Attila Zoller
Encyclopedia
Attila Cornelius Zoller was a Hungarian born Jazz guitarist
. He won Deutscher Filmpreis
for Beste Filmmusik (best score) in Germany for the film Das Brot der frühen Jahre in 1962.
, Hungary
, as a child Zoller was taught classical
violin
by his father, who was a professional
violinist
. In his teens, he switched to flugelhorn
, then bass
, and finally guitar
. Zoller quit school during the Russian occupation
of Hungary
following World War II
and began playing professionally in Budapest
jazz clubs. He escaped Hungary in 1948 just before the permanent Soviet
blockade of the country and began his serious music career after he moved to Vienna
in 1948. He formed a jazz group with the accordionist and vibraphonist
Vera Auer. Zoller left Austria
for Germany
in 1954, where he played with pianist
Jutta Hipp
, saxophonist Hans Koller and trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff
. Visiting American
musicians Oscar Pettiford
and Lee Konitz
found Zoller's work notable and they urged him to move to the US
which he did in 1959, after winning a scholarship to the Lenox School of Jazz. There he studied with Jim Hall
and roomed with Ornette Coleman
and Don Cherry
, whose influence sparked Zoller's interest in free jazz
.
Zoller played in drummer
Chico Hamilton
's group in 1960, with Benny Goodman
and flautist
Herbie Mann
from 1962-1965. He, in 1965, began leading a free jazz
-influenced group with the pianist Don Friedman
, and in 1968 co-led a group with Konitz and Mangelsdorff.
Zoller played and recorded with, among others, Tony Scott
, Stan Getz
, Red Norvo
, Jimmy Raney
, Herbie Hancock
, Ron Carter
, Shirley Scott
and Cal Tjader
. In addition to his activities on stage which take him regularly to the European
festival circuit, to Japan
and to the various US jazz clubs,
Zoller was the founding president of the Vermont Jazz Center (1985) where he also taught music until 1998. He, in 1995, received Lifetime Achievement Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts
for his lifelong musical contribution to jazz. He was also a designer
of musical instruments; he patented a bi-directional
pickup
for guitars in 1971 and helped design his own signature line of guitars with different companies. He died in Townshend
, Vermont
.
Jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music on the guitar using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied...
. He won Deutscher Filmpreis
Deutscher Filmpreis
The Deutscher Filmpreis is the highest German movie award. From 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, since 2005 the award has been given by the Deutsche Filmakademie...
for Beste Filmmusik (best score) in Germany for the film Das Brot der frühen Jahre in 1962.
Biography
Born in VisegrádVisegrád
Visegrád is a small castle town in Pest County, Hungary.Situated north of Budapest on the right bank of the Danube in the Danube Bend, Visegrád has a population 1,654 as of 2001...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, as a child Zoller was taught classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
by his father, who was a professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
violinist
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
. In his teens, he switched to flugelhorn
Flugelhorn
The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
, then bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, and finally guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. Zoller quit school during the Russian occupation
Occupation
Occupation may refer to:*Job , a regular activity performed for payment, that occupies one's time**Employment, a person under service of another by hire**Career, a course through life**Profession, a vocation founded upon specialized training...
of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and began playing professionally in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
jazz clubs. He escaped Hungary in 1948 just before the permanent Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
blockade of the country and began his serious music career after he moved to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1948. He formed a jazz group with the accordionist and vibraphonist
Vibraphonist
Notable players of the vibraphone include:* Peter Appleyard* Roy Ayers* Karl Berger* Jeff Berman* Jack Brokensha* Larry Bunker* Christian Burchard* Rusty Burge* Gary Burton* Joe Chambers* Teddy Charles* Salem Chiles* John Cocuzzi* Monte Croft...
Vera Auer. Zoller left Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
for Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1954, where he played with pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Jutta Hipp
Jutta Hipp
Jutta Hipp was a jazz pianist who also had some success as a painter. She mostly worked in bebop and cool jazz....
, saxophonist Hans Koller and trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff
Albert Mangelsdorff
Albert Mangelsdorff was one of the most accredited and innovative trombonists of modern jazz who became famous for his distinctive technique of playing multiphonics.-Biography:...
. Visiting American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musicians Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop.-Biography:...
and Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
found Zoller's work notable and they urged him to move to the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
which he did in 1959, after winning a scholarship to the Lenox School of Jazz. There he studied with Jim Hall
Jim Hall (musician)
James Stanley Hall is an American jazz guitarist.-Biography:Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hall moved to Los Angeles where he began to attract national, and then international, attention in the late 1950s...
and roomed with Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
and Don Cherry
Don Cherry (jazz)
Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...
, whose influence sparked Zoller's interest in free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
.
Zoller played in drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Chico Hamilton
Chico Hamilton
Chico Hamilton , is an American jazz drummer and bandleader.-Early life through 1960s:Hamilton was born in Los Angeles, California. He had a fast-track musical education in a band with Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Ernie Royal, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette and Jack Kelso...
