"Marc Copland (born May 27, 1948, as Marc Cohen) is an American jazz pianist and composer.

Copland became part of the jazz scene in Philadelphia in the early 1960s as a saxophonist, and later moved to New York City, where he experimented with electric alto saxophone. In the early 1970s, while pursuing his own harmonic concept, he grew dissatisfied with what he felt were inherent limitations in the saxophone and moved to the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area, where he remained for a decade to retrain as a jazz pianist. He returned to New York in the mid-1980s."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Copland)
3/3/2021

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Pablo Held: piano "Born 1986 in Hagen, Germany. My father pianist and my mother piano technician. Herbie Hancock's music was in the background while playing Lego, John Scofield's music in the car on holidays. For my third birthday my uncle gave me my first drum set. Built by himself. Music was always there and always around me.

"Play something!" - On the company party of my grandfather I drummed in front of an audience for the first time. Aged four. To Stevie Wonder. Without thinking, without hesitation, just like a kid. Possibly the best way to make music? At least that's the way try I approach it even today.

As a 10-year old my enthusiasm for drum lessons waned. Instead I sat down at the piano more and more often. My father took note and gave me a present: My first piano lesson with a colleague of his.

Studying music - In Hagen the last year at school was approaching. But I had just one thing in mind: Studying jazz piano in Cologne. Passing the audition 2005 was the ticket to a new world.

Cologne was magical. The scene! Seeing one, two concerts each night. Studying during the day, playing sessions and listening to music with friends. And lessons with two of my biggest heroes: John Taylor and Hubert Nuss. The best teachers I could imagine. New worlds every lesson.

Then the first jam with Robert Landfermann (bass) and Jonas Burgwinkel (drums). "You're my trio now", I supposedly said afterwards. I don't remember that, just the feeling. Today Robert and Jonas are two of my most important musical companions and closest friends.

My music - Since 2006 the trio is my musical home. I'm grateful for having experienced so much together over the years: Countless tours, nine albums on Pirouet Records, two albums on Edition Records and special collaborations with guests such as John Scofield, Ralph Towner, Chris Potter, Jim Beard, Jorge Rossy, Dave Liebman or Nelson Veras.

The interplay with Robert & Jonas feels so close and familiar, but at the same time as exciting as during our first jam. Our music develops in the moment, just like a conversation among friends.

Of course, I am happy to reach a wider audience and to have such a positive response. Awards such as the WDR Jazz Award, the SWR Jazz Award, or promotion by NICA Artist Development help me continue my journey. And when my hero John Scofield calls us "one of the best bands in today's music" or Ralph

Towner talks of "an important example of the evolution of the jazz piano trio", then these are moments I can't really comprehend, but which fill me with deep gratitude.

Alongside my trio I play in a number of other bands. As sideman one can hear me on over 30 albums. In addition, memorable musical encounters took place with Billy Hart, Nasheet Waits, Mark Feldman, Anders Jormin, Tom Harrell, Mike Gibbs or Chris Speed. All of these are important influences and learning opportunities which in turn enrich my own projects.

Music & people - On worldwide tours I got a chance to meet fantastic people and musicians. Often this is a stepping stone: A conversation turns into a regular exchange, a concert turns into an album collaboration. The music enables us to learn from each other, to network and to explore new things together.

In my interview series "Pablo Held Investigates" I talk with my musical idols and companions since 2018: Wayne Shorter, Joey Baron, Dave Holland, Bill Stewart, Bill Frisell, John Scofield, Norma Winstone, Larry Goldings or Dave Longstreth spoke with me about their music and their creative process. One of my most important learning experiences to date. There to watch on YouTube, there to listen to on all podcast platforms, and sometimes there to read in JazzThing magazine.

Since 2017 I curate the concert series "Pablo Held Meets" in the LOFT in Cologne. I invite musicians who thrill me. International greats such as Norma Winstone, Ben Monder, Gary Husband, Jeff Ballard meet companions and friends such as Leif Berger, Kathrin Pechlof, Jason Seizer or Shannon Barnett. Each time a new line-up and a new repertoire.

As a founding member of the Cologne jazz collective KLAENG I organize festivals, concert series and workshops since 2009. In KLAENGrecords we also run our own label. This work is very rewarding for us all and also helps us understand the other side of the music business. Always with the aim of giving the audience a concert experience that we would like to experience ourselves.

A similarly rewarding change is teaching: 2011 to 2020 at the IFM Osnabrück, since early 2020 as assistant professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, plus workshops all over the world. My ideal throughout: joint investigation at eye level. Just as I could experience it with my own teachers."

