Conny Bauer
Encyclopedia
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...
trombonist. He is the brother of the trombonist Hannes Bauer
Hannes Bauer
Johannes "Hannes" Bauer is a trombonist of improvised music and free jazz from Germany. He is the brother of the trombonist Conny BauerSince 1979 he works as a freelance musician. He lives in Berlin....
.
As a student at senior high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in Sonneberg
Sonneberg
Sonneberg is a town in Thuringia, Germany, which is seat of the district Sonneberg.It has long been a centre of toy making and is still well known for this...
between 1957 and 1961, he was enthusiastic about modern music and dance genres such as swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
, boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie (dance)
Boogie-woogie is a form of swing dance and a form of blues piano playing.-Terminology:The name boogie-woogie is used mostly in Europe; the closest thing in the US is probably East Coast Swing. What today is called boogie-woogie would during the 1950s have been called rock'n'roll...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and rock 'n' roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, and taught himself to play 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...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. After leaving school with A-levels, he tried to play his music in several bands and was nicknamed "Conny" by his friends.
After recognising that he did not know enough about music to become a professional musician, Bauer studied modern dance music from 1964 to 1968 at the Carl Maria von Weber-Music school Conservatory
Hochschule für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber"
The "Carl Maria von Weber" College of Music is a college of music in Dresden, Germany.- History :...
in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. Because too many students wanted to study guitar, he entered the trombone class, having had some experience of playing the instrument. In 1968 he left the conservatory for Berlin to improve his skills with private lessons. From 1969 until 1971 he started his career as guitarist and singer in the band of Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky. He also began a career as a trombone soloist in 1970.
During the second half of the 1970s Bauer became a prominent jazz player in European free jazz
European free jazz
European free jazz is a part of the global free jazz scene with its own development and characteristics. It is hard to establish who are the founders of European free jazz because of the different developments in different European countries...
. He helped found numerous groups which influenced the development of jazz in East Germany: these included FEZ and its successive quartet and trio formations, the Doppelmoppel quartet, and Synopsis/Zentralquartett with Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Ulrich Gumpert and Günter "Baby" Sommer
Günter Sommer
Günter Baby Sommer is a German jazz drummer.He studied music in Dresden. He rose to fame in the GDR. He is part of the European free jazz avantgarde. He was part of the trio with Conny Bauer and Peter Kowald...
. In 1986 he toured Japan for several weeks, encountering numerous Japanese musicians. From 1988 to 1989 he directed the National Jazz Orchestra of the former East Germany. Since 1983 he has worked with artists such as Tadashi Endo, Sheryl Banks, Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley is an English free-jazz drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.-Biography:Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by age eight, he first began playing the drums at seventeen. While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960 he studied music...
, Derek Bailey, Maggie Nicols
Maggie Nicols
Maggie Nicols , is a Scottish free-jazz and improvising vocalist, dancer, and performer.-Early life and career:...
, Theo Jörgensmann
Theo Jörgensmann
Theodor Franz Jörgensmann is a jazz and free-improvising Basset clarinet player and composer. He has been a professional musician since 1975.-Activities:...
, Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
, Barre Phillips
Barre Phillips
Barre 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....
, Peter Kowald
Peter Kowald
Peter Kowald was a German free jazz musician.A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with a large number of European free jazz and American free-jazz players during his career, including Peter Brötzmann, Irène Schweizer, Karl Berger, Fred...
, Han Bennink
Han Bennink
Han Bennink is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano....
, Barry Altschul
Barry Altschul
Barry Altschul is a free jazz drummer who gained fame in the late 1960s with the pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea.-Biography:...
, Jay Oliver
Jay Oliver
Jay Oliver is an American jazz musician , composer, record producer, programmer & engineer; residing in Los Angeles. He began his professional music career at the age of 19 as the youngest member of Maynard Ferguson’s band...
