 "Stamina" means as much as perseverance and is a fitting title for the debut album of Grand Couloir, because the five musicians in Berlin have known and appreciated each other for a long time. Keyboarder Volker Meitz, tenor saxophonist Dirk Steglich, trumpeter Christoph Titz, bassist Roland Fidezius and drummer Tilo Weber have succeeded in creating a highly individual sound that often seems as risky as playing with fire. "We've known each other for a long time and have already played together in a wide variety of constellations," Volker Meitz summarized their past experience. "This band has also been around under a different name for a long time, but we decided that it was finally time for an album." Grand Couloir creates sensitive ballads and fast-paced fusion sounds, acid jazz snippets and dub swaths, soul jazz grooves and reggae sounds, free sound research and spacey electronics without the band sounding like an indefinable general merchandise store. There are recognizable influences that have affected the more or less long musician lives of the five without the personal individual styles having to be given up or warped – in short, "Stamina" is a musical cornucopia that is unparalleled. "We recorded the album as a quintet in the studio, but the electronic sounds were created in post-production," Volker Meitz explained. "We discovered the desire to play with sound. Roland and I in particular have a strong interest in special sounds, which we then extended to the complete production. But the essence of the sound is already there live." Dirk Steglich, who can also be heard on bass clarinet and flute on the album, rubs his saxophone sound against the trumpet sounds of Christoph Titz and both prove to be emotional storytellers in the ballads of the album, who also skillfully interact over the casual reggae groove of "We'll See". In other songs, Grand Couloir recalls the sounds Miles Davis explored in the 1970s. "We simply like the possibilities of pulling the sound completely in a different direction and flirting with electronics," Volker Meitz confirmed. "Eclectic is definitely a term that fits us." This is already evident in the opener “U Got Everything What We Want”, in which Grand Couloir plays with influences from the inflated pop sound of the 80s – the drums especially sound very powerful – and in between fall into a funky soul jazz groove again and again. Then the band demonstrates their bebop roots, only to mix them with psychedelic dub sounds and season them with free jazz touches, thus creating a monument to the urban bustle on the song "Warschauer Brücke". Almost all the songs come from the pen of Roland Fidezius, Christoph Titz and Volker Meitz, but Grand Couloir succeeded with a special coup with the only cover version of the album. Nile Rodgers composed “Upside Down” for Diana Ross, creating one of the greatest hits of her career; Grand Couloir transforms the song into a fast-paced drum & bass song, over which Christoph Titz and Dirk Steglich play their soulful solos, which could easily come from a blue note session of the sixties. By the way, the original voice of Diana Ross can be heard again and again in short excerpts, but it has such a high pitch that it is sometimes hard to recognize – great fun to hear and a virtuoso pleasure. "We are five different types of musicians, all of whom have virtuoso abilities," Volker Meitz stated confidently. "It can be said that Christoph, Dirk, Roland and Tilo know all the tricks." “Stamina” impressively testifies to this, and with the last song “Beseelt Dazeelt”, the album ends on an almost blissful note.
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