Walter Lang (musician, 1961)

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Walter Lang, before 2011

Walter Lang (born May 13, 1961 in Schwäbisch Gmünd ; † December 16, 2021 ) was a German pianist . He played in the Rick Hollander Quartet and in the Walter Lang Trio as well as in the Trio ELF.

Live and act

Lang came from a musical family. His father and grandfather already played the accordion and piano. His turn to jazz was inspired by Keith Jarrett . He studied jazz piano and composition at the Berklee School of Music in Boston . Due to the high costs, he was unable to continue the study conditions that he found ideal and instead graduated from the Amsterdam University of the Arts. In 1988 Walter Lang co-founded the renowned and internationally very successful Rick Hollander Quartet. The quartet won the “Europ 'Jazz Contest” in Hoeilaart in Belgium in 1990 and released numerous albums.

Walter Lang Trio

From 1999 he directed the Walter Lang Trio. Until 2007 Nicolas Thys played on bass and Rick Hollander on drums. Her publications include: B. Walter Lang Trio Plays Charles Chaplin (1999), Across the Universe (2002), Lotus Blossom (2003) and Softly As in a Morning Sunrise (2005). The Japanese jazz magazine Swing Journal awarded the CD The Sound Of A Rainbow (2005) the “Best Sounding CD Award” and the CD Romantische Strasse the “Gold Disc Award”. The trio toured particularly in Japan. In 2008 the Walter Lang Trio was re-formed: Thomas Markusson from Gothenburg , Sweden plays the double bass, the new drummer was Sebastian Merk from Berlin . They have released a total of five CDs with this line-up. In 2018 Magnus Öström came on for Merk.

Trio ELF

In 2005 he founded Trio ELF together with Gerwin Eisenhauer on drums and Sven Faller on double bass. The name ELF comes from the first letters of the musicians' names. The starting point for the sound was the encounter between the three jazz musicians and dance floor rave DJs under live conditions. Their first CD ELF was released in 2006 by Enja Records and was a great success. In September 2008 another album of this trio was released, 746. "Elfland", which features the singer Milton Nascimento , the first live album Amsterdam , the remix album RMXD and the first album with the new bassist Peter Cudek , Musicboxmusic , followed. The trio ELF also performed several times with big bands, for example in 2010 in Würzburg with the Würzburg Jazz Orchestra and in 2013 with the Markus Geiselhart Orchestra. The Brazilian Album was released in May 2018 with percussionist Marco Lobo.

Other Projects

Besides Trio ELF and the Walter Lang Trio, Lang's last projects were his world music project WPE (World Percussion Ensemble), Daktarimba (together with Njamy Sitson and Wolfgang Lackerschmid ) and the Shin'ya Fukumori Trio.

Lang performed in a duo and quartet with saxophonist Lee Konitz . He also played with other musicians such as James Moody , Chico Freeman , Don Menza , Lisa Wahlandt , Stefanie Schlesinger , Jenny Evans , Harald Rüschenbaum , Jason Seizer , Johannes Herrlich , Thomas Faist , Beate Kittsteiner , Philipp Weiss , Paula Morelenbaum , Michael Hornstein and Dusko Goykovich .

In January 2013, Lang's first book with the title "Elf Impressionen für Klavier" was published by music boox Verlag. There are 11 compositions that were specially arranged by Lang for solo piano. He was also a lecturer for piano at the music college in Regensburg and a lecturer for rhythm section at the Bavarian State Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Lang succumbed to a serious illness in December 2021 at the age of 60.

Discographic notes

  • Philipp Schiepek & Walter Lang: Cathedral ( ACT 2021)
  • Walter Lang Trio Tens , Enja Records 2020
  • Trio ELF & Marco Lobo The Brazilian Album Enja Records 2018
  • Trio ELF Musicboxmusic Enja Records 2016
  • Walter Lang Trio Full Circle Atelier Sawano, 2016
  • Daktarimba D'Afrique Hip Jazz 2015
  • Philipp Weiss & Walter Lang PWL Enja Records 2014
  • Walter Lang Trio Starlight Reflections Atelier Sawano, 2013
  • Trio ELF Elfland Enja Records 2010
  • Walter Lang Trio Eurasia M & I Records, 2009
  • Walter Lang Trio Best Master Qualities. M&I Records, 2009
  • Trio ELF 746 Enja Records 2008
  • Walter Lang & Lee Konitz Ashiya Pirouet Records 2007
  • Walter Lang Trio. Romantic road . M&I Records 2007
  • Walter Lang quintet. The Art of Romanticism . 1 Nagel-Heyer Records 2007
  • Baroque jazz trio. Jazz Meets Baroque 2006 . Birdland Records 2006
  • Trio eleven. Elf Enja Records 2006
  • Walter Lang Trio. Softly As in a Morning Sunrise . Nagel-Heyer Records, 2005
  • Lotus blossom . Pirouet Records 2003
  • Walter Lang Trio Plays Charlie Chaplin. PJ Records 1999

Publications

Lexical entries

Web links

Commons : Walter Lang (pianist)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bayerischer Rundfunk: On the death of jazz pianist Walter Lang: Feingefühl an der Keys | BR classic. December 17, 2021, accessed December 18, 2021 .
  2. a b New trio, new luck. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 22, 2020, accessed February 12, 2021 .
  3. Src: Portrait of Walter Lang as a musician in the program JazzFacts on Deutschlandfunk from September 13, 2018
  4. a b Discography of Trio ELF on cduniverse.com , accessed on October 19, 2014
  5. Article on Amsterdam (live) on allaboutjazz.com , accessed on October 19, 2017
  6. Trio ELF meets WJO - Hammer Baby Hammer , accessed on December 17, 2021
  7. Porgy & Bess: Trio ELF meets MGO , accessed on December 17, 2021
  8. Willi Staud: LJJB.DE Walter Lang. Retrieved March 4, 2020 .