, Louis Moholo
Louis Moholo
Louis Tebugo Moholo , is a South African jazz drummer.He formed The Blue Notes with Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani, Nikele Moyake, Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana, and emigrated to Europe with them in 1964, eventually settling in London, where he formed part of a South African exile community that made...
, Gerry Hemingway
Gerry Hemingway
Gerry Hemingway is an American jazz composer and percussionist.He has performed with Ernst Reijseger, Anthony Davis, Earl Howard, Leo Smith, George Lewis, Anthony Braxton, Ray Anderson, Mark Helias, Reggie Workman, Michael Moore, Oliver Lake, Marilyn Crispell, Christy Doran, John Wolf Brennan, Don...
, George Lewis
George Lewis (trombonist)
George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1971, and is a pioneer of computer music.- Biography :Lewis graduated from Yale University with a...
.
In 2004 Bauer was awarded the German SWR jazz prize especially for his solo recordings Hummelsummen. As unaccompanied soloist Bauer uses multiphonics, with matchless "circular breathing techniques" he conjures his own loops.
Discography
- Just for fun, FMP 0140 LP (1973)
- Synopsis, Amiga 855395 LP (1974)
- Auf der Elbe schwimmt ein rosa Krokodil, FMP 0240 LP (1974)
- FEZ, Amiga 855585 LP (1977)
- Was ist denn nun?, Konrad Bauer Trio, FMP 0780 LP (1979)
- Secret Points, Conny Bauer & Gianluigi TrovesiGianluigi Trovesithumb|200px|Gianluigi Trovesi in 2006.Gianluigi Trovesi is an Italian jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer.A native of Nembro near Bergamo in Lombardy, he studied harmony and counterpoint under Vittorio Fellegara. Since then he has been a major player in the Italian and European jazz scene....
, Dragon DRLP 21 LP (1979) - Konrad Bauer Solo, Amiga 855783 LP (1980)
- Round about Mittweida, Konrad Bauer Quartet, FMP 0980 LP (1982)
- Flüchtiges Glück, Konrad Bauer Solo, Riskant 4017 LP (1984) / EFA-CD 15713
- Reflections, Doppelmoppel, FMP CD 74 (1986)
- Jazzorchester der DDR, directed by Konrad Bauer, Amiga 856455 LP (1987)
- Live im Völkerschlachtdenkmal, Konrad Bauer Solo, Amiga 856439 LP (1988)
- Zentralquartett, ZOOM 2170 019 ADD (1990)
- Torontotöne, Konrad Bauer Solo, Victo CD 017 (1991)
- Three Wheels - Four Directions, Konrad Bauer Trio, Victo CD 023 (1992)
- Plié, Zentralquartett, Intakt CD 037 (1994)
- Bauer - Bauer, Intakt CD 040 (1995)
- Generations from (East) Germany, Conny Bauer with Joachim Kühn, Klangräume, LC 6035 (1995)
- Careless Love, Zentralquartett, Intakt CD 050 (1998)
- Aventure Québécoise, Doppelmoppel, Victo CD 065 (1999)
- Alice im Wunderland, Walfriede Schmitt with Konrad Bauer, Eulenspiegel Verlag (2000)
- News from Berlin, Aki TakaseAki Takaseis a critically acclaimed, award-winning Japanese jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:Raised in Tokyo, she studied music at Tohogakuen Music University. Starting in 1978, she performed and recorded in the USA with Lester Bowie, David Liebman, John Zorn and others...
, Konrad Bauer, Victo CD 081 (2002) - Between Heaven and Earth, Conrad Bauer, Peter KowaldPeter KowaldPeter Kowald was a German free jazz musician.A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with a large number of European free jazz and American free-jazz players during his career, including Peter Brötzmann, Irène Schweizer, Karl Berger, Fred...
, Günter Sommer, Intakt CD 079 (2003) - Hummelsummen, Conrad Bauer (solo), Intakt CD 085 (2003)