Isla Eckinger

Isla Eckinger (born May 6, 1939 in Dornach ) is a Swiss jazz bassist (also vibraphonist ).

Live and act

Eckinger played the cello as a child and switched to the trombone as a teenager . After studying the trombone at the conservatory in Basel , he taught himself to play the double bass . As a professional musician, he played for the first time with Oscar and Miriam Klein . In the 1960s he also accompanied stars in transit such as Ben Webster , Buck Clayton , Don Byas and Johnny Griffin .

After moving to Munich, he worked with Mal Waldron , Joe Haider and Philly Joe Jones . From 1970 to 1976 he worked as a teacher at the Swiss Jazz School and played on the one hand with Haider, Peter Giger and Heinz Bigler in the group Four for Jazz , on the other hand in various projects with Slide Hampton , George Gruntz , Horace Parlan , Benny Bailey and Dexter Gordon . He toured Japan with Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy and Manfred Schoof in 1975 and Italy with Chet Baker in 1976. At the end of the 1970s he was part of the Wolfgang Engstfeld Quartet. He then worked with Klaus Weiss , Fritz Pauer and also with Dizzy Gillespie .

In the mid-1980s, Eckinger, who is valued as a reliable companion, moved to Los Angeles and worked a. a. with Chuck Manning ( LA Calling , 1991). He currently plays with Roman Schwaller and Jimmy Cobb , but also with Charly Antolini , Andy Scherrer and Paul Haag .

literature

• Bruno Spoerri (Ed.) Jazz in Switzerland. History and Stories (Ed.). Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0739-6