Nils Wülker

	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Albums
	Up
	On

Nils Wülker in the Music Hall in Worpswede

Nils Wülker (born August 17, 1977 in Bonn ) is a German jazz musician (trumpet, composition), composer and producer.

Live and act

Wülker received piano lessons from the age of seven and trumpet lessons with a classical focus from the age of ten. In 1994 Nils Wülker attended a private school in the USA for one year as an ASSIST scholarship holder. There he discovered jazz and was influenced by acid jazz and Miles Davis . Back in Germany, Wülker soon played in the JugendJazzOrchester NRW , with which he took part in two tours to China in 1996 and 1998. In 1998, after graduating from high school, he studied at the "Hanns Eisler" University of Music in Berlin , which he successfully completed in 2002. In 2005 Nils Wülker founded his own record label ( Ear Treat Music ) before moving to Warner in 2015.

During his studies he played in the Federal Jazz Orchestra , representing in the RIAS Big Band , from 2001 in the ensemble of his university lecturer Nicolai Thärichen ("Thärichens Tentett"), but also in the Judy Niemack Group and in the Berlin Jazz Orchestra of Jiggs Whigham . Even before he finished his studies, he went to the studio with his own group to produce recordings. The resulting CD “High Spirits” went down in company history as the first release by a German jazz musician on Sony Music ; the second album was released as Space Night Vol. 10 by Sony. Wülker released further records from his band on his own label "EAR TREAT music". In his quintet he played with Jan von Klewitz on saxophone, Lars Duppler on piano, Dietmar Fuhr on bass and Jens Dohle on drums. In 2010 the band was expanded to include guitarists Arne Jansen and Edward Maclean on the electric bass; Benny Greb took over the position of drummer in 2012.

Nils Wülker Group

He also attracted attention through his compositions published on CD for the night program Space Night of the Bavarian Radio. In his compositions he combines the rhythmic and harmonic finesse of jazz with the melodic and groovy play of funk, rock and pop. His 2015 album Up features artists from other genres such as Jill Scott , Max Mutzke , Mocky , Xavier Naidoo , Craig Armstrong , Sasha , Ozark Henry , David McAlmont and Lauren Flynn . For his 2017 album ON, he worked with a. a. the hip-hop producers The Krauts and Marteria .

In addition to working with his own band, he also played with Lee Ritenour , Dave Grusin , Don Grusin , Wolfgang Schmid and William Kennedy as "Hang All Stars" and with Gregory Porter , Omara Portuondo , Dominic Miller , Klaus Doldinger , Joe Locke and Silje, among others Nergaard , Wolfgang Muthspiel , Ute Lemper , Marteria and Samy Deluxe , for whose album Dis where I come from he also produced the track Speech wie ich sprech in 2009 . In 2011 he was the director, arranger and composer of the 11-member JazzBaltica Ensemble, which included Donny McCaslin , Dave Douglas , Michael Wollny and Johannes Enders .

Since October 2017 Nils Wülker has had his own monthly radio show "OFFBEAT" on 917xfm.

In 2019 he was a member of the jury for the German Music Author Award.

Prizes and awards

In 2013 Wülker received the ECHO Jazz in the category “Instrumentalist of the year national brass instruments”. So far, Nils Wülker has received the German Jazz Award in Gold four times for the sales of his albums, in 2014 for his album Safely Falling , 2015 for his album Up , 2018 for his album On and 2019 for his album Just Here, Just Now . In 2015 he received the Hamburg Music Prize HANS as "Hamburg Musician of the Year". For his album Up , Nils Wülker was nominated again for the ECHO Jazz in 2016.