Torsten de Winkel

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Torsten de Winkel (2009)

Torsten de Winkel (born January 6, 1965 in Frankfurt am Main ; actually Torsten Winkel ) is a German musician and composer in the fields of jazz and world music , improvisation theorist and neurophilosophist . In addition to acoustic and electric guitar, he also plays electric sitar, keyboard instruments and percussion.

biography

Torsten Winkel first learned to play Charango when he was ten years old in La Paz, Bolivia . Building on this, he taught himself the basics of guitar playing and jazz improvisation, which he later professionalized in Frankfurt at a jazz course at the Hoch Conservatory under Christof Lauer . After graduating from high school with a recommendation from the German National Academic Foundation, he made his first appearance at the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt in 1983 , whereupon Alphonse Mouzon invited him to record recordings in Los Angeles .

The stage name De Winkel came about because he was greeted in Frankfurt with a preference in the Hessian dialect with "Eh, here comes de 'Winkel!"

In 1985 his much-discussed debut LP Mastertouch ( FAZ : “Coup of German Jazz History”) was released, with which de Winkel anticipated the cooperation between young German jazz musicians and leading US-American stylists, which later became a matter of course. During this time a collaboration with bassist Hellmut Hattler , whose group Kraan had previously disbanded, began, which continues to this day and is documented on many CDs .

De Winkel studied on a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston ( summa cum laude ). After moving to the USA, where he also took up philosophical and psychological studies, the deWinkelHattler project with Joo Kraus , whose CD Humanimal Talk with, among others, Naná Vasconcelos was described as a “total work of art” by Stern magazine , became the HattlerKraus duo (since 1991 Tab Two ). De Winkel can be heard on all nine CDs of this formation as a guitarist and later also as an electric sitarist . During his studies de Winkel worked with Steve Smith's Vital Information, with whom he recorded two CDs as guitarist - succeeding Mike Stern and Frank Gambale - and composer, as well as with Joe Zawinul , Matt Garrison , Scott Kinsey and with Pat Metheny Group .

In the 1990s, de Winkel developed an alternative teaching method out of dissatisfaction with the mostly purely theoretical approach to jazz and improvisation didactics, which takes into account the results of basic research in the field of learning psychology and neurology under the term Training Intuition . He held courses at various institutions, including the Hamburg University of Music, the University of Northern Iowa, the Musicians Institute Los Angeles and Berklee College.

Living in New York since 1995, he founded the multicultural music collective New York Jazz Guerrilla . Together with the Israeli pianist Sasi Shalom he was committed to the German-Israeli reconciliation (CD Long Time Coming 1996; tour in Israel and Germany). De Winkel also toured in the group of tenor saxophonist Teodross Avery . After tours around the globe (including with the first western group invited by China to tour) and collaborations with greats from jazz and pop from Pat Metheny to Joe Zawinul and Whitney Houston , from Tab Two to Aziza Mustafa Zadeh to the Brecker Brothers and Grandmaster Flash has been de Winkel since 2005 co-initiator of the Bimbache openART festival on the Canary island of El Hierro, which is dedicated to multicultural encounters and a community building , as well as the Human Condition Project based on it . This global initiative organizes forums for interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and scientists from a wide variety of traditions and genres.

The neurophilosophical concepts underlying this project were presented by de Winkel u. a. at the world exhibition EXPO 2008 and at the Copenhagen Climate Summit 2009.

literature

  • Kunzler, Martin: Jazz Lexicon . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2002
  • Sandner, Wolfgang (Ed.): Jazz in Frankfurt . Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt 1990 ISBN 3-7973-0480-3

Discographic notes

As a leader

With others

  • Pat Metheny : Secret Story Live (DVD, LD & VHS, Japan) / This World (CD, Italy)
  • Steve Smith’s Vital Information: Fia Fiaga (SONY Columbia) / VitaLive (as composer)
  • Aziza Mustafa Zadeh & Bill Evans , Omar Hakim ao: Inspiration (SONY)
  • Alphonse Mouzon : The Sky Is the Limit / Love Songs And Ballads
  • Tab Two : Flagman Ahead / Belle Affaire / Sonic Tools / Tab Two (all Virgin) / Mind Movie / Space Case / Hip Jazz / Between Us (all Polydor) / Live at the Roxy / Two Thumbs Up (all 36music)
  • Hellmut Hattler : Heartware (Vielklang) / No Eats Yes (Polydor) / Bass Cuts / The Big Flow / Live Cuts / Gotham City Beach Club Suite / The Kite / Live Cuts II (all Bassball)
  • XXL feat. Grandmaster Flash: El Jazz Latino / The Funky Stuff (SONY)
  • Soulfit: Vision of Peace
  • Core 22: Nuance (BMG)
  • Deep Dive Corp .: Beware Of Fake Gurus
  • Kike Perdomo : A World Of Music (with Chano Domínguez , Eric Marienthal and others) / AC & Funk
  • Carola Gray : Drum Attack!
  • Various Artists: Basstorius (with Matt Garrison) / Mysterious Voyages - A Tribute to Weather Report (with Scott Kinsey)

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ See Sandner p. 34ff.
  2. ↑ See Sandner p. 34ff.
personal data
SURNAME Winkel, Torsten de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Winkel, Torsten (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musician and composer in the fields of jazz and world music, improvisation theorist and neurophilosophist
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main