Bending Times

The trio name Bending Times stands for the goal of changing the listener's individual perception of time - to bend and stretch - music as slow motion or as time lapse. The basic idea is improvisation in the trio, which takes the listener along clear or winding paths to different tonal places. These improvisations are based on modern, very lively jazz compositions, often linked to world music, which combine to form a program rich in contrasts with a very unique signature.

The musicians of the trio

  • Enno Lange
  • Christian Grosch
  • Toralf Schrader
Enno Lange

The jazz drummer and percussionist, born in Rastatt (Baden-Württemberg) in 1977, currently performs with the trios “Bending Times” and “The Shy Boys”, the crossover quartet “Baroque and Blue” and the “crime jazz orchestra”. Concert tours took him to the USA, England, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Turkey and after South Africa.

 

He can be heard on several CD productions that have been highly praised by the specialist press (e.g. The Shy Boys - "Allaxis" - mons Records 2010, Baroque and Blue - "Handel's Delight" - WDR 2012, crime jazz orchestra - “violent cities” - Big Band Records 2019, Bending Times - "Songs of Faith" - mons Records 2021 and The Shy Boys - “Perceptions of California“ - unit-records 2023). He studied jazz drums at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden from 1999 to 2004, where he completed postgraduate studies until 2006.

Christian Grosch

Through the extensive church music work of his father Hartmut Grosch, Christian Grosch (born 1981 in Anklam) came into contact with a variety of musical instruments and church music ensembles at an early age. From 2000 to 2006 he studied church music (A) in Halle/Saale and Gothenburg (Sweden) with Matthias Jacob and Karin Nelson, among others. He then studied jazz piano with Michael Fuchs and Matthias Bätzel and composition with Thomas Zoller at the HfM Dresden from 2007 to 2011.

 

Thanks to his broad spectrum of training, he feels at home in many musical worlds and works in concerts as a pianist, organist, composer and singer. Currently he is mainly devoting himself to working with the “Duo Zia” (trumpet and church organ), and his piano trio “BENDING TIMES”.

In 2014, his musical “Job” for children and young people premiered in Dresden. This was followed in 2016 by a jazz version of the Mozart Requiem for choir and jazz trio in Prenzlau. Christian Grosch currently lives with his wife and four children in Brandenburg an der Havel. His mini-musical “Streit in der Orgel” for children’s choir and organ premiered in St. Catherine’s Church there in 2018. In 2019, the premiere of Psalm 23 “The Lord is my Shepherd” for children's choir and instruments in the Peace Church in Potsdam followed. In the wake of the Corona crisis, Christian Grosch launched the "Open Windows" concert series, in which he has been holding weekly concerts with free improvisations at the open windows of his music room since May 2020, which can also be viewed and heard on YouTube.

Toralf Schrader

Toralf Schrader (Dresden) was born in Hoyerswerda in 1984 and received extensive musical training there (concert guitar, singing, orchestra, choirs, rock and jazz bands). Between 2003 and 2009 he completed a middle-class teacher training course for the letter-intensive subjects of German and history, supplemented by an academic outlier course from 2006 to 2012 for bass guitar/double bass with a diploma in music education in jazz/rock/pop at the Dresden University of Music. The teaching degree in music as a third subject afterwards showed how reluctant he was to hand over the semester ticket.

 

In addition to BENDING TIMES, Toralf Schrader plays and works in a number of other bands and projects, particularly in the areas of gospel (Gospel Flavors, Gospel Choir St. Afra, Gospel Holydays), pop/rock (with the illustrious cover band “AdLips”) and jazz (among others the artist agency Viviendo). On otherworldly musical tours in China, with perfectly staged international revival bands on Germany-wide concert tours and fear-free Latin American formations in Brazil, he was able to learn that every form of music is a gift (that cannot be given back).

Albums and Programs

You can order the releases via the Shop .

More audio samples on Spotify and Youtube.

»Christian Grosch, p, Toralf Schrader, b, and Enno Lange, dr, dedicate themselves to the old melodies with great empathy, listen to them, remove them from their historical context and release them in their harmonic, melodic and rhythmic diversity as jazz standards into the present«

 

Jazz Podium 05/21 about "SONGS OF FAITH"

»A unique jazz CD that makes the listener pause, listen, listen and be amazed, especially in these turbulent times. Rating: Exceptional!”

 

InMusic 04 – 05/21 about “SONGS OF FAITH”

»Schrader and Lange create subtle grooves and thus create a lively background against which these melodies - sometimes brightly clear, sometimes shockingly dark - can unfold lively.«

 

Jazzthetik 09 – 10/21 about “SONGS OF FAITH”

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