Joscho Stephan

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Joscho Stephan at the Idar-Oberstein Jazz Days (2018)
Joscho Stephan with his Volkert D-Hole Gypsy Jazz Guitar (undated)

Joscho Stephan (* 1979 in Mönchengladbach ) is a German jazz guitarist who mainly plays modern gypsy jazz . So far he has made a name for himself as a virtuoso on the acoustic guitar , especially in this genre .

Live and act

Stephan learned to play guitar at the age of six, first from his father, before he received classical guitar lessons up to the age of 14. In 1993 he won first prize at the state competition Jugend musiziert . He then began to be more interested in jazz and rock and took jazz guitar lessons. In 1993 and 1995 he also won two first prizes at the state youth jazz competition . In contrast to many other representatives of gypsy jazz (also known as gypsy jazz), Stephan does not come from a family of musicians from the Sinti and Roma (although his grandfather was Roma ), but rather discovered the music of the gypsy jazz guitarist Django by chance as a teenager Reinhardt and at its stylistic suitable as a basis for their own solo game autodidactically to. Other influences come mainly from blues , rock , country and Latin jazz .

In 1997, Stephan made his first appearance as a newcomer at the Django Reinhardt Memorial Festival in Augsburg. Two years later he managed to release his official debut Swinging Strings on the Acoustic Music Records label of guitarist Peter Finger . The album, which received international attention in particular because of the technical skills of the then 20-year-old, was voted CD of the month by the American magazine Guitar Player in July 2000 . The American Acoustic Guitar Magazine wrote in its May 2004 issue that Joscho Stephan represented the future of the gypsy jazz guitar.

Stephan tours regularly internationally with his own ensemble. His father Günter Stephan works on the rhythm guitar. Other permanent members of his ensemble are Sebastian Reimann (violin) and Volker Kamp (double bass). Stephan has performed at many well-known jazz festivals and as a guest musician or partner at the side of musicians such as Paquito D'Rivera , James Carter , Charlie Mariano , Grady Tate and Tommy Emmanuel . A collaboration with the Klezmer clarinetist Helmut Eisel has developed since 2009, which resulted in the Joscho Stephan & Helmut Eisel Quartet . He has also been working with Matthias Strucken since 2016 .

Stephan's main instrument for the stage is a fully acoustic gypsy jazz guitar with a D-shaped soundhole by the German guitar maker Jürgen Volkert. Stephan has been running a large e-learning platform on the subject of gypsy guitars since 2013 .

Discographic notes

  • 1999: Swinging Strings
  • 2001: Swing News
  • 2003: Django Forever
  • 2006: Acoustic Live
  • 2010: Django Nuevo
  • 2011: Gypsy meets Jazz with Olivier Holland
  • 2012: Gypsy meets the Klezmer with Helmut Eisel
  • 2014: Gypsy meets Groove with Olivier Holland
  • 2014: Joscho Stephan's Acoustic Rhythm
  • 2015: Guitar Heroes feat. Tommy Emmanuel , Biréli Lagrène & Stochelo Rosenberg

Web links

Commons : Joscho Stephan  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Joscho Stephan - Djangology" , acoustic guitar, Issue 5/2007
personal data
SURNAME Stephan, Joscho
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz guitarist and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Mönchengladbach , Germany