Thomas Borgmann is a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 (Tenor-, Sopran-, Sopraninosaxophon

Sopranino saxophone

The sopranino saxophone is one of the smallest members of the saxophone family. A sopranino saxophone is tuned in the key of E, and sounds an octave above the alto saxophone. This saxophone has a sweet sound and although the sopranino is one of the least common of the saxophones in regular use...

) and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of Jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, 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...

 and free improvisation

Free improvisation

Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....

.

Biography

Borgmann began his career in the early 1980s, working mainly with the Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 Art Ensemble around Nick Steinhaus (participating in the 1981 Tour Southamerica for the Goethe-Institut

Goethe-Institut

The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...

, and the 1982 Nickelsdorfer Konfrontationen). He went on to the Sirone Sextet

Sirone (musician)

Norris Jones, better known as Sirone was an American jazz bassist and composer.-Biography:Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Sirone worked in Atlanta late in the 1950s and early in the 1960s with "The Group" alongside George Adams; he also recorded with R&B musicians such as Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson...

in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 (1987); the Hidden Quartet (with Dietmar Diesner, Erik Balke, and Jonas Akerblom); and Noise & Toys (with Valery Dudkin, Sascha Kondraschkin). In 1991, Borgmann founded the Orkestra Kith’N Kin (with Hans Reichel

Hans Reichel

Hans Reichel was a German improvisational guitarist, experimental luthier, inventor, and type designer.-Career:...

, John Tchicai

John Tchicai

John Martin Tchicai is a Danish jazz saxophonist. He was one of the earliest European free jazz musicians. He is of Danish and Congolese descent....

, Pat Thomas

Pat Thomas

Pat Thomas is an American football player. Thomas primarily played cornerback but also played at running back and placekicker. He attended Plano High School where he played on the 1971 state championship team. Thomas was an All-American player at Texas A&M University. He played in the NFL for the...

, 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...

, Mark Sanders, Lol Coxhill

Lol Coxhill

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...

 and others). Later he toured with his Quartet

Quartet

In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...

 Ruf der Heimat (founded in 1993 with Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, 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:...

, Willi Kellers, Christoph Winckel), and with the Trio

Trio (music)

Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...

 Blue Zoo (with Borah Bergman

Borah Bergman

Borah Bergman is an American free jazz pianist.Bergman learned clarinet as a child, and did not commence studies on piano until adulthood. He developed his left hand playing to the point where he became essentially ambidextrous as a pianist, and can play equally fast in both hands...

 and Brötzmann). Starting in 1984, and continuing until 1996, he organized the festival STAKKATO in Berlin.

In 1995, Borgmann began working with Wilber Morris

Wilber Morris

Wilber Morris was an American jazz double bass player and bandleader. He was the brother of the cornetist, composer, and conductor Butch Morris....

 and Denis Charles

Denis Charles

-Biography:Charles was born in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and first played bongos at age seven with local ensembles in the Virgin Islands. In 1945 he moved to New York, and gigged frequently around town. In 1954 he began working with Cecil Taylor, and the pair collaborated through 1958. Following...

, leading to the BMC-Trio. After Charles' death in 1998, Borgmann and Morris teamed with Reggie Nicholson in the "BMN-Trio", which continued performing until 2002. Borgmann also participated in the quartet Alliance with Petrowsky, DJ jayrope and Michael Griener.

Initially with Tony Buck

Tony Buck

Tony Buck is a drummer and percussionist. He graduated from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music , becoming involved in the Australian jazz scene....

 and Joe Williamson, Borgmann formed the trio "Boom Box". He continues to perform with the group, now playing with Willi Kellers and Akira Ando. He also continues to tour international Jazz festivals around the world.

During his career, Borgmann has taken part at concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

s, tours and recordings with artists including Caspar Brötzmann

Caspar Brötzmann

Caspar Brötzmann is an electric guitar player.While Brötzmann typically performs with the power trio lineup of Caspar Brötzmann Massaker , with guitar, bass guitar and drum set, he only uses rock and roll and heavy metal music as a basis for his music...

, André Jaume, Jason Kahn, Tony Buck

Tony Buck

Tony Buck is a drummer and percussionist. He graduated from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music , becoming involved in the Australian jazz scene....

, Paul Lytton

Paul Lytton

Paul Lytton is an English free jazz percussionist.Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from P.R. Desai. In 1969 he began experimenting with free improvisational music, working in a duo with saxophonist Evan Parker. After...

, Evan Parker

Evan Parker

Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...

, Conny Bauer

Conny Bauer

Konrad "Conny" Bauer is a free jazz trombonist. He is the brother of the trombonist Hannes Bauer....

, Johannes 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....

, Charles Gayle

Charles Gayle

Charles Gayle is a free jazz saxophonist, pianist, bass clarinetist, and percussionist.-Biography:Charles Gayle was born in Buffalo, New York. Some of Gayle's history is unclear. He was apparently homeless for approximately twenty years, playing saxophone on street corners and subway platforms...

, Lol Coxhill

Lol Coxhill

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...

, Phil Minton

Phil Minton

Phil Minton is a jazz/free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter.Minton is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook's group, Daniil Kharms and Joseph Brodsky with Simon Nabatov, and extracts from James Joyce's...

, William Parker

William Parker (musician)

William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...

, Jason Hwang, Heinz Sauer, Thurston Moore

Thurston Moore

Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...

, Enver Ismailov, Shoji Hano, Alexander von Schlippenbach

Alexander von Schlippenbach

Alexander von Schlippenbach is a German jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...

, Vladimir Chekasin, Rashied Bakr

Rashid Bakr (musician)

Rashid Bakr is an American free jazz drummer.During the 1970s he was active in the New York Loft Jazz scene, performing at venues such as Rashied Ali's "Ali's Alley" and Sam Rivers' "Studio Rivbea" as a member of Ensemble Muntu along with Jemeel Moondoc among others...

, Roy Campbell

Roy Campbell

Roy Campbell is the name of:* Roy Campbell , South African poet* Roy Campbell, Jr., jazz musician* Colonel Roy Campbell, character in the Metal Gear series of video games...

, Melvyn Poore, Perry Robinson

Perry Robinson

Perry Morris Robinson is an American jazz clarinetist and composer. He is the son of the noted composer Earl Robinson. -Biography:...

, Vattel Cherry, Kip Hanrahan

Kip Hanrahan

Kip Hanrahan is an American jazz music impresario, record producer and percussionist.-Biography:Hanrahan was born in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in the Bronx to an Irish-Jewish family. He has an unusual role in the albums released under his name, one which he has analogized to that of a film...

s Latin Groove and Jean-Paul Bourelly

Jean-Paul Bourelly

Jean-Paul Bourelly is an American jazz fusion and blues rock guitarist.Bourelly was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, his mother American and his father an immigrant from Haiti. Bourelly sang at the Lyric Opera when he was ten years old and learned piano and drums, picking up guitar by age...

.

In 1994 and 1996, Borgmann was winner of the Berlin Jazz-Grant.

Discography (Selected)

• boom box - jazz (2011), boom box (with Willi Kellers and Akira Ando), jazzwerkstatt, jw 106 (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...
  
  )
• Live at Tunnel (2000), BMN-Trio (with Wilber Morris and Reggie Nicholson), Qbico Records (Italy
  Italy
  Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
  
  )
• Cooler Suite (with Brötzmann, William Parker, and Rashied Bakr), Grob Records, Grob 539 LC 10292
• The Last Concert (with Wilber Morris and Denis Charles), Silkheart Records
  Silkheart Records
  - External links :* *...
  
  , SHCD 151 (USA)
• 'BMN Trio ...You See What We Sayin’? (with Wilber Morris and Reggie Nicholson), CIMP 188 (USA)
• Orkestra Kith'N Kin (with Hans Reichel, Lol Coxhill, Dietmar Diesner, Mark Sanders, Martin Mayes, Pat Thomas, Eric Balke, Jonas Ackerblom, and Christoph Winckel), Cadence Jazz Records
  Cadence Jazz Records
  Cadence Jazz is an American record label specializing in noncommercial jazz music. It is associated with Cadence Magazine.Cadence Jazz was founded by Bob Rusch in Redwood, New York in 1980...
  
   CJR 1081 (USA)
• Machine Kaput (with Peter Brötzmann, Willi Kellers, and Christoph Winckel), Ruf der Heimat KCD 5070

External links

• Website of Thomas Borgmann
• Entries for Thomas Borgmann Catalog of the German National Library
• Thomas Borgmann at Allmusic
• allaboutjazz.com: portrait
• Thomas Borgmann composition/scores at Free Music Production
  FMP (Free Music Production)
  Free Music Production is a German record label founded by Jost Gebers, Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald, and Alexander von Schlippenbach in 1969, specializing in free improvisation and free jazz, usually by European, often German musicians....
  
  
• Thomas Borgmann interview by Mike Heffley (The Five Horsemen of the Pre-Millennium), 2000, page 16 - 22