Wald Trio at PANDA Platforma

The trio led by Japanese vibraphonist Taiko Saito first performed together with her experienced Berlin-based colleagues in 2021. Their debut album focused on freely improvised music and captures the immediate energy of that first encounter.

Taiko Saito, awarded the Jazz Prize Berlin 2023 and the German Jazz Prize 2024 as best drummer / percussionist, is among the most distinctive vibraphonists in the European jazz scene. Her music is characterized by a unique approach to sound, time, and silence, moving fluidly between improvisation, composition, and jazz tradition.

With the WALD Trio, she opens a new chapter together with Jan Roder (double bass) and Michael Griener (drums). For decades, Roder and Griener have been regarded as one of the most defining and enduring rhythm sections in the Berlin and German jazz scene. Their collaboration in formations such as Alexander von Schlippenbach’s Monk’s Casino or Die Enttäuschung has significantly shaped contemporary improvised music....

read more

The trio led by Japanese vibraphonist Taiko Saito first performed together with her experienced Berlin-based colleagues in 2021. Their debut album focused on freely improvised music and captures the immediate energy of that first encounter.

Taiko Saito, awarded the Jazz Prize Berlin 2023 and the German Jazz Prize 2024 as best drummer / percussionist, is among the most distinctive vibraphonists in the European jazz scene. Her music is characterized by a unique approach to sound, time, and silence, moving fluidly between improvisation, composition, and jazz tradition.

With the WALD Trio, she opens a new chapter together with Jan Roder (double bass) and Michael Griener (drums). For decades, Roder and Griener have been regarded as one of the most defining and enduring rhythm sections in the Berlin and German jazz scene. Their collaboration in formations such as Alexander von Schlippenbach’s Monk’s Casino or Die Enttäuschung has significantly shaped contemporary improvised music.

Following the radically free improvisation of their debut, WALD now increasingly turns toward tradition. In current concerts, the trio engages with music connected to influential jazz vibraphonists such as Milt Jackson, Gary Burton, Mike Mainieri, and David Friedman—works from their musical environments, closely linked to their distinctive sound and thinking. These pieces are newly arranged by the WALD Trio and combined with original compositions conceived as personal musical responses.

The concerts are understood as an open working process: spaces for experimentation, condensation, and collective discovery. WALD thus connects improvisation, composition, and jazz history into a vivid, contemporary dialogue.

show less