The Swindlers (Band)
Die Schwindler are a music group that works in the border area between chanson and jazz . The formation was founded in 1982 by the saxophonist and composer Tobias Rüger in Frankfurt am Main .
history
In 1990 Die Schwindler released the album The Hour of Truth , on which u. a. the singers Phil Minton and Sissi Perlinger as well as the trombonist Stefan Lottermann made guest appearances. In 1992 the Schwindler recorded the album Im Dunkel der Nacht, named after a composition by Rüger, together with chansonist Jo van Nelsen . They also recorded their version of “ All Paris dreams of love ” with Conny Kollet .
In 1996 another collaboration followed with Phil Minton, who took over the vocal part of a version of Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe edited by Tobias Rüger . The program was performed under the name Die alten böse Lieder in the Theaterhaus Frankfurt, in the Red Salon of the Volksbühne Berlin , and in the Lyrikpark in Hildesheim . In 1998, under the direction of Johannes Falkenstein , there was a collaboration with the Affekt Theater, Berlin: in the production, conceived by Falkenstein and Stefan Bachmann for the Sophiensaele , The Girls accompanied the Schwindler u. a. the actress Gesine Cukrowski .
During the next decade, the Schwindler appeared mainly in trio line-up (Tobias Rüger: tenor saxophone, Nikolai Woeller: guitar, Tobias Rösch: double bass) on - u. a. also in the so-called sponsorship area of stadiums for the 2006 World Cup . In 2004 they also recorded an album with the architecture critic and publicist Dieter Bartetzko with his repertoire of jazz classics.
In autumn 2009 the swindlers released the album Ohne Netz und doppelten Boden (on CD) and Im Jazzgarten (on iTunes). It largely contains pieces by Brazilian composers and was recorded during a concert by the trio in the jazz garden of the Frankfurt Museumsuferfest .
Origin and history
The Schwindler (originally Tobi and the Schwindler ) were founded in the autumn of 1982 in a basement room of a social center on Braubachstrasse in Frankfurt am Main. The group goes back to the talented young saxophonist Tobias Rüger and the experimental guitarist Nikolaus List, who previously founded the riot school band "Bethel-Bus" together with Felix N. in Frankfurt's Westend . Andreas (Andi) Weber was the first bass player. The Mexican drummer Guillermo (Gui) Mertes was acquired as a drummer from a disco dance floor. Both newcomers were autodidactic beginners who at best could tie in with the tradition of "ingenious amateurism". Musical role models were both no-wave / fake jazz bands such as James White (alias Chance) or The Lounge Lizards , as well as (according to their own definition) bands known as punk jazz such as Public Image Ltd.
After a crash course of only four weeks, they began to give their first concerts (partly) as "swindlers" with this original line-up. The first concert took place on (?) As part of a jam session in the Frankfurt Jazzkeller. The only and last concert they gave in front of a larger audience was on (?) In the Frankfurt JW Goethe University, as the opening act for jazz musicians Alfred Harth and Heiner Goebbels. Shortly thereafter, the original line-up was almost wordlessly dissolved.
Discography
- Die Schwindler - The Moment of Truth (LP / CD, Tanit, 1990)
- Jo van Nelsen and the Swindlers - In the Dark of the Night (Sony-Columbia, 1992)
- Dieter Bartetzko and the swindlers - No Moon At All (private, 2004)
- Die Schwindler - Without a net and a false bottom (CD) / In the Jazzgarten (iTunes; Nagel-Heyer, 2009)
- The swindlers - Bossa (Nagel-Heyer, 2012)