-Pablo Hed Website (https://pabloheld.com/en/biography)
3/3/2021

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"Gary Peacock (born May 12, 1935, in Burley, Idaho, United States) is an American jazz double-bassist.

After military service in Germany, in the early sixties he worked on the west coast with Barney Kessel, Bud Shank, Paul Bley and Art Pepper, then moved to New York. He worked there with Bley, the Bill Evans Trio (with Paul Motian), and Albert Ayler's trio with Sunny Murray. There were also some live dates with Miles Davis, as a temporary substitute for Ron Carter.

Peacock spent time in Japan in the late 1960s, abandoning music temporarily and studying Zen philosophy. After returning to the United States in 1972, he studied Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle, and taught music theory at Cornish College of the Arts from 1976 to 1983.

In 1983 he joined Keith Jarrett's "Standards Trio" with Jack DeJohnette (the three musicians had previously recorded Tales of Another in 1977 for ECM Records, under Peacock's leadership). Among the trio's albums are Standards, Vol. 1 and Standards, Vol. 2 and Standards Live.

With the breakup of the "Standards Trio" in 2014, Peacock decided to continue his career as the leader of his own piano trio, with Marc Copland on piano and Joey Baron on drums. His 80th birthday year (2015) saw him touring worldwide with this trio to support their ECM release."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Peacock)
3/3/2021

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"The music of Brooklyn-based saxophonist and composer, Loren Stillman, has found acclaimed reviews in such publications as The New York Times, Downbeat Magazine, Jazziz, Jazz Times, and National Public Radio, marking him as an innovative voice of modern jazz. With his training stemming from Lee Konitz and David Liebman to Harvey Pittel, Stillman has performed, recorded, and educated throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Alongside an impressive record of performances, recordings, and master-classes with his own ensembles, Stillman has performed and recorded alongside The Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian Trio 2000+2, Carla Bley, John Abercrombie, Michael Formanek: Ensemble Kolassus, Ralph Alessi, Andy Milne's DAPP Theory, Michele Rosewoman Quintessence, Tyshawn Sorey Oblique, Brad Shepik, Vic Juris and The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

An early start to his musical career found Stillman as recipient of two Outstanding Performance Awards (1996 &1998) and the Rising Star Jazz Artist Award (2004) from Down Beat Magazine. Stillman attended Manhattan School of Music (1998) and The New School (2002) on full music scholarship, and was a semifinalist in the 2002 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition. In 2005, Stillman received the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award. Stillman's original recordings, Going Public (Fresh Sound 2013), Winter Fruits (Pirouet 2008), It Could Be Anything (Fresh Sound, 2005), The Brothers' Breakfast (Steeplechase, 2006), and Blind Date (Pirouet, 2006), received critical acclaim from The New York Times, New Yorker and four star recognition in BBC Jazz Review, Jazz Man Magazine and Downbeat Magazine. Stillman has been featured on WKCR, Weekend America Public Broadcasting, and LIU Radio programming. Stillman is a Vandoren and Conn-Selmer artist."

-Loren Stillman Website (https://www.lorenstillman.com/about)
3/3/2021

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"Drew Gress (born November 20, 1959) is an American jazz double-bassist and composer born in Trenton, New Jersey, raised in the Philadelphia area, and currently based in New York City.

Biography

Gress became interested in jazz and the double bass while a teenager, joining the Pennsbury Concert Jazz Band, a nationally-prominent high school jazz ensemble, in 1975, spending two years as bassist and arranger for the group. His interest in composing original material for large ensembles, such as those of Johnny Richards, Billy May, and Pat Williams, led him to Baltimore's Towson State University in 1977, where he studied composition and counterpoint with Hank Levy, known for his work with Don Ellis and Stan Kenton. While at Towson, Gress established a playing relationship with saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, with whom he cofounded Joint Venture with Paul Smoker and Phil Haynes. They released three albums on Enja Records between 1987 and 1994.

During the 1980s in the Baltimore/Washington DC area, he played with Sonny Stitt, Clifford Jordan, Albert Dailey, Mose Allison, Zoot Sims, Cab Calloway, Buddy Hackett, Phyllis Diller, and pianist Marc Copland, with whom he still plays today. He also served on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory, Towson State University, and the Baltimore School for the Arts. He formed a quartet, Tekke, in 1989 with David Kane, Glenn Cashman, and Michael Smith.

In 1997, he cofounded the cooperative improvising trio Paraphrase with saxophonist/composer Tim Berne and drummer Tom Rainey. Together, they pursued a compositional approach to free improvisational practice. They recorded three live albums together and toured extensively.

