Ulrike Schwarz’ NoTopicTrio (Jazz)

In this trio, saxophonist and flutist Ulrike Schwarz has found ideal partners to realize her
vision of music as an open, inviting space – created entirely in the moment of
performance.
She values pianist Uwe Oberg’s ability to eDortlessly draw from a wide range of the piano’s
sonic potential, painting diverse musical landscapes with vivid colors. These
soundscapes become invitations – for encounters between sounds, emotions, and
people. Drummer SteDen Roth adds a spark of joy through his fresh, energetic playing,
helping define the trio’s overall tone: curiosity and trust in the community of these skilled
and talented improvisers.
Their evolving sound draws inspiration from jazz and free jazz pioneers like Ornette
Coleman, Thelonious Monk, and Steve Lacy, while also referencing the European
chamber music tradition – not so much through direct musical material, but in their bold
embrace of delicacy, nuance, and fragility.
The trio’s adventurous spirit extends to their use of instruments. Ulrike Schwarz, for
example, incorporates her voice in surprising ways – sometimes in combinations with her
wind instruments, sometimes using only fragments of the instruments themselves.
With many years of experience across the contemporary jazz scene, Ulrike Schwarz, Uwe
Oberg and SteDen Roth come together in this trio to radically abandon the idea of playing
„tunes“. Instead, NoTopic-Trio embodies jazz as a form of self-expression and interaction
– rooted in the present moment, and open to the atmospheric influences of the audience.