Tom Fronza

Tom Fronza (born Tomas Fronza on December 1, 1969 in Cles , Italy ) is a German music label owner and multi-instrumentalist whose main instrument is the didgeridoo .

In 1997 he began his professional musical career as a full-time street musician and founded the label Umlaut Recordings . He was one of the first full-time German street musicians with the main instrument didgeridoo and is still one of the very few professional German didgeridoo players.

In the following 8 years his field of activity shifted increasingly to stage and studio musicians . During this period, numerous own recordings and musical collaborations with well-known musicians such as Ramesh Shotham , Mark Gillespie , Hakim Ludin , Klaus der Geiger , Thomas Godoj , the Ensemble Samani and the Ensemble Egschiglen were created .

Since 1998 he has been teaching privately as a workshop leader and teacher for the didgeridoo. In addition to workshops and concerts throughout Europe and the USA, Tom Fronza also worked as a teacher in Western Australia. There he taught on behalf of the Ministry of Multicultural Affairs WA and in the Didgeridoobreath, Freemantle.

Tom Fronza's preferred musical styles can be found in world music , dub , drum and bass and dancehall . He likes to refer to this mix as "Internatural Nubeatz". His commitment as a guest and studio musician has also been in demand in the rock and pop area in recent years .

Together with Torsten Bugiel he founded the duo Drum 'n' Didg in 2002, a forerunner of the band Analogue Birds founded in 2004 by Tom Fronza .

In 2004 Tom Fronza received a grant from the F. Victor Rolff Foundation . In 2008 his project "NuBeatz for Neighbors" was funded by the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation and the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf.

Tom Fronza is also a bassist and percussionist .

Between 1999 and 2003 he learned to play the Indian tabla at the Open Jazz House School in Cologne and with Raul Sengupta . From 2008 to 2009 Tom Fronza was a permanent guest musician on two complete tours, as well as almost all festival gigs of the Thomas Godoj band. In 2007 there was a collaboration with the Polish band Miloopa and the American-Swiss producer Roli Mosimann ( Jojo Mayer , New Order , Celtic Frost and Faith No More ). Tom was on the "Chill Out Tour" 2013 bassist, percussionist and didgeridoo player for the Mark Gillespie Band.

Discography

1998 Laliya - Terre De Sacha, Laliya

1998 Fronza - Same, Umlaut Recordings

2000 Fronza - Same Spot, Different Place, Umlaut Recordings

2002 Fronza & Shotham - Ancient Skills For Modern Ears, Umlaut Recordings

2002 Frank Heinkel - To Be Frank, Open Roads

2003 Fronza & Bugiel aka Drum 'n' Didg - Analog Birds In A Digital Sky, Umlaut Recordings

2005 Underground Explosion - Vol. 4, Big Noise

2005 Analogue Birds - Little Creatures, Umlaut Recordings

2006 Analogue Birds - handnmouthmadedrumnbassdubbreaktrance, Umlaut Recordings

2007 Miloopa (PL) - Unicode, GigAnt

2008 Yidaki Compilation - Vol. 1, Windproject

2008 Thomas Godoj - Plan A (Platinum Edition), Sony

2011 Analogue Birds - IntraTransport, Umlaut Recordings

Web links

• Sound carrier by Tom Fronza in the catalog of the German National Library
• Recordings from Umlaut Recordings in the catalog of the German National Library
• www.umlaut.de
• Interview with Tom Fronza at Musiktipps24