The Jazz Organ Scene

Switzerland

Elsie Bianchi As a child, Elsie (*1930 in Zürich, birth name Elsie Brunner) received accordion and piano lessons. Her brothers were enthusiastic jazz fans and infected their sister with the jazz bug. In 1951, she performed as a young jazz singer and accordionist at the first Zürich Amateur Jazz Festival and received several awards for subsequent performances in Zürich.   In her early days as a jazz pianist, Elsie primarily looked to female role models overseas. It is therefore hardly surprising that she was drawn to the USA for performance opportunities. Her marriage to an American jazz musician, the saxophonist and bassist Siro Bianchi, certainly helped her in this regard.   As a result, she and her husband commuted between the USA and Switzerland for a long time – until she moved to the USA permanently at the end of the 1960s. Here, her musical career was largely concentrated in the Atlanta, GA area, where she regularly gave concerts with her Elsie Bianchi Trio. The trio was essentially a family affair. Her husband, Siro, played saxophone and bass, and her nephew played drums. For over ten years, the trio played regularly at the club "Château Fleur de Lis" in Atlanta, performing high-quality and entertaining club jazz.   The Elsie Bianchi Trio was a local sensation and received little attention from the major US media. Unjustly so, as an article in the 1972 Atlanta Night Life newspaper wrote: "Elsie is one of the most relaxed pianists I have ever heard. As one listens, it becomes apparent that the 'very pleasant music' is an unfolding panorama of musical improvisation."   Elsie's style is introverted and possesses a playful tension in the tradition of cool jazz. The influence is no coincidence: Elsie and Siro Bianchi also performed in California at the famous Hermosa Club south of Los Angeles, where many greats of Cool Jazz or West Coast Jazz had their stage in the 1950s.   Elsie also toured Europe with Chet Baker in 1955. A radio recording from this period documents this collaboration. Billed as the "foreign surprise of the evening," Chet Baker performed "Happy Little Sunbeam" live with the Elsie Bianchi Trio.   In Switzerland, Elsie performed at various winter resorts, including the legendary Atlantis Hotel in Basel. Following one of these performances in the 1960s, the idea arose for the Elsie Bianchi Trio's only studio album, this time with Charly Antolini on drums ("The Sweetest Sound" 1965).   Almost 40 years later, a CD label released some rare live recordings from the Atlantis club ("Atlantis Blues" 2004). Elsie died in 2016 in the USA.   from Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF.ch

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