Biography
Back in the day...Trumpetplayer Mads La Cour, Bassist Andreas Lang and drummer Kasper Christiansen first started playing together around 1997 in a band called Extended. Also in the band were guitarist Daniel Østa. Daniel later became journalist and TV-guy at the local TV-station.
The 4 guys met in highschool in the old beautiful danish city Svendborg, on the island of Fyn. In this tranquil envirionment the 4 jazzkids started to infuse the local musicscene with new energy. They started a jazzclub in Svendborg to host bigger danish and foreign jazzgroups, and a jamsession for the young and aspiring musicians in and around the city.
The early days of Quartz
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In 2001 Mads, Andreas and Kasper moved to the islands capital, Odense, attending the citys talent academy. Here they teamed up with guitarist Frederik Vedersø and the other academy students to go to jamsessions in both Odense and Svendborg - playing jazzstandards and learning how to smoke cigarettes on a daily basis. In the summer of 2001 the band (minus the guitarist they left behind in Svendborg) got a call from the department of culture in Svendborg. The Svendborg city council was going to visit their german twin town, Stralsund, and they wanted a jazzact from Svendborg along to take care of the cultural representation on behalf of the city. Naturally they chose the musically talented initiators from Extended. Short of one guitarist the band asked their new friend Frederik to join them on the trip. He gladly accepted and that was the beginning of QUARTz. |
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The Jazzmama days
The name QUARTz – like the rock and the clock – was taken from a tune written by the danish jazzgroup Heading North - rolemodels in the early days of the band, along with other scandinavian jazzicons such as Lars Jansson and Palle Mikkelborg.
The trip to Stralsund was extremely succesfull both musically and socially, and the band got musically very close to eachother in a very short period of time.
One year after the bands first trip to Germany they were sought after again in the german region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This time the scene was the german holidayresort island Rügen. The local Jazzmama, Ingelore Marquardt, was putting together her first annual international youth jazzfestival – Blueboat Jazzfestival. QUARTz took the trip to germany once again only to find that the polish teachers that were expected to show up couldn’t make the trip to Germany after all. To the surprise of QUARTz they were asked to teach instead of the absent polish. They accepted and accordingly a tradition af warm and near collaborance with the german Jazzmama began.
Since then QUARTz have been playing gigs all over the region and/or teaching at Blueboat Jazzfestival several times a year, thus making the highly culturally interested Germany their second home. All of it arranged by the bands second mother Ingelore Marquardt.
Now-a-days
Recently the band visited Poland as well, making good contact with Urszula, local booker and music school director in Stettin.
From the dreaming soundscapes of nordic jazz, the band evolved from groovy jazzfusion and a period of fast and burning modern neobop, into a sound more influenced by the experimental jazzscene in New York, where QUARTz is going in early 2007 to play at the annual IAJE conference of jazz.
The members of QUARTz are now in the final stages of their musicians education at the music conservatory in Odense, and they are currently involved in a variety of different projects. But constant activity such as touring, gigging, songwriting, rehearsing and partying make sure QUARTz never become second priority. Through many years of playing together the band has developed their own distinct sound, a unique humour and a tight friendship. Both the band as a whole and it’s individual members evolve with eachother and that fact is hopefully going to keep QUARTz alive for many years to come.