Thomas Hufschmidt

Thomas Hufschmidt (born October 31, 1955 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ) is a German modern jazz pianist and composer. His father is the composer and church musician Wolfgang Hufschmidt .

Live and act

Hufschmidt had studied in Bonn , Essen and Hamburg and toured Europe with Noctett . He then played in the band Virgin's Dream , whose album "Sophisty" was awarded by the German Phono Academy in 1978. In the United States he attended clinics with Attila Zoller , Don Friedman and Walter Norris before working with musicians such as Jan Akkerman , Albert Mangelsdorff , Uli Beckerhoff , Tony Lakatos and Rick Abao . In 1986 he founded the group Tyron Park , which includes Lakatos (later Matthias Nadolny ) Sigi Busch (later Gunnar Plümer ) and Jo Thönes . He also led the group Quartet and Brass , with which he also toured for the Goethe-Institut , and worked in various formations by Wayne Bartlett, Ron Williams and Remy Filipovitch . He has also given concerts as a soloist, in a duo with the vibraphonist Stefan Bauer , in a quartet with Axel Zinowsky and in 2006 took part in the Essen performance of the jazz opera Escalator over the Hill conducted by Carla Bley .

Since 1990 Hufschmidt has been professor for jazz piano , theory and big band conducting at the Folkwang University in Essen . David Friedman , Kenny Wheeler , Nguyên Lê , Uli Beckerhoff and Norma Winstone took part in his big band projects . He also wrote theater, television and film music , for example for “Der Leibwächter” (1989; director: Adolf Winkelmann ).

More Than Four (Core 1991)
Pepila (Acoustic Music 1993)
Under Surface ( Laika Records 2005, with Matthias Nadolny, Gunnar Plümer, Jo Thönes, Stefan Bauer)
Cape Impressions (Laika Records 2012, with Ingo Senst and Thomas Alkier )

Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .