Releases | Nils Wogram / Simon Nabatov – Moods and Modes (PANDVD06)

Nils Wogram / Simon Nabatov – Moods and Modes DVD

PAL DVD (price: €12.95*)
NTSC DVD (price: €12.95*)

Video: PAL / NTSC, aspect ratio: 16:9
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0

Special features: PanRec trailers and previews

DVD release date: October 19, 2011

This DVD is a cooperation between PanRec and Plushmusic, an online platform for live classical, jazz and world music.

This video is also available online at www.plushmusic.com.

*All prices include free shipping worldwide


What does a good jazz duo require? That both musicians listen to each other. That there is a mutual trust. That they get equal space to express themselves. And that playing in duo presents both protagonists with new challenges, unique to this musical setting.

Both being outstanding instrumentalists with the background deeply steeped in the classical music and the propensity for playful yet thought-through improvising strategies, they were bound to find each other. Since 1994 the Russian-American pianist, who resides in Germany, and the German trombonist, who lives in Switzerland, enjoy the collaboration, which continuously becomes more dense and rich. Compared to the initial shared projects – Nils Wogram’s Quartet and Octet, or Simon Nabatov’s groups of the similar “manpower” – a duo might seem like a mere breeze. Not so in this case, where the material and the approach demand the utmost effort and dedication from both musicians, who founded the duo in 1997.

Moods and Modes, their fifth album to date*, is not only demanding on the performers; also the listeners are asked to delve into the music with full concentration. It’s not meant to just provide an agreeable background, but, rather, to be an experience similar to witnessing an exciting concert. Indeed, this recording has weight and character.

Wogram and Nabatov don’t take the old beaten path as far as the formal structures go. The compositional procedures are of essential importance for the overall make-up of this music. In each individual piece, the balance between the written and improvised, between strictly conceptualized and playfully interpreted is re-defined anew. These nine pieces are more reminiscent of chamber music (with improvised parts) than anything else.

Surely the fact, that, simultaneously, a video of the recording session was made, manifests itself in the additional discipline and density of these performances, combining the concentrated studio attitude with the relaxed and outgoing “live” feeling. Both musicians used the special circumstances to create a powerful suite of pieces, which bring together the here-and-now and the timeless in a perfect musical amalgam.

*Moods and Modes is also available as a CD on NWOG Records


1. Moods and Modes (Wogram)
2. Assuming (Nabatov)
3. Full Stop (Nabatov)
4. First Thought – Best Thought (Wogram)
5. Split the Difference (Wogram)
6. Moving In (Wogram)
7. Dança Nova (Nabatov)
8. Speak Up! (Nabatov)
9. The Song I Knew (Nabatov)


Nils Wogram – trombone
Simon Nabatov – piano


A Plushmusic production

Filmed at Radio Studio Zürich in July 2009

Recorded and mixed by Andy Neresheimer
Mastered by Christian Heck

Camera operators: Karl Massenbach and Andrea Oki

Edited by Hannes Stobl

Produced by Peter Bürli with Nils Wogram and Simon Nabatov

Cover photo by Corinne Hächler, Riografik


Year of production: 2010
Duration: 66 minutes