Results for "Switzerland"

Echoing the Angel Gabriel: Leroy Jones and his Signature Sound

by Taliya Hafiz
March 25, 2025

This story roots its preface in 2015 in JazzAscona at a press conference dedicated to jazz trumpeters and featuring a league of fantastic musicians: Wendell Brunious, John Michael Bradford, Kevin Louis and Shamarr Allen, who kindly shared their perceptions of the “trumpet as an instrument." “My trumpet is my girlfriend, I kiss her every day," Allen ...

Ruiqi Wang: Subduing the Silence with Vocal Improvisation

by Lawrence Peryer
June 29, 2024

Today, the Spotlight shines On vocalist, composer, and improviser 王睿琪 Ruiqi Wang (pronounced as “Ray-Chee Wong"). Ruiqi Wang creates stunning experimental music, combining influences from jazz, contemporary Euro-classical music, and traditional Chinese music. Ruiqi Wang joined us on the heels of the release of her debut album, Subduing the Silence (Orchard of ...

Dominik Schürmann

Born: March 15, 1971

Projects, tours and concerts with well-known musicians such as Hendrik Meurkens, Max Ionata, Frits Landesbergen, Martin Sasse, Luis Diego Bonilla, Jorge Rossy, Karl Ratzer, George Gruntz, Isla Eckinger, Oscar Klein, Vince Benedetti, Domenic Landolf, David Klein, Adrian Mears, Adam Taubitz, Titi Winterstein, Kurt Weil, Jim Galloway, John Serry, Bonnie Jeanne Taylor, Miguel de la Cerna, Othella Dallas, Andreas Herrmann, Markus Hauser, Mario Schneeberger, Sam Burckhardt and many more. He has performed in numerous jazz clubs and at jazz festivals in Switzerland and abroad.

He has been a member of Thomas Moeckel's "Centrio" since 1998. He has a long musical friendship with the well-known Swiss all-round musician Thomas Moeckel, during which countless joint projects have been created. Several of his own CD productions followed, such as the recordings "Dahaana", "Nothing Is As It Seems" (both with the hardbop formation Compulsion) and "Sambâle" with the trio formation Gutfleisch-Schürmann-Frey, founded in 2017 and co-produced by Swiss Radio SRF 2. His 2016 album "Upswing" was one of the most successful Swiss CD productions on international download platforms. In 2023 he founded the European Jazz Meeting with Max Ionata, Martin Sasse and Frits Landesbergen.

Simon Berz

by Lawrence Peryer
October 28, 2023

Today, the Spotlight shines On drummer and sound artist Simon Berz. The impetus for our conversation was the release of Simon's collaboration with American bassist and sonic wizard Bill Laswell and the Japanese avant-garde trumpeter Toshinori Kondo. While Kondo passed away in October of 2020, this work, Breath versus Beats (Everest Records), was not ...

Quatuor Hot Club De Suisse! - Pierre Omer's Swing Revue Returns With Tropical Breakdown

September 21, 2023

Pierre Omer's music catalog is steeped in bygone eras and rooted in brass, anachronism, and harmonious strings. Gypsy jazz laced with Eastern European folk is prevalent in music he's written for the vaudevillian doom-blues funeral orchestra, The Dead Brothers, which he co-founded at the turn of the century. His dark blues trio, Los Gatillos, takes influence ...

DOMi & JD Beck at Winterhurer Musikfestwochen 2023

by Gergely Nyiro
August 27, 2023

On the enchanting evening of August 15, 2023, music aficionados and enthusiasts were treated to an extraordinary auditory journey at the Winterthurer Musikfestwochen, courtesy of the mesmerizing DOMi & JD Beck concert. The stage came alive with DOMi's keyboard prowess painting a vivid tapestry of harmonies, while JD Beck's virtuosic drumming elevated the rhythmic landscape to ...

Lillamors

by Lawrence Peryer
June 24, 2023

Today, the Spotlight shines On the Basel-based band LILAMORS, which consists of vocalist Ana Čop, pianist Thilo Seevers, and sound artist Jaka Arh.With their debut album, When I Am Dead, My Dearest (Radicals Music), LILAMORS is taking jazz into new territories of experimental electro-acoustic music, utilizing poetry from the last two centuries as well ...

Beat Baumli

Samuel Blaser

Born: July 20, 1981

Samuel Blaser is a 21st century trombonist. Born in 1981 in the town of La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Swizterland, he emerged professionally after graduating from conservatory in 2002. During the next five years he developed associations with the Vienna Art Orchestra and the European Radio Big Band, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, pursued graduate studies at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, State University of New York, and recorded his first album as a leader, the Samuel Blaser Quartet’s 7th Heaven (Between The Lines). Since 2009 he has been based in Berlin.

The foundations of Blaser’s art are the breadth of his influences, his technical fluency, and the clarity with which he applies these assets. He grew up learning classical and Swiss folk music as well as jazz, and his projects include jazz-informed investigations of operatic, rock stead, and blues music. He understands that growth is relational, and has sought out and sustained relationships with veteran and senior musicians, such as Pierre Favre, John Hollenbeck, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Ducret, Paul Motian, Oliver Lake, and Daniel Humair, all of whom have helped him to develop his own sense of who he is. He exercises the full range of the trombone’s possibilities, including fluid melodic statements, emphatic rhythmic punctuations, earthy interjections, and abstract sound effects, with a clear sense of purpose. He approaches each endeavor as a leader and collaborator with a clear sense of purpose, knowing what he wants to accomplish and what each musical situation requires from him. Blaser’s responsiveness is never more evident than in his solo performances, which use his bold sound to draw out the qualities of both architectural and environmental settings.

Silvan Joray

Born: March 23, 1996

Silvan Joray is a Swiss jazz guitarist and composer currently based in New York City. He has gained recognition in the jazz community, having won special prizes at the UNISA International Strings Competition in South Africa 2022 and the Smietana Jazz Guitar Competition 2019 in Poland. He has performed at prestigious jazz festivals including the Krakow Summer Jazz Festival, Offbeat Jazzfestival Basel, and International Jazz Festival Bern, and has toured in Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Israel.

Joray grew up in a musical family and began his formal training on the classical guitar, which he studied for eight years before discovering jazz and switching to the electric guitar. He was initially interested in playing jazz standards and influenced by guitarists such as Wes Montgomery. However, his studies with renowned jazz guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel at Jazzcampus Basel broadened his musical horizons, inspiring him to compose his own music. This eventually led to the release of his debut album "Cluster" in 2020, which was produced by Muthspiel and co-produced by Swiss Radio SRF2.