Benjamin Schaefer
Benjamin Schaefer (born February 20, 1981 in Braunschweig ) is a German jazz pianist , composer and music teacher .
Live and act
Schaefer grew up in Braunschweig and received lessons from Otto Wolters . From 2001 to 2008 he studied jazz piano and composition at the Cologne University of Music and Dance with Frank Wunsch , Hans Lüdemann , John Taylor and Joachim Ullrich . He was also a member of the JugendJazzOrchester NRW and the Bundesjazzorchester (BuJazzO), with which he went on numerous tours. In 2004 his debut album Shapes & Colors ( Double Moon Records / Jazzthing Next Generation) was released with his own compositions, recorded with his trio of Marcus Rieck and Robert Landfermann .
After ten years and three albums with Rieck and Landferman, Schaefer wanted a more unusual line-up in terms of timbres, to which the harpist Kathrin Pechlof made a particular contribution in his quintet Quiet Fire, founded in 2014 . The quintet's album of the same name was recorded in the chamber music hall of Deutschlandfunk and released in 2015 on Nwog Records .
Schaefer also plays in Katrin Scherer's Momentum and in the band project Expressway Sketches with Max Andrzejewski and Tobias Hoffmann ; Expressway Sketches has released four albums so far: the debut of the same name in 2010, 2012 Bling and 2015 (expanded to a quartet) Love Surf Music and 2019 Surfin 'the Day - Lovin' the Night .
In addition to his work as a musician, Schaefer has been a lecturer in jazz piano at the Cologne University of Music since 2009. Since 2013 he has been on the board of the Union of German Jazz Musicians .
Prizes and awards
With his Benjamin Schaefer Trio he won the audience award and the award for the best composition at the Concours du Jazz Européen in Avignon in 2007 . In the same year the trio also received the Lower Saxony Jazz Prize . In 2011 he received the sponsorship award from the city of Cologne (Horst and Gretl Will scholarship for jazz and improvised music).
Discographic notes
- Roots and Wings ( Enja , 2008), with Robert Landfermann, Marcus Rieck
- Beneath the Surface (Enja Records, 2010), with Stephan Braun , Holger Werner , Niels Klein , Robert Landfermann, Marcus Rieck, Christoph König
- Expressway Sketches ( JazzHausMusik , 2010), with Max Andrzejewski, Tobias Hoffmann
- Expressway Sketches Bling (Wizmar Records, 2012), with Max Andrzejewski, Tobias Hoffmann
- Leaves Like Snow (Double Moon, 2012), with Robert Landfermann, Marcus Rieck
- Quiet Fire (NWog 2015), with James Wylie , Kathrin Pechlof, Igor Spallati , Max Andrzejewski
- Expressway Sketches Surfin 'the Day - Lovin' the Night (Klaeng; 2019, with Tobias Hoffmann, Max Andrzejewski, Lukas Kranzelbinder and Johannes Schleiermacher)
Lexical entries
- Jürgen Wölfer : Jazz in Germany. The encyclopedia. All musicians and record companies from 1920 until today. Hannibal, Höfen 2008, ISBN 978-3-85445-274-4 .
Web links
- Benjamin Schaefer's website
- Portrait at Expresswaysketches ( Memento from August 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Benjamin Schaefer at Allmusic (English)
- Benjamin Schaefer at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Shapes & Colors (review, Jazzthing 2004) /
- ↑ Review on Quiet Fire (2015) , nrwjazz.net November 18, 2015, accessed August 15, 2017
- ↑ Scott Yanow : Review of the album Leaves Like Snow (2013)
- ↑ Jazz album of the week (NDR)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schaefer, Benjamin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German jazz pianist, composer and music teacher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 20, 1981 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Braunschweig |