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Karl E. H. Seigfried

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT KARL'S
Karl is currently recording bass and guitar tracks for the new album by Calvin Weston, legendary drummer for Ornette Coleman, James "Blood" Ulmer, Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot, James Carter and many others. The album also features Hawkwind founding member Nik Turner on saxophone. Watch for it later this year on Imaginary Chicago Records.

Awards

Jazziz Editor's Choice - Top 10 Album of 2010 (Portrait of Jack Johnson)

DownBeat Four Stars (Portrait of Jack Johnson)

JazzEd New Notable CD Release (Portrait of Jack Johnson)

New York City Jazz Record Editor's Recommended New Release (Portrait of Jack Johnson)

Bass Musician Magazine New and Noteworthy CD Release (Portrait of Jack Johnson)

Diversity in Business Musical Pick of the Season (Portrait of Jack Johnson)

2007 Gallery 37/Downtown Sound Gallery (Chicago)
Composition/performance grant for Blue Rhizome

2006 WNUR-FM (Chicago) Jazz Show
Top 30 by airplay for the year (Criminal Mastermind)
Top 40 by DJ vote for the year (Criminal Mastermind)

2004 WNUR-FM (Chicago) Jazz Show
Top 20 by airplay for the year (Boykin, Seigfried, & Reed)

2003 Austin Chronicle Music Poll
Top 5 Swing Group (Lucky Strikes)
Top 5 Latin Group (Cubano Bop)

2002 Austin Chronicle Music Poll
Top 10 Jazz Group (Sarah Sharp Jazz Quintet)

1995 Jazz Society of Southern California
Jazz Award

1994 Clark Terry International Institute of Jazz Studies
Outstanding Bassist Award

Gear

ENDORSEMENTS
Velvet Strings

INSTRUMENTS
1890s Rubner Contrabass (The Rubner Rune Bass)
1980 Kramer Vanguard Bass Guitar
1966 Fender Mustang Fretless Bass Guitar
Epiphone Longhorn Bass Guitar
Ace Frehley Epiphone Les Paul Guitar
Taylor Koa Acoustic Guitar
Melobar Rattler Lap Steel Guitar


Tags

12
Album Review

Karl 2000: Karl 2000

Read "Karl 2000" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Imagine a melding of saxophonist Albert Ayler's frenetic pacing and saxophonist Peter Brötzmann's raw power and the result would be the thematic nature of Karl 2000's self-titled debut. Though saxophonist Daniel Rovin is billed as this power trio's co-leader, he is clearly the musical force throughout this collection. Along with eight original improvisations, Karl 2000 includes two covers that are unusual in selection and rendition. All of these pieces make for very challenging listening. Out of the gate, ...

229
Extended Analysis

Karl E. H. Seigfried: Portrait Of Jack Johnson

Read "Karl E. H. Seigfried: Portrait Of Jack Johnson" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Karl E.H. SeigfriedPortrait Of Jack JohnsonImaginary Chicago Records2010 Boxing and jazz don't seem like a natural fit, but the two disciplines share ideals at their cores. Both thrive on the unexpected and live as poetry in motion. Jazz musicians and boxers both work hard and long, spending hours and hours honing their skills so that they can be used in a spontaneous fashion when they are thrown into action, and both ...

357
Album Review

The New Quartet: Blue Rhizome

Read "Blue Rhizome" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


While it is etymologically implied that the avant-garde looks ahead, being the vanguard of musical development, composer and guitarist Karl E.H. Seigfried and his New Quartet emphasize the many traditions that melt together in the creation of new music. Siegfried's idea of the avant-garde is not that of a radically new beginning, but rather a refined net of traditions with the blues being the primary influence on his musical language. Thus, he chose to name the album Blue Rhizome, thereby ...

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2

Award / Grant

Chicago Jazz Musician Wins Religion Award

Chicago Jazz Musician Wins Religion Award

Source: Erin Fusco

jny: Chicago bassist, guitarist and composer Karl E. H. Seigfried has been awarded Best Religion Weblog 2014 for his website, The Norse Mythology Blog. This is the third straight year his blog has won the top spot in the international Weblog Awards. Karl is the only religion writer to have a triple win, and his site is now the first religion blog to enter the Hall of Fame in the world's longest-running blog awards. In addition to his twenty years ...

