Unbelievable! | Concert: Elaine Mitchener (vocals), Aruán Ortiz (piano)

A world music project in the truest sense of the word: the British-Caribbean singer Elaine Mitchener, the British-Caribbean pianist Pat Thomas, and the Cuban-American-Iberian pianist Aruán Ortiz. It was he who came up with the idea for this project, featuring the unique line-up of two pianos and a voice. Following initial rehearsals, the premiere is now set to take place in Zurich. Aruán Ortiz, a pianist of Cuban origin who lives in New York and Barcelona, is already familiar to the ‘unerhört!’ audience from several concerts: his solo piano programme ‘Cubanism’, his piano trio with Chad Taylor and Brad Jones, and as an accomplished improviser in James Brandon Lewis’s quartet. Ortiz has described the new trio as ‘an act of seeking the truth’. Kweli means ‘true’ in Swahili. He says: ‘Transcending cultural identity leads to insight and new depth.’ Elaine Mitchener, ‘Britain’s bravest singer’, as *The Guardian* once called her, was born to parents who had emigrated to Britain from Jamaica. The classically trained musician, who collaborates in the field of visual arts with Christian Marclay and Marina Abramović, or in jazz with George Lewis and the avant-rap singer Moor Mother, is an innovative vocal performer in the broadest sense. The pianist Pat Thomas is the grand seigneur of British jazz. In his 50 years on stage, he has acquired the wisdom of a time traveller. He told the British magazine Jazzwise that he regards jazz as “intellectually challenging music” that deserves “a lifelong engagement”.