Jazz in der Alten Feuerwache I Sebastian Wittstock Trio

Concert & Jam Session

Sebastian Wittstock has developed a style all of his own through his many years of trio work: Finely arranged piano trio jazz, powerful, bursting with energy, rich in bold ideas, with cheerful interaction and an irrepressible love of playing. Together they explore well-known and unknown pieces of jazz literature, but above all pianists' compositions, whereby their own arrangements create a dense, concentrated atmosphere and a very personal statement. The program includes rarely performed gems such as Letter to Evan (Bill Evans), Introspection (Th. Monk), Dance of the Infidels (Bud Powell), Yeah! (H. Silver) or The Peacocks (J. Rowles).
Intimate, friendly and humorous music-making together demands a state of maximum permeability (active and reactive in one) from all three musicians. The trio's work is characterized by playing without routine or a protective attitude, openness to the surprising and unpredictable, and the will to make the most of the moment.

Sebastian Wittstock: piano
Carmelo Leotta: Bass
Andrea Marcelli: drums

Sebastian Wittstock, born in Berlin in 1970, grew up in Munich and began making music at the age of 7. He received classical piano lessons, later also clarinet lessons and graduated from high school with a major in music. As a teenager, he became increasingly passionate about jazz and took lessons from jazz pianist Max Neißendorfer, followed by studies at the "Neue Jazz School" in Munich. He successfully completed this in 1994 with a diploma in jazz piano.
In 1994, he founded his trio (classical jazz piano trio with piano/bass/drums), which is particularly close to his heart and continues to this day.

Carmelo Leotta was born in northern Italy in 1975 and began playing the piano as a child. When he discovered heavy rock as a teenager, he started playing electric bass. The blues introduced him to the folkloric radicalism of musical expression, which he has never stopped searching for. Finally, jazz allowed him to combine the theatricality of blues history with the complexity of classical music. In 2014 he moved to Berlin, seduced by the diversity of horizons that the city offers, attracted by the possibility of getting to know a touch of Eastern European and Middle Eastern influences that bring him closer to his southern roots.

Andrea Marcelli, born in Rome, studied classical clarinet, jazz composition and arranging at the renowned Conservatorio L. Refice in Frosinone. He has lived in Berlin since 2001, after spending twelve years in Los Angeles and New York. He has recorded over 200 of his own compositions, two of which have been published in the "European Real Book" and "The Digital Real Book Part 2". Marcelli has presented his music on five continents, recorded numerous albums for labels such as Verve/Polygram, ESC, BHM, and has performed with important musicians such as Wayne Shorter, David Liebman, Markus Stockhausen, Bob Mintzer, Eberhard Weber, Allan Holdsworth, Eddie Gomez, Don Menza, Mike Stern, Ekkehard Wölk, Ralph Towner and many others.