2

Award / Grant

Jazz Musician Wins International Religion Award

Jazz Musician Wins International Religion Award

Source: Erin Fusco

Chicago jazz musician Karl E. H. Seigfried wins International Weblog Award for “Best Religion Weblog” Chicago writer, musician and educator Karl E. H. Seigfried was named winner “Best Religion Weblog” in the thirteenth annual international Weblog Awards (2013.bloggi.es). The awards, announced March 24, cover thirty categories. It is the second consecutive win for Seigfried’s Norse Mythology Blog (norsemyth.org), which covers Norse myth and religion and features in-depth essays on all aspects of the mythology, as well as interviews with major ...

25

Award / Grant

Chicago Jazz Musician Wins International Religion Award

Chicago Jazz Musician Wins International Religion Award

Source: Karl E. H. Seigfried

The Norse Mythology Blog has won the international vote for Best Religion Weblog in the 2012 Weblog Awards. The blog features original articles and interviews by Chicago-based Norse mythologist Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried. Seigfried is also a critically-acclaimed jazz musician in Chicago. His 2010 album PORTRAIT OF JACK JOHNSON received four-star reviews from DownBeat and Jazz'n'More (Switzerland), and it was named a “Top Ten Album of 2010" by the editors of Jazziz. His next recording (due in Spring 2012) ...

A prolific, genre-defying Chicago musician working in and beyond the jazz, rock and classical idioms.
Chicago Weekly

Seigfried has formed collaborations that celebrate diversity and high-level musicianship.
Jazz Institute of Chicago Jazzgram

Seigfried’s got a clear, ringing tone and executes ideas exuberantly.
Madison Isthmus

Jazz fans will recognize Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried from his tenure on acoustic double bass but will be entertained to see his wizardry on electric guitar.
Centerstage Chicago

Some of the innovative jazz musicians who have come to public attention since the early 1990s are David Boykin, Karl E

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Primary Instrument

Bass

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

After earning degrees in Music Performance from University of California-San Diego and University of Wisconsin-Madison, Karl received his doctorate from University of Texas-Austin. His doctoral dissertation - "At Once Old-Timey and Avant-Garde": The Innovation and Influence of Wilbur Ware - remains the only scholarly work on the great Chicago bassist and was recently cited in Robin D. G. Kelley's Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original.

Through two of his bass teachers - New Music innovator Bertram Turetzky and jazz legend Richard Davis - Karl's lineage as a performer and pedagogue can be traced back through David Walter, Frederick Zimmermann, Hermann Reinshagen, Ludwig Manoly, Franz Simandl and Josef Hrabe to Wenzel Hause (1764-1847) of the Prague Conservatory, founder of the Prague School of double bass playing and teacher of the first-ever double bass class.

While living in San Diego, Karl studied with Carol Kaye, the legendary Los Angeles studio bassist of the 1960s who was a top bebop guitarist in the 1940s and 1950s. The late great Jimmy Cheatham was a beloved mentor - Karl was a featured soloist in his student ensembles at the University of California for several years. Also at UCSD, Karl performed in the improvisation ensemble led by Anthony Davis and worked on an independent study with George Lewis on the history of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians).

Karl teaches private lessons on both bass and guitar. His students have had great success in local and regional orchestra auditions - as well as performing at a high level in jazz combos and big bands - and won scholarships to prestigious university music programs. If you are interested in taking lessons in the Chicago area, you can reach him through the contact page at his website.

In addition to studying music, Karl earned a degree in literature (English, American and German) from University of California-San Diego and studied literature and art at Loyola University Chicago's Rome Center in Italy. His work as a Norse mythologist is featured at The Norse Mythology Blog.

FACULTY POSITIONS

Carthage College
Bass & Guitar Faculty

Loyola University Chicago - Continuum
Music & History Faculty

Newberry Library Seminars Program
Literature Faculty

Clinic/Workshop Information

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Karl 2000

Self Produced
2012

buy

Portrait Of Jack...

Unit Records
2010

buy

Blue Rhizome

Imaginary Chicago Records
2008

buy

Criminal Mastermind

Unit Records
2006

buy

Videos

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