Aeham Ahmad & Edgar Knecht Trio

Jazz

Aeham Ahmad

Piano, Vocals, Komposition
Edgar Knecht

Piano, Komposition
Rolf Denecke

Bass
Tobias Schulte

Drums

Booking-territory: worldwide

“Keys to friendship” is the story of an encounter that is as remarkable as it is moving. The story of two people, two pianists, who, in this grotesquely polarised world, were unlikely to find each other, but who met, became friends and ultimately inspired one another – through their music.

biography

Creole Festival Prize Winners 2018!

Aeham Ahmad is a Palestinian-Syrian pianist, who gained prominence through the incredible images of war he sent around the globe. Day after day, Ahmad entered the bombed-out streets of Damascus’ Yarmouk refugee camp with a piano mounted on a roller conveyor, to defy the hopelessness of war through the consolation-giving power of music. To anyone who has seen the documentaries about Aeham Ahmad on the BBC and ZDF it will seem a near miracle that he has now found a safe home in the German city of Wiesbaden, thanks to the efforts of a television journalist. He has since released his autobiographic book “De pianist uit Yarmouk” and played his music on countless European stages. In 2015 he was awarded the International Beethoven Price for Human Rights, Peace, Inclusion and the Fight Against Poverty.

Edgar Knecht is a professionally trained pianist and composer. In the course of a highly successful career, this ‘piano sensation,’ who was already concertizing at the age of fourteen, arrived at a musical sujet that has developed into his own personal signature. In an entirely unique manner, Knecht combined jazz and folk tunes from a variety of sources with folksongs of his native Germany. He succeeded in reviving songs which had fallen into neglect or ones which, through their misuse in the Nazi period, had fallen into discredit, and in so doing, restored them to their (at times elusive) former glory. Together with Rolf Denecke on string bass and Tobias Schulte on percussion, Knecht has gained a world-wide reputation with his unique brand of music.

In 2017, Aeham Ahmad & Edgar Knecht Trio won the renowned Creole – Global Music Contest in Germany and played at such prestigious festivals as Rudolstadt Festival and Bardentreffen Nuremberg, and WOMAD festival in the UK.

press

“Keys to friendship” is the story of an encounter that is as remarkable as it is moving. The story of two people, two pianists, who, in this grotesquely polarised world, were unlikely to find each other, but who met, became friends and ultimately inspired one another – through their music.

It is a manifesto about extending the hand of friendship and discovering the parallels between the Arabian and European cultures. With its wonderful lightness, the lullaby, Nami, brings hope-giving peace and contemplation. Green Peppermint, Aeham Ahmad’s dark and personal recollection of his life before and during the war, concludes with the wish for a swift return of peace. Based on jazz harmonies and providing generous soloistic opportunities for both pianists, Fog En Nachel is yet another masterful product of the imagination of Edgar Knecht. And for those who, after enjoying this disc, shake their head and wonder why our media environment keeps stirring up fear towards all things foreign, Keys to Friendship has of course already provided the answer: there is no such thing as ‘them’ and ‘us,’ or an ‘Axis of Evil’, there is only us. And the key to friendship is to be found in encountering one another with civility and respect. Aeham Ahmad and Edgar Knecht found this key in their shared enthusiasm for music – and in the music they share, which both inspires and moves us deeply.

photos