Jiggs Whigham

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Jiggs Whigham

Jiggs Whigham (born August 20, 1943 in Cleveland , Ohio ; real name Oliver Haydn Whigham III ) is a trombonist , band leader and university professor . His trombone playing is characterized by a large, warm tone and flexible phrasing. He is also "one of the most experienced orchestral conductors on the European scene and - as a pioneer in Germany - an institution for jazz education at universities."

Live and act

Whigham had piano and harmony lessons at the Cleveland Institute of Music from the age of seven . He started playing the trombone when he was eleven; he was hired for concerts and even recordings during his school days. At the age of 17 he was the first solo trombonist of the Glenn Miller Orchestra under Ray McKinley , and two years later with Stan Kenton . He also studied composition in Cleveland.

After one year of engagements in New York studios and Broadway musicals, he came to Germany in 1965 as a soloist in Kurt Edelhagen's jazz orchestra at WDR in Cologne. He received first prize in 1966 at the first modern jazz competition in Vienna. Since the 1970s he played with Peter Herbolzheimer's Rhythm Combination & Brass . In 1971 he released his first album under his own name, Values with George Gruntz , JA Rettenbacher and Tony Inzalaco . His second album Hope with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen , Rob Franken , Ferdinand Povel and Grady Tate was written in 1976. In 1989 he recorded the album The Jiggs Up with guest musicians such as Bud Shank , George Cables , John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton . From 1971 to 1981 he worked regularly with The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band .

In 1979 he became professor and head of the jazz department at the Cologne University of Music . At the end of the 1970s, Jiggs Whigham formed the group Trombone Summit with trombonists Bill Watrous , Albert Mangelsdorff and Kai Winding , with whom he made a record in 1980 for the German label MPS . In 1982 he worked with the WDR Big Band and recorded the album The Third Stone , with arrangements by Bill Holman . Between 1988 and 1992 he toured several times with a band led by Bud Shank ( The Jiggs Up , 1989). From 1995 to autumn 2006 Jiggs Whigham was professor and head of the popular music department at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and its spin-off Jazz Institute Berlin . He also directed the RIAS Big Band Berlin from 1995 to 2000 . Whigham currently leads the BBC Big Band in London, the Brandenburg State Youth Jazz Orchestra (LaJJazzo) and - together with Niels Klein - the Federal Jazz Orchestra .

Due to his experience as a teacher, instrumentalist, band leader and arranger, Jiggs Whigham published numerous books and sheet music editions, including Jazz Trombone - Concepts, Ideas and Exercises (London 2006, German as Jazz Trombone - Concepts, Playing Techniques, Exercises , Mainz 2007, Schott), Basic Steps - Warm-up, phrasing and stylistics for wind instruments (Mainz 2011, together with Renold Quade and Bernhard G. Hofmann), suite for trombone and piano (Mainz 2011) and Hills for alto or tenor saxophone (trumpet in Bb) and piano (Mainz 2012).

Jiggs Whigham (left) with John Clayton in 1989

literature

Web links

Commons : Jiggs Whigham  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Kunzler Jazz-Lexikon , p. 1473
  2. ↑ Jiggs Whigham - Values ​​- MPS-Music. (No longer available online.) In: www.mps-music.com. Archived from the original on October 10, 2016 ; accessed on October 10, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Hope - Jiggs Whigham. In: AllMusic. Retrieved October 10, 2016 . For this album, Peter Hedrich released a tribute album in 2016, in which Whigham also participated.
personal data
SURNAME Whigham, Jiggs
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oliver Haydn Whigham III
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz trombonist and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio