Florian Ross & Lucas Leidinger - Checks & Balances (2021)

Pianist, composer, and arranger Florian Ross (*1972) has been working extensively in the field of jazz and improvised music since more than 20 years and released numerous albums as a bandleader. He casually excels in every combination from solo, duo, trio, and quintet right up to big bands and symphony orchestras. Alongside, he has been working as a teacher at various universities and academies and is currently teaching Piano and Composition at the „Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln“.

This is where he met his former student - pianist and composer Lucas Leidinger (*1988) who can also look back on a remarkable career as a jazz musician over the past 10 years and released 8 albums as a bandleader/co-leader since 2013. Already during Leidinger's studies, both musicians developed a deep relationship and a lively artistic exchange.

In August 2020 Florian Ross and Lucas Leidinger were invited to record a duo session on two grand pianos at the chamber music hall of the „Deutschlandfunk Studio“ in Cologne. The album „Checks and Balances“ that arose from that session is a magical momentum of both musicians exploring and sharing their musical worlds within spontaneously improvised sketches, especially chosen originals as well as the all-time classic Song „Amelia“ by Joni Mitchell. The music sounds like a dialogue between two strong voices on the piano that merge into one creative unit combining elements of classical music of the 20th century, inside Jazz playing and sound experiments alongside the pure joy of making music.