Tom Lorenz

Tom Lorenz (born August 19, 1959 in Düsseldorf ) is a German musician ( vibraphone , marimbaphone , percussion , synthesizer ) and composer of contemporary music .

Live and act

Tom Lorenz studied percussion as a major subject and piano as a minor at the Robert Schumann University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf from 1979 to 1984. In 1980 he was studying in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He also studied philosophy, history and education at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf from 1984 to 1988 . He was a member of the Percussion Ensemble Düsseldorf under the direction of Friedbert Haus (1981) and completed additional and postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Erich Bachträgl in the subjects of drums and music theory. From 1984 first WDR radio productions and concert recordings by his own ensembles.

Lorenz has been working with Frank Köllges since the early 1980s (including an appearance with the Adam Noidlt Missiles project at documenta11 in Kassel). After many years of collaboration with Jan Klare (alto sax, flute) in various bands and projects (duos, trios, quartets), they founded the avant-garde band Das Böse Ding in 1993 , which was later traded as a German jazz cult band by the specialist press and critics has been. Other members of this formation were Hartmut Kracht (bass) and Wolfgang Ekholt (drums). In 2002 he left the ensemble to devote himself to other projects, with other musical directions and more to contemporary composition.

Since it was founded in 2003, he has been a member of the James Choice Orchestra , from 2008 Multiple Choice , Moers Festival , (2005), MusikTriennale Köln (2007), an all-star ensemble from Cologne that combines contemporary orchestral music with improvisation. Continued cooperation with u. a. Nicolao Valiensi , Charlie Mariano , Rick Hollander , Gary Smulyan , Claudio Puntin , Ramesh Shotham , Rhani Krija , Axel Fischbacher , Manfred Schoof , Klaus Doldinger , Michael Heupel , Dieter Manderscheid , Frank Gratkowski , Angelika Niescier , Scott Fields , Lucas Schmid , Frank Kirchner , Peter Kunsek, Cécile Verny , Paul Shigihara , Scott Fields, Christoph Hillmann , Jesse Bennett, Heinrich von Kalnein , André Nendza , Paulo Cardoso , Wilbert de Joode and the composer Christian Wolff .

With the Ensemble Das böse Ding in 1999, as a German contribution from Deutschland Radio, Deutschland Funk, HR and WDR, he was the nominated music group to represent the new, innovative jazz of the German music scene across Europe at the EBU Festival in Karlovy Vary (CZ). (EBU: European Broadcast Union). At this festival all European countries (plus Canada) were represented with their nominated top ensembles of the respective domestic music scene with a group from their country (worldwide radio broadcast). In the same year the ensemble was seen both at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival with a live TV broadcast and at the International Music Festival Copenhagen (DK).

In 1995 he was co-founder of the Düsseldorf association “JID eV.” And, as program designer and concert manager, was jointly responsible for the artistic direction and booking in the “ Alten Schmiede ” Düsseldorf (Salzmannbau) for six years .

In the Heinrich Heine year 1997 he was the artistic director of an ensemble consisting of five musicians and three writers ( Peter K. Kirchhoff , Margot Schröder and Peter Maiwald ), who created the art form of "poetry & music" in a modern, contemporary form resumed. From 2001 he worked with the writer and poet Ingo Porschien and worked with him on a vibraphone solo program with literature reading at the Westfälischen-Musikfest-NRW.

With Wolf Doldinger, in whose ensemble "Wolf Doldinger's Sound of Jazz" he was musical director from 2002 to 2017 and recorded a CD, he toured the USA in 2004 and 2005 (including two times on the Day of German Unity in the German Embassy Washington, DC ).

With his long-time friend and musical companion Nicolao Valiensi , he has been developing a wide variety of musical projects since the mid-1990s. The duet "Rhenish-Tuscan Euphony" is currently on a stage tour. The Tom Lorenz Trio includes Christine Corvisier and Volker Heinze . Lorenz has so far published five CDs under his own name and is involved in other CD productions as a guest soloist (e.g. with the WDR Big Band).

He was also a member of the program advisory board in the “Network for New Improvised Music and Contemporary Music in NRW” and is a co-founder of the Düsseldorf Music Association Jazz in Düsseldorf eV (JiD). Since 1989 he has been writing and publishing compositions of contemporary music for solo instruments and ensembles.

He has been working with Ole Schmidt , Carl Ludwig Hübsch , Chris Weinheimer and Robert Schleisiek since 2000 in the composer group Post No Bills . In 1996 he won the 1st prize of the North Rhine-Westphalian music competition (Jazz-Match-NRW).

In 2000 and 2007 he was a guest soloist with the WDR Big Band, a. a. at the change of director of the WDR - Farewell to Fritz Pleitgen and inauguration of Monika Piel in the "Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal" of the Funkhaus am Wallrafplatz. Under the direction of Bernd Lechtenfeld , pieces by Jimi Hendrix , Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock and the jazz guitarist Hiram Bullock as a soloist could be heard.

Discography (selection)

• Yügong Live at Jazzfestival Kaarst , 1977
• The Cancer Tapes (with Michaela Corman), 1978
• The Clark Kent Band (with Jan Klare and Frank Michaelis), 1981
• Jan Klare / Tom Lorenz Quartet Das Böse Ding (Acoustic Music Records), 1994
• Das Böse Ding Cleanhappydirty (Acoustic Music Records), 1996
• Das Böse Ding Germ Germ (Acoustic Music Records), 1998
• Peter Kunsek - 21st Century Rag (Jive Music Austria) 1999
• Maria Bragança - New Brazilian Music , 1999
• Das Böse Ding ... versus Jerry Cotton (Kip Records), 2000
• Jan Klare / Eckard Koltermann - WDR Big Band Cologne (NRW JAZZ) 2000
• Post No Bills: Music for Chamber Ensemble, 2003
• Christian Wolff and Post No Bills: Exercise # 15, 2005
• Disguise - dwa , 2004
• Post No Bills - PNB 2005 plays Christian Wolff , 2005
• Sounds Of Jazz - Wolf Doldinger and best Friends (Topaz Music) 2006
• Stefan Michalke On the Road , 2008

Web links

• Tom Lorenz's website
• Internet presence of JiD e. V.
• Tom Lorenz at Discogs (English)
• YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/BillTscherno