In 1998, he released his first album as leader, Heyday, with his band Jagged Sky (featuring David Binney, Ben Monder, and Kenny Wollesen). 2001 saw the release of Spin & Drift with Uri Caine, Berne, and Rainey, in which he played pedal steel guitar for the first time.

Earlier in the 1990s, he served tenures as artist in residence at University of Colorado-Boulder and at Russia's St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Since 1992, Gress has maintained an extensive touring schedule, traveling to Europe, Asia, and South America. Those with whom he has and continues to work include Tim Berne, Ravi Coltrane, Uri Caine, John Hollenbeck, Fred Hersch, Marc Copland, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, Jack DeJohnette, John Surman, Ray Anderson, Erik Friedlander, Kenny Werner, Bill Carrothers, Ralph Alessi, Tony Malaby, Steve Lehman, and Edsel Gomez. To date, he has appeared on over 140 recordings, 4 of which have received Grammy nominations.

Gress' own ensembles have toured Europe four times since 2002, in addition to isolated festival appearances in Italy and Portugal. In 2004, the UK's BBC Radio and London's Guardian selected his quartet's live radio broadcast as Jazz Concert of the Year.

Composition awards include an NEA grant (1990), funding from Meet the Composer (2003), a Chamber Music America New Works Grant (2005), a CMA French-American Exchange Grant (2007), and an Encore Grant from that same organization (2008). He continues to compose for larger groups and has begun experimenting with virtual synthesizers."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Gress)
3/3/2021

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"John Hollenbeck is a composer of music uncategorizable beyond the fact of being always identifiably his. A conceptualist able to translate the traditions of jazz and new music into a fresh, eclectic, forward-looking language of his own invention, intellectually rewarding yet ever accessibly vibrant. A drummer and percussionist possessed of a playful versatility and a virtuosic wit. Most of all, a musical thinker - whether putting pen to paper or conjuring spontaneous sound - allergic to repetition, forever seeking to surprise himself and his audiences. [...]

Hollenbeck received degrees in percussion and jazz composition from the Eastman School of Music before moving to New York City in the early 1990s. He was profoundly shaped by the mentorship of two hugely influential artists: trombonist/arranger/composer Bob Brookmeyer and composer/choreographer Meredith Monk. His relationship with Brookmeyer reached back to the age of 14, when he attended the SUNY Binghamton Summer Jazz Workshop, and continued at Eastman, through NEA-funded composition study, and finally on the bandstand with Brookmeyer's New Art Orchestra and in the studio with Brookmeyer and trumpet great Kenny Wheeler. For Monk, Hollenbeck composed and performed the percussion scores for five of her works: "Magic Frequencies," "Mercy," "The Impermanence Project," "Songs of Ascension" and "On Behalf of Nature."

Hollenbeck's awards and honors include four Grammy nominations; the 2012 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, the 2010 ASCAP Jazz Vanguard Award and a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship; winning the Jazz Composers Alliance Composition Contest in 1995 and 2002; Meet the Composer's Grants in 1995 and 2001; and a Rising Star Arranger win in the 2012 and 2013 DownBeat Critics' Polls as well as in 2011 for the JHLE as Rising Star Big Band. John was a professor of Jazz Drums and Improvisation at the Jazz Institute Berlin from 2005-2016 and in 2015 joined the faculty of McGill University's Schulich School of Music."

-John Hollenbeck Website (http://johnhollenbeck.com/about/biography/)
3/3/2021

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"Robert Landfermann Doublebass born 1982 in Bonn.

Studies:

1998 - 2002 Doublebass lessons in Bonn with Gunnar Plümer

2002 - 2007 Jazz-Doublebass in Cologne "Musikhochschule für Musik und Tanz"

2007 - 2009 special degree "Konzertexamen" with Prof Dieter Manderscheid

since 2011 teaching Jazz Doublebass at the Folkwang university of arts in Essenworked with:

Joachim Kühn, John Scofield, Lee Konitz, Yo-Yo Ma, Django Bates, Tomasz Stanko, Barre Philips, John Taylor, Lenine, Dave Liebman, Simon Nabatov, Chris Potter, John Hollenbecks 'Claudia Quintet', Hilmar Jensen, Urs Leimgruber, Jim Black, Peter Evans, Manfred Schoof, Tobias Delius, Achim Kaufmann, Julian Argueilles, Frank Gratkowski, Thomas Lehn, Mederic Collignon, Gerd Dudek, Stephane Guillaume, Charlie Mariano, Kinan Azmeh, Markus Stockhausen, Cino Palagliesu, Rudi Mahall, Tetsu Saitoh, Claudio Puntin, Steffen Schorn, Axel Dörner, Wolfgang Haffner, Ian Thomas, Ben Perowski, Danny Gottlieb, NDR BigBand, Rhani Krija...Concerts:

In about 50 Countries on 5 Continents:

China, Indonesia, Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, South Corea, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Dominicanian Republic, Salvador, Brasil, Bolivia, Equador, Columbia, Tunesia, Maroc, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Cape Verde, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Danmark, Luxemburg, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Zyprus, Kasachstan, Kirgistan, Bulgaria, Albania, Rumania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway...

