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Pascal Niggenkemper

New York City-based German-French bassist, composer and improviser Pascal Niggenkemper is a performing and recording artist active on the creative music scene in the US and in Europe.

From 1999-2005 he was musically active in Cologne having studied jazz & classical double bass at the Hochschule für Musik. In 2005 he received the DAAD award and moved to New York.

From 2008 to 2010 Pascal led the PNTrio with Tyshawn Sorey and Robin Verheyen. (CD "pasàpas" Konnex 2008 & “urban creatures” JazzHausMusik 2010). The trio toured extensively in Europe performing at the Jazzcologne Festival, Jazzherbst Konstanz and at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Recordings for the WDR and the BR Radio.

In cooperation with Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin, Pascal formed the septet vision7 that performed at Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin, Vive le Jazz in Cologne, Jazz à la Cité in Paris and at the Pori Jazz in Finland. (CD ‘Lucky Prime’ clean feed records Sept 2013)

In September 2011 Pascal released with Simon Nabatov and Gerald Cleaver the CD/LP upcoming hurricane on NoBusiness Records which is listed among 'Albums of the year' 2011 in the 'The New York City Jazz Record'. The trio performed in Canada and the USA.

He recently recorded a new solo program called: ‘look with thine ears’ music for bass & preparations was premiered at the Jazzdor Festival in Strasbourg in November 2013. The CD was released in March 2015 on clean feed records. He performed for the France Musique radio broadcast by Anne Montaron called ‘a l’improviste’.

In 2014 he presented the double trio ‘le 7eme continent’ with the program ‘talking trash’ at the Vive le Jazz festival in Cologne, Germany and the concert was broadcast by WDR3 radio. Their CD was released in May 2016 on clean feed records and the group performed in France, Belgium and Germany.

Pascal is co-leading the groups baloni with Frantz Loriot viola and Joachim Badenhorst clarinets (CD ‘fremdenzimmer’ 2011, ‘Belleke’ 2014 & ‘Ripples’ 2015 clean feed records) PascAli a duo for two prepared basses with Sean Ali (CD ‘suspicious activity’ creative sources 2012) and Miner’s Pick with Thomas Heberer. (CD ‘miner’s pick’ FMR records 2014)

With friends, he curates in NY the house concert series ze couch, where every month artists meet to present their work.

Festival presence includes: Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin, Vision Festival New York, Umbrella Festival Chicago, Banlieues Bleues Paris, Strade del Cinema Aosta, météo Mulhouse, Jazzcologne, Jazz em Agosto Lisbon, Taktlos Zurich, Jazz à la Cité in Paris, ESCUCHA Madrid, Washington DC Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, Middelheim Antwerp, Grenzenlos Köln, undead Jazzfest NYC, D’Jazz Nevers, NewAdits Klagenfurt, Font New York, Music Unlimited Wels, Vive le Jazz Cologne, GONG Aarau, Konfrontationen Nickelsdorf, Ljubljana Jazz Festival etc...

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Album Review

From Wolves to Whales: Strandwal

Read "Strandwal" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


Il quartetto From Wolves to Whales, nome azzeccato per un significativo incontro di quattro personalità al vertice del jazz e dell'improvvisazione contemporanea, si era già proposto nel 2015 con il CD omonimo, dopo il rodaggio di tre concerti a Manhattan e a Brooklyn nel febbraio del 2014. Il sodalizio, imperniato sulla lunga frequentazione di Nate Wooley e Dave Rempis, aveva trovato nel prodigioso supporto di Pascal Niggenkemper e Chris Corsano l'ideale quadratura del gruppo. Se quella prima prova del quartetto ...

Album Review

Harris Eisenstadt Canada Day: Quartet Live

Read "Quartet Live" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


Il talento percussivo ma ancor più compositivo di Harris Eisenstadt viene confermato da questa incisione dal vivo, che la formazione modulare Canada Day—qui ridotta a quartetto—ha realizzato ad Avignone nel marzo 2018 durante un fortunato tour europeo. Anche se Eisenstadt ha approfondito tradizioni percussive sia africane che centroamericane, la sua musica non sfrutta queste suggestioni, preferendo la lingua franca del jazz internazionale contemporaneo, dove una scrittura sintetica ma solida apre fondali per improvvisazioni dei singoli, che si ...

1
Album Review

Pascal Niggenkemper Le 7éme Continent: Talking Trash

Read "Talking Trash" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Anni fa il contrabbassista e compositore franco-tedesco Pascal Niggenkemper ebbe modo di vedere alcuni documentari sulla spazzatura che invade gli oceani e, in alcuni casi, si ammassa a formare isole galleggianti, tanto da essere denominata “il settimo continente"; impressionato dalla cosa, pensò di realizzare un progetto musicale che “mettesse in musica questa realtà assurda." Il risultato di quella curiosa, ancorché drammatica suggestione è questo lavoro, anch'esso per vari aspetti piuttosto singolare. Niggenkemper ha infatti messo insieme una formazione ...

2
Album Review

Pascal Niggenkemper Vision7: Lucky Prime

Read "Lucky Prime" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Lucky Prime è il debutto discografico per i Vision 7 di Pascal Niggenkemper ed è album trasversale come pochi. In Lucky Prime avanguardia, free, