Bodek Janke

Bodek Janke (right) with (from left) Silvio Morger , Matthias Schriefl and Alexander Morsey in the ArTheater Cologne 2011
Photo: Gerhard Richter

Bodek Janke (* 1979 in Warsaw ) is a German drummer and tabla player of creative jazz and world music with Polish-Russian roots. He became known through several German and international awards at jazz drummer competitions.

Live and act

Janke, who has lived in Germany since 1982, comes from a musical family: Both parents are concert pianists. He first learned the piano from his mother. During his school days he received training on percussion from 1990 at the Baden Conservatory in Karlsruhe; later the saxophone was added. In 1992 he was awarded by Jugend musiziert , in 1996 by Jugend jazz . Between 1998 and 2004 he studied at the Cologne University of Music with Michael Küttner and Keith Copeland ; In addition, there were vibraphone studies with Tom van der Geld . During his studies he was also a member of the federal jazz orchestra ; since 2002 he toured with his band Didgerission , with whom he also released two albums. As a DAAD scholarship holder , he completed a master's degree at City College in New York City between 2004 and 2007 ; from 2005 he also studied tabla with Samir Chatterjee. In 2006 he performed at the Moers Festival with his band TurboPascale . In 2008 he released the first album of his world music band global.dance.kulture .

Janke worked on various projects with Olivia Trummer as well as with Matthias Schriefl and his childhood friend Kristjan Randalu , with whom he is currently also working in a trio with Petros Klampanis . He is also part of Markus Stockhausen's Ensemble Eternal Voyage ( Eternal Voyage / Live , 2018). In Dreyer Gaido 2018 his album was released song (with Melissa Mary Ahern, Kristjan Randalu and Philip Donkin and guest musicians and the Atom String Quartet ); He presented this program live with Shishani Vranckx , who also took on the role of singer on the follow-up album Song2 (2019). He can also be heard on albums with Maria Palatine, Kristjan Randalu, the Schäl Sick Brass Band , Steffen Schorn , Vadim Neselovskyi and the WDR Big Band Cologne . With the jazz trio East Drive he has released four albums so far (as of 2019).

Janke continues to run the Przesieka cultural center in the Giant Mountains .

Prizes and awards

Janke was a prize winner at the 19th International Europe Jazz Contest 1997 in Brussels. In 1998 he won the 1st International Drummer Newcomer Festival Aschaffenburg and two years later the Best European Musicians Contest at the Drums & Sounds 2000 Festival. In 2008 he was awarded the Baden-Württemberg Jazz Prize; In 2010 he won the Soloist Prize at the New German Jazz Prize and the International Bucharest Jazz Competition .

Web links

• Web presence with discography
• Portrait (Sticks 8/2000, via web.archive.org)
• Bodek Janke at Discogs (English)