tickets:
regular: 14,- €uro
students, disabled persons: 7,- €uro
doors: 7.30 pm CET
concert starts:
approx. 8.00 pm CET
SCHMID’s HUHN, “one of the most interesting bands in the jazz metropolis of Cologne” (Jazzpodium), has cultivated its own unique sound in recent years, which deals with the connection between free improvisation and composition in a multi-layered way. Following their debut LP in 2014 and Golden Spheres (2018), the live album Layers (live) followed in 2022. The band, led by saxophonists Stefan Karl Schmid and Leonhard Huhn, performed on five consecutive evenings at Cologne’s legendary Subway club. The musical isolation experienced in the months prior to this is impressively vented here and seems like a liberating blow as the band enters a new creative period.
Stylistically eclectic, yet sonically coherent and with a wide range of timbres, the band produces music of highly intuitive interplay and virtuoso individuality. Schmid’s Huhn draws on the diverse backgrounds and influences of its energetic band members, combining post-bop, cool jazz, 20th-century chromaticism, avant-garde jazz, post-punk, and, for the first time, electronic sounds into a kind of crazy acoustic brew. The compositions are well thought-out, at once dark and full of energy. With Layers (live), Schmid’s Huhn creates a headstrong, multi-layered jazz that looks back respectfully while reaching toward the future with great determination.
Schmid’s Huhn has made a name for itself in recent years through numerous competitions and performances, including winning the composition and soloist prize at the Tremplin Jazz Festival in Avignon (FR) and multiple nominations for the New German Jazz Prize. Huhn and Schmid are also both recipients of the City of Cologne’s sponsorship award.
“The two of them do crazy things, their arrangements are sometimes so intricate that they remind you of Steve Coleman’s M-Base. On the other hand, rarely has the relaxed and lean playing style of cool jazz and West Coast been brought into the present better than by SCHMID’s HUHN.”
hr-online
“[…] a successful fusion of composition and free improvisation […] confidently filling the space between tradition and avant-garde, between control and freedom.”
Jazzpodium
German-Icelandic Stefan Karl Schmid (*1984) is a saxophonist and composer based in Cologne, Germany, where he works both nationally and internationally. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York on a Fulbright scholarship. He received his Master of Music in jazz composition from the Cologne University of Music and Dance in 2010. Prior to that, he completed a degree in music education and arts at the HfM Nuremberg in jazz saxophone, graduating with honors in both subjects. Schmid leads his own projects (Pyjama, Niaque, SJO\CGN), is a sought-after sideman (including Shannon Barnett Quartet, Reza Askari ROAR, Michel Reis Quartet) and was a member of the German National Youth Jazz Orchestra. With all these formations, he has toured numerous countries and performed at renowned concert venues and festivals. Schmid has worked with Michael Abene, Darcy James Argue, Theo Bleckmann, Till Brönner, John Hollenbeck, Kristjan Järvi, Joe Lovano, Ack Van Rooyen, the HR and WDR Big Bands, among others. He is currently a professor of jazz saxophone and ensemble at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts.
In addition to receiving a number of awards as a composer and saxophonist, Schmid was awarded the Composition Prize of the German Federal Jazz Orchestra, a scholarship from the City of Cologne (Kölner Jazzpreis), and the Jazz Prize of the City of Worms in 2013. Schmid was also awarded the Soloist Prize at the 2014 Européen Tremplin Jazz D’Avignon Contest in France.
https://www.stefankarlschmid.net
Leonhard Huhn (born 1986) works in the fields of jazz, improvised music, and contemporary music. From 2006 to 2011, he studied saxophone at the Cologne University of Music and Dance with Frank Gratkowski. In 2011, he released the CD Far East Suite in a duo with bassist Sebastian Gramss. As a scholarship holder, he traveled with the Trio CEL to the Palazzo Ricci in Montepulciano (Italy). Since 2012, he has been organizing the CELling concert series for improvised music with the Trio CEL. He performs in ensembles such as the Multiple Joyce Orchestra and the Polychrome Orchestra for contemporary music and improvisation, as well as working as a theater musician and instrumental teacher. He has performed at international festivals such as Langnau Jazz Nights, Burghausen Jazz Festival, Achtbrücken Musik Köln, and others. Collaborations with: Hayden Chisholm, Sidsel Endresen, David Friedman, Joe Gallardo, Frank Gratkowski, Gunter Hampel, Achim Kaufmann, Niels Klein, Robert Landfermann, Etienne Nillesen, Underkarl, Kenny Wheeler, and others.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Huhn
Born in Heppenheim and raised in Konstanz, Stefan Schönegg (*1986) studied classical double bass and jazz bass at the music academies in Cologne and Berlin. He currently lives and works in Cologne and is an active member of the scene at the intersection of improvised music, jazz, classical music, and avant-garde. He is also a founding member of the IMPAKT collective for improvised contemporary music, which also has its own label.
As a much sought-after sideman, Stefan tours internationally. He has worked with Arto Lindsay, Theo Bleckmann, Simon Nabatov, Eve Risser, Tom Rainey, Ingrid Laubrock, Sebastian Sternal, Jonas Burgwinkel, Philipp Zoubek, and Matthias Muche. In addition to his own ensembles ENSO and the octet BIG ENSO, he is intensively involved in projects such as the Eva Klesse Quartet, Totenhagen, Die Fichten, and the Simon Nabatov Trio.
https://www.stefanschoenegg.de
Fabian Arends (born 1990) lives in Cologne as a drummer and composer. Deutschlandfunk radio has repeatedly called Arends the “shooting star of the German jazz scene.” He gives concerts and workshops worldwide with numerous ensembles and has worked with musicians such as Lee Konitz, Thomas Morgan, Larry Goldings, Jacob Anderskov, Kasper Tranberg, Sebastian Gille, Simon Nabatov, Pablo Held, Robert Landfermann, Thomas Rückert, and others in recent years. In 2017, Arends was nominated for an Echo Jazz award for his album Levitate (Klaeng Records). This was followed by two releases from his latest band, Fosterchild (Tangible Music/2019) and Fosterchild – Dear Earthling (ILK/2019). In addition to his own bands, Arends works in Lucas Leidingers Aurora Trio, Reza Askari’s Roar, Jason Seizers Cinema Paradiso Quartet, the Fabian Dudek Quartet, and in a duo with David Helm. Arends is now increasingly expanding his sound spectrum with electronic sounds, focusing primarily on analog, modular synthesizers. In 2018, he was a scholarship holder of the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation. Fabian Arends has been teaching drums and improvisation at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart since 2016.
https://www.fabianarends.com
Supported by:
Ministerium fĂĽr Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
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