Urs Voerkel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Urs Voerkel (born April 10, 1949 in Zurich ; † September 11, 1999 , there) was a Swiss jazz pianist .

Live and act

Voerkel, whose father was a classical double bass player, received piano lessons from childhood; under the impression of John Coltrane he turned to jazz. From 1969 he was a member of various jazz groups in the Zurich area, such as Infinite Impressions ( Jazz Festival Zurich 1970) or the group Formation (LP “Antithesis”, 1972; Jazz Festival Zurich 1973). In the early 1970s found the first encounters with musicians from the European free jazz as Evan Parker , Peter Kowald and Paul Lovens and Irène Schweizer , with the musicians in a residential community , lives instead. With Lovens he established a duo, which was occasionally expanded to a trio by Paul Rutherford . Part-time as a music therapist at the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zurich, he played in various musical contexts in the 1980s and 1990s: with Christoph Gallio and Peter K. Frey he formed the Trio Tiegel (CD 1981). From the late 1980s he played in a piano duo with Fredi Lüscher . He also appeared in various groups with Urs Blöchlinger ( e.g. in Heilige Bimbam , CD 1994). The quartet Four In One (with Nat Su on saxophone, Herbert Kramis on bass, I. Schweizer on drums) specialized in compositions by Thelonious Monk . Compositional fragments by Voerkel formed the basis for his trio with Daniel Studer and Marco Käppeli as well as a quartet with Gabriela Scherrer, Priska Walss and Jacques Widmer. He died in 1999 after a long illness.

According to Wilhelm E. Liefland , Voerkel was “one of those pianists of the jazz avant-garde who patiently and gradually dissolve the traditional piece forms and musical formulas from jazz and classical music ... Sometimes brooding, he plays analytically, but does not forget continuous drive . "

Prizes and awards

In 1973 he was honored as "best soloist" at the San Sebastian Jazz Festival.

Discographic notes

  • s'Gschänk (solo; LP FMP 0300, 1976)
  • Voerkel-Lovens-Frey (LP FMP 0340, 1976)
  • Voerkel- Luescher: Weiss (CD UTR 4043, 1991)
  • Voerkel-Lovens: Goldberg (LP Po Torch Rec, 1989)
  • Voerkel, Lovens, Schweizer, Scherrer, Walss, Widmer: Propinquity (CD Intakt 057, 1997/98)
  • Käppeli, Lüscher, Studer: Nomis (CD Altrisouni 1999)

literature

  • Nick Liebmann : A silent fighter: On the death of Zurich jazz pianist Urs Voerkel. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 213, September 14, 1999, p. 46.
  • Christian Rentsch: He went his way, obstinate and quiet: The Zurich pianist Urs Voerkel, one of the most unwieldy individualists in the European free jazz scene, died last Saturday at the age of 50, quietly as he lived. In: Tages-Anzeiger . September 13, 1999, p. 55.
  • Bruno Spoerri , Biographical Lexicon of Swiss Jazz CD supplement to: B. Spoerri (Hrsg.): Jazz in Switzerland. History and stories. Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0739-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trio Tiegel ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: gallio.ch, accessed on May 7, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gallio.ch
personal data
SURNAME Voerkel, Urs
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1999
Place of death Zurich