Lukas Kranzelbinder - Double Bass, E-Bass, Guembri, Bandleader
Yvonne Moriel - Alto Sax, Flute
Johannes Schleiermacher - Tenor Sax, Flute
Mario Rom - Trumpet
Oliver Potratz Double Bass, E-Bass
Niki Dolp Drums, Percussion
Herbert Pirker Drums, Percussion
Lukas Kranzelbinder - Double Bass, E-Bass, Guembri, Bandleader
Yvonne Moriel - Alto Sax, Flute
Johannes Schleiermacher - Tenor Sax, Flute
Mario Rom - Trumpet
Oliver Potratz Double Bass, E-Bass
Niki Dolp Drums, Percussion
Herbert Pirker Drums, Percussion
AMADEUS AUSTRIAN MUSIC AWARD 2023
DEUTSCHER JAZZPREIS - Band Of The Year - International 2021
Austrian band SHAKE STEW has become something of a phenomenon.
With their premiere at Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2016 and their following debut The Golden Fang they seemingly exploded into the scene out of nowhere. Since then their high energy mixture of hypnotic soundscapes and kraut-jazz grooves has made them enormously successful not only on home turf but across Europe. Led by rising star bassist Lukas Kranzelbinder they quickly became one of the hottest live acts on the circuit, while the impact of their second album Rise and Rise again (featuring Shabaka Hutchings) enabled them to spread their unique sound further afield, including an extensive tour of Canada, Mexico, Morocco and stand out shows at prestigious festivals like Montreal, Rochester and North Sea Jazz Festival. The band has also attracted the attention of Germany’s leading newspaper Die Zeit who, in an unusual move, sent one of its writers to spend 5 days with them to cover the formations summer residence at Jazzclub Unterfahrt; the resulting feature was euphoric in its praise:
"What I heard blew me away. Captivating rhythms, melting brass, hypnotic funk-beat-swing-afro-jazz-rock-rhythm-and-something. I was glued to my seat and could barely get up. […] Meanwhile I know that other listeners had similar initiation experiences; something comes from this band that is new and special - and very attractive."
Die Zeit | September 2018
Riding on all this success Shake Stew released their third studio album Gris Gris in November 2019. Not content to do anything by halves (their first single was 19 minutes long), Gris Gris is a double album of what they do best: A high-octane mix of fiery jazz and trance-like groove injections combined with mysterious soundscapes and spiritual free jazz eruptions - or as UKs MOJO magazine described it:
"Able to blind you into a trance and make you dance to your knees, Gris Gris twists, blisters and burns like a fevered dream."
MOJO | November 2019
The album was soon awarded with the "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik" for the first quarter of 2020 and was ranked as #1 album of 2019 by Jazzthing Magazine in their annual "Best of" - beating the likes of Brad Mehldau, Michael Kiwanuka and Terri Lyne Carrington! Further reactions included a front page Coverstory in Jazzthetik Magazine as well as praise from The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Jazzwise, Sunday Times, Radio France, and many more. In 2020 the band released their first live album (A)live! and went on to continue their impressive ascent when they were awarded the German Jazz Award in the category “Band of the year – International” in 2021. 2022 marks the release of their fifth album HEAT as well as a change in personnel. The addition of Astrid Wiesinger on alto sax (replacing Clemens Salesny) has given the band an injection of new energy and we can hear the electricity buzzing on each track. Heat consequently led to Shake Stew being awarded with Austria’s prestigious Amadeus Music Award in 2023 – which made them the first instrumental band to win this prize since Joe Zawinul twenty years earlier.
Despite their unusual line-up with two drummers, two bassists, and three horns, the band continues to captivate audiences of all ages in a strikingly direct way – whether in a packed club with a standing crowd or in the sold-out Elbphilharmonie. Hypnotic soundscapes and driving rhythms have shaped their music from the very beginning, yet just when you think you’ve decoded the formula of this musical stew, Shake Stew reveals the full range of their instrumentation: on the verge of absolute silence, sound structures appear out of nowhere, flowing along trance-like bass lines and finely tuned gong patterns, touching the listener with a fragility as deep as the groove explosions that came before.
“You don’t have to like jazz to love Shake Stew: the band led by Lukas Kranzelbinder is set for ecstasy from head to toe. Or, to paraphrase Nietzsche: This is not music, this is dynamite!”
Wiener Zeitung | 2021
In a seemingly constant flow of musical output, they released their sixth album “Lila” in autumn 2023. ‘Lila’ sees Kranzelbinder fulfill a long-held ambition to work with Viennese producer Marco Kleebauer (Bilderbuch, Sharktank, Leyya). Like Kranzelbinder, he is a key figure in the Austrian music scene and although their musical paths have been very different the collaboration just clicked. On several tracks we hear Kranzelbinder's now familiar multi-layered compositions supplemented by Kleebauer’s sound layers pushing the door wide open to a new musical chapter of Shake Stew, but not at the sacrifice of band’s trademark sound. Another exciting collaboration is that with spoken word artist Precious Nnebedum, who grew up between Nigeria and Austria and features on ‘Not Water But Rest’.
In 2024, Austrian national broadcaster ORF even dedicated a primetime documentary to the band, “Shake Stew – Jazz for everyone!”
You can watch it here:
2026 now marks their 10th anniversary – and it would not be Shake Stew if they did not celebrate this milestone with a true musical spectacle: the three-part album project TEN ONE TWO THREE. The first two parts, featuring exclusively new music, will be released in spring, with the third to follow in autumn. The band is also opening a new chapter on a personal level: saxophonist Yvonne Moriel, one of the most exciting newcomers of the scene, has joined the line-up, adding a fresh new timbre to Shake Stew’s sound.
