Trumpeter Lorenz Raab with his splendid “XY-band” at Porgy and Bess, Vienna

A trumpet, drums, two double basses, an electric zither: in this eccentric line-up any of the band members could be the leader: Christoph Dienz, who squeezes boldly progressive sounds out of his zither, the bass players, who had a hellish groove and a heavenly harmony, and drummer Herbert Pirker, who is at the central point of it all…

In fact the leader of the XY-band is Lorenz Raab, born 1975 in Linz, Upper Austria, solo trumpet player of the Volksoper Vienna, hence financially not relying on his Jazz career. His intellectual independence he already proved in bands such as “Forms of Plasticity” or “Bleu”. Bleu will publish a very lyrical album “Strong Relation” this January. The XY-band, however, impresses through the ease, it dives into dangerous worlds of sound, where soft textures change to boiling grooves and almost become nerve-wrecking in the end.
It is up to the listeners whether they prefer to detect elements of cool jazz, fusion, funk or even acoustic drum’n’base in it. The airy pieces of the XY-band are ambiguous without losing substance. This is a feature usually attributed to the trumpet-jazz of the great masters: Lee Morgan, Donaly Byrd, Miles Davis.
Raab kept to the side of the stage, gave room to his colleagues. When he put the horn to his lips he tasted the mouth-piece, seemed to suck the notes out of the instrument rather than blowing it. Thus this excellent ensemble reeled through feverish dreams and extasy. (Samir Köck, die Presse)