In famous Concerthalls:

Sydney Opera, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Mozartsaal Wien, Cité de la musique Paris, Megaron Musikis Athen, L'auditori Barcelona, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Theatre Marni Brussels, "stone" NYC, Beethovenhaus Bonn, Bozar Brussels, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Brucknerhaus Linz, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Philharmony Essen, Philharmony Cologne, Philharmony Luxemburg, Filharmonia Krakowska, Krzysztof Penderecki Centre for Music, NOSPR Concert Hall Katowice, Konserthuset Stockholm...

On national and international Festivals:

Vancouver Jazzfestival, North-Sea-festival, JazzNow Sydney, Kopenhagen Jazzfestival, Jazzfest Berlin, Casa del Jazz Rom, London Jazzfestival, Glasgow Jazzfestival, JazzNoJazz Zürich, 12points! 2010 Stavanger Norway, 12points! 2008 Dublin, Moers Jazzfestival, Jazz.pt Lissabon, Duketown Festival s'Hertogenbosch, Coimbra Jazzfestival, The Hague Den Haag, Portalegre Jazzfestival, Salzau Jazz-Baltica, Jazzfestival Burghausen, INNtöne, Leverkusener Jazztage, Elbjazz, Hamburger Jazztage, Münster Jazzfestival, Jazzrallye Düsseldorf, Traumzeit Festival, Gnaua festival Essauira...Awards:

SWR-Jazzpreis 2014

NRW-Förderpreis 2013

WDR-Jazzpreis 2009

New German Jazzaward 2009 with Frederik Köster Quartett

Horst und Gretl-Will Stipendium - Culture-Price of the City of Cologne 2009

German Member of the European Jazz Orchestra connected to the EBU in 2008"

-Robert Landfermann Website (http://robertlandfermann.com/biography.html)
3/3/2021

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"Achim Kaufmann was born into a musical family in Aachen, Germany, in 1962, and became fascinated by jazz and the possibilities of improvisation as a teenager. He started writing tunes around that time. Later he studied music at the Conservatory in Cologne and also took classes with creative masters such as Dave Holland, Steve Coleman, Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Steve Lacy.

From 1996 to 2009, he lived in Amsterdam where he became part of that city's internationally renowned improvised music scene.Since 2002, he has been touring internationally with the trio Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode, an improvising unit which has released four CDs so far, to much critical acclaim.

In the late '90s and '00s, Achim led two groups with reed player Michael Moore: trio kamosc and gueuledeloup quartet.In 2007, he recorded kyrill, a set of compositions for piano trio featuring Valdi Kolli and Jim Black. Their follow-up cd, entitled verivyr, was released in 2011.

He has also collaborated with his wife, poet/painter Gabriele Guenther, on the audiodrama Borderline - From the Shadows of a Journey, and has written music for various chamber ensembles.In his solo work, mixed techniques are used to create a fluctuating world of sounds and gestures. Resonance and reverberation, space and density play an important role in both his solo and ensemble work.

Since his move to Berlin, he got involved in various new projects, such as the trio grünen with Robert Landfermann and Christian Lillinger, Oni Kramler (with Matthias Schubert, Antonio Borghini, and various guests), and a trio with cellist Okkyung Lee and trumpeter Axel Dörner.

In 2013, the sextet SKEIN (Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode plus Richard Barrett, Okkyung Lee, and Tony Buck) had its premiere at the dOeK festival in Amsterdam and subsequently recorded for SWR radio.

He recently released duo albums with long-standing collaborators Michael Moore and Thomas Heberer.

In addition, Achim has played and/or recorded with Han Bennink, Mark Dresser, George Lewis, Steve Swallow, Tobias Delius, Wolter Wierbos, Mark Helias, Paul Rutherford, Thomas Lehn, Ab Baars, Paul Lovens, Dylan van der Schyff, Peggy Lee, Chris Speed, Tomász Stanko, Gerd Dudek, Bill Elgart, Paul Lytton, Harri Sjöström, Andrea Parkins, Harris Eisenstadt, Ingrid Laubrock, Tristan Honsinger, Shelley Hirsch, Steve Swell, Thomas Heberer, Urs Leimgruber, Roger Turner, Fay Victor, Fred Lonberg-Holm, John Hollenbeck, Bob Brookmeyer, Simon Nabatov, Lê Quan Ninh, Gerry Hemingway, John Hébert, Al Foster, Adam Nussbaum, and many more.

