confidently exploits the entire range of the instrument and skilfully emphasises its lyrical side. In his very own way of making music, he develops a dynamic from an inner serenity that stems from an astonishing maturity. In his playing, he vividly and sensitively tells the stories that are interwoven in his music. Characteristic in all of this is the subtle humour that accompanies the musical narratives and creates a tense curiosity in the audience.

With his band Woodism, Florian Weiss has created exactly the right environment to tell these musical stories, because with his fellow musicians Linus Amstad (alto sax), Valentin v. Fischer (bass) and Philipp Leibundgut (drums), he has created an ideal basis for musical playfulness somewhere between cool and free jazz. Formed back in 2014, the four musicians combine a great familiarity and nonchalance that radiates a remarkable joy of playing.

A central moment in Weiss' music is warmth and sound; the group performs overwhelmingly beautiful, often very simple melodies, songs whose lyrics emerge from the melodies. This impression is supported not least by the fact that the timbres of the trombone and saxophone in the band sound very vocal. The bass is not just a rhythm instrument either, but adds a confident bass voice to the tenor and alto.

The quartet has been at home on the major international festival stages for a decade and has already toured numerous European and non-European countries, including Chile and Argentina..

Lineup: Woodism
Florian Weiss - trombone
Linus Amstad - saxophone alto/flute
Valentin von Fischer - double bass
Philipp Leibundgut - drums