"No Excuse"

For many years now, Joo Kraus has quite rightly been one of the renowned jazz trumpeters in our latitudes. Although Joo was not brought up with the trumpet in his cradle, it was placed next to his school book. His father already played the trumpet and taught him the first chords. Catapulted into the scene at the age of 19 by winning the first prize at the national competition "Jugend musiziert", he gained five years of stage experience with the electro-rock band "Kraan". With Hellmut Hattler, Joo founded the hip-jazz duo "Tab Two" in the early 1990s. The rhythm section and effects already came from the computer - a pretty groundbreaking innovation at the beginning of the 90s. "Tab Two" played all over Europe, in Asia and the USA, produced eight albums and were one of the biggest influencers in this genre worldwide. In the 2000s, Joo Kraus increasingly wrote his own songs. He produced his album Sueño in Havana's oldest recording studio and arranged songs by Michael Jackson into an intellectually sophisticated bow to the King of Pop. Joo Kraus - that is many decades of international stage and studio experience, countless worldwide tours, 2 Grammy nominations, the Echo Jazz as best German trumpeter and 6 German Jazz Awards in gold. And no matter if Joo performs with the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, with Paula Morelenbaum, as a guest of Klaus Doldinger, with the SWR Big Band or with his own quintet, there is always his characteristic tone: modest and powerful, rousing joy of playing paired with sensitive attentiveness for the fellow musicians.

Joo has also been active as a songwriter for many years and has already written for Tina Turner, among others. Aside from that, he arranges and composes for orchestra, big band and theater. The man from Ulm is a musician at heart, who prefers to break down genre boundaries and style labels and makes music the way he lives: free and emotional. And so he sets out from his home planet of jazz on more and more expansive journeys of discovery to play beyond any crossover orthodoxy with shooting stars from other galaxies - whether they be soul, funk, pop, hip-hop, Latin or electro. As a trumpeter and composer, Joo has opened his perception to musical styles from all over the world, but his sometimes melancholy, sometimes cheerful melodies remain one hundred percent Joo Kraus. His new album No Excuse will be released on Jazzhaus Records in September 2024. It's a mix of colours, stamp scrapbook, socio-political discourse and owns one thing in particular: good vibes! Music that is sometimes reminiscent of the rock of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, sometimes of the soul of the Commodores and sometimes of the psychedelic vocals of Pink Floyd. The album is a mix of genres and moods that is simply fun! The songs are diverse, exciting, experimental, far from musical convention and yet unmistakable - totally Joo Kraus! No Excuse!