He was awarded the German SWR Jazz Award in 2001, and the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff award in 2015.

"For many years, Achim Kaufmann has been one of the most inspiring and exciting personalities of the European jazz and improvisation scene. His music bears witness to great harmonic subtlety and structural depth. A brilliant pianist and composer, his reflected exploration of tradition has led him to a nuanced, contemporary sound language that encompasses poetry, energy and abstraction in equal measure." "-Julia Neupert, SWR radio

-Achim Kaufmann Website (http://www.achimkaufmann.com/bio.html)
3/3/2021

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"Chris Speed is a composer, clarinetist and saxophonist - and is "one of the principal figures in a dynamic left-of-center jazz/improv scene in the city" (NYTimes). His own bands include Endangered Blood, Human Feel, yeah NO, Trio Iffy, Pachora and The Clarinets. He is a founding member of Jim Black's Alas No Axis and John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet (two of the most influential working bands today), works with Uri Caine (deconstructing works by Mahler, Mozart, Bach, Schoenberg, Gershwin) and maintains a busy career of touring, recording, performing, composing, practicing and teaching. Current projects include work with Craig Taborn's Heroic Frenzies, Michael Formanek's Ensemble Kolossus, Dave King's Trucking Co., Matt Mitchell Quartet, Mary Halvorson's Reverse Blue, Banda de los Muertos (NYC's only Banda band), as well as touring his latest project, Endangered Blood (with Black, Trevor Dunn and Oscar Noriega) which was featured on NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts in 2012. (Endangered Blood 2010, Work Your Magic 2013 Skirl). "Speed's Endangered Blood originals stand out as his most melodically generous, accessible and warm batch of compositions he's yet to produce." -DownBeat ****Born in 1967, Speed grew up in the Seattle area where he met future colleagues Jim Black and Andrew D'Angelo, all of whom ended up in Boston in the late 80's where they formed Human Feel with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. (Scatter 1992, Welcome to Malpesta 1994, Speak To It 1996, Galore 2007). While in Boston he studied at New England Conservatory and graduated in 1990. By 1992, after a short tour with the Artie Shaw Band (led by Dick Johnson), Speed moved to New York City where he started working with Tim Berne's (now legendary touring band) Bloodcount. (Unwound 1996, Discretion 1997, Saturation Point 1997, The Seconds 2006).In April 2006, he launched Skirl Records, a label dedicated to Brooklyn based creative music" -Chris Speed Website (http://chrisspeed.com/bio/)
3/3/2021

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"Since basing himself in NYC in 2002, originally hailing from Cos Cob, CT, jazz pianist, organist and accordionist Gary Versace has become one of the busiest and most versatile musicians on the scene, often featured in bands led by musicians such as John Scofield, John Abercrombie, Al Foster, Regina Carter, Maria Schneider, Madeleine Peyroux, Matt Wilson, Joe Magnarelli, Andy LaVerne, Adam Nussbaum, Brad Shepik, Ingrid Jensen and many others.

Recent CD releases include appearances as pianist on Ralph Alessi's 'Quiver" (ECM records) which received 4.5 stars in Downbeat, as accordionist on Maria Schneider's Grammy-winning 'The Thompson Fields,' as Hammond organist on Ellery Eskelin's 'Trio Willisau: Live' and Rich Perry's 'Organique,' and on all three instruments on Kurt Elling's 'Passion World.'

Versace won the "Rising Star' category on the Hammond organ in Downbeat's Critic's Poll in 2009 and 2010, and has placed in the primary Organ category consistently for the last 5 years. He won the Jazz Jounalists' Association's "Best Organist" award in 2012, and his work has been reviewed and featured in many national and international publications. He appeared twice as a guest on Marian McPartland's acclaimed NPR show 'Piano Jazz,' and McPartland has described him as '...endlessly inventive...(Versace) really has an extraordinary talent.'

He has several CD's under his own name on the SteepleChase and Criss Cross labels, and has appeared as a guest on almost 75 more.

Gary Versace has a masters degree in music performance from the Eastman School of Music, and spent eight years as a tenured associate professor in the jazz studies department at the University of Oregon. He remains active as a clinician and guest soloist both nationally and around the world."

-Gary Versace Website (http://www.garyversace.com/Default.asp)
3/3/2021

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