's group in 1960, with Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
and flautist
Flautist
A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...
Herbie Mann
Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...
from 1962-1965. He, in 1965, began leading a free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
-influenced group with the pianist Don Friedman
Don Friedman
Donald Ernest Friedman , better known as Don Friedman, is a jazz pianist. On the West Coast, he performed with Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Buddy DeFranco and Ornette Coleman, among others, before moving to New York...
, and in 1968 co-led a group with Konitz and Mangelsdorff.
Zoller played and recorded with, among others, Tony Scott
Tony Scott
Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...
, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Red Norvo
Red Norvo
Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments...
, Jimmy Raney
Jimmy Raney
Jimmy Raney was an American jazz guitarist born in Louisville, Kentucky most notable for his work from 1951–1952 and 1962–1963 with Stan Getz and for his work from 1953–1954 with the Red Norvo trio, replacing Tal Farlow. In 1954 and 1955 he won the Down Beat critics poll for guitar...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Ron Carter
Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
, Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...
and Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
. In addition to his activities on stage which take him regularly to the European
European people
European people may refer to:*Ethnic groups in Europe*Demographics of Europe*people from Europe*people from the European Union*People outside of Europe of European descent** European African or White African**White American ***European American...
festival circuit, to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and to the various US jazz clubs,
Zoller was the founding president of the Vermont Jazz Center (1985) where he also taught music until 1998. He, in 1995, received Lifetime Achievement Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts
New England Foundation for the Arts
The New England Foundation for the Arts , headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of six not-for-profit regional arts organizations funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and by private foundations, corporations and individuals...
for his lifelong musical contribution to jazz. He was also a designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
of musical instruments; he patented a bi-directional
Bi-directional
Bi-directional may refer to:* Bi-directional text* Two-way communication* Bi-directional railway signalling* Controls at each end of a tram or railcar...
pickup
Pickup
Pickup, Pick up or Pick-up may refer to:-Technology:*Magnetic cartridge, also known as pickup, a transducer used for the playback of gramophone records on a turntable or phonograph...
for guitars in 1971 and helped design his own signature line of guitars with different companies. He died in Townshend
Townshend, Vermont
Townshend is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for the Townshend family, powerful figures in British politics...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
.
Awards
- Deutscher FilmpreisDeutscher FilmpreisThe Deutscher Filmpreis is the highest German movie award. From 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, since 2005 the award has been given by the Deutsche Filmakademie...
for Beste Filmmusik (best score) in Germany for the film Das Brot der frühen Jahre in 1962 - Lifetime Achievement Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts
Discography
- 1965: Zo-Ko-So (MPS) with Martial SolalMartial SolalMartial Solal is a French jazz pianist and composer, who is probably most widely known for the music he wrote for Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film À bout de souffle .-Biography:...
, Hans Koller - 1965: The Horizon Beyond (Emarcy/Act) with Don Friedman, Barre PhillipsBarre PhillipsBarre Phillips is a jazz and free improvisation bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he migrated to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972 he has been based in southern France....
Daniel HumairDaniel HumairDaniel Humair is a drummer, jazz composer and painter.He is widely renowned and became Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 1986.He has played with many jazz performers notably Martial Solal, Gerry Mulligan and Eric Dolphy.... - 1969: Gypsy Cry (Embryo RecordsEmbryo RecordsEmbryo Records was a jazz and rock record label founded by Herbie Mann as a division of Atlantic Records, itself distributed by the Atlantic subsidiary Cotillion Records. The label released albums in the years 1969 through 1977.-Discography:...
) - 1979: The K & K in New York (L & R) with Koller, George MrazGeorge MrazGeorge Mraz is a jazz bassist and alto saxophonist. He was a member of Oscar Peterson's group, and has worked with Stan Getz, Tommy Flanagan, Chet Baker and many other important jazz musicians...
- 1979: Common Cause with Ron CarterRon CarterRon Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
& Joe ChambersJoe ChambersJoe Chambers is an American jazz drummer, pianist, vibraphonist and composer. He attended the Philadelphia Conservatory for one year. In the 1960s and 70s Chambers gigged with many high-profile artists such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Lou Donaldson, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Giuffre... - 1986: Memories Of Pannonia (ENJA Records) with Mickael Formanek & Daniel Humair
- 1992: Live Highlights (Bhakti)
As sideman
With Shirley ScottShirley Scott
Shirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...
- Roll 'Em: Shirley Scott Plays the Big BandsRoll 'Em: Shirley Scott Plays the Big BandsRoll 'Em: Shirley Scott Plays the Big Bands is an album by American jazz organist Shirley Scott recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(Impulse!, 1966)
External links
- Attila Zoller discography at JazzDiscography.com
- Vermont Jazz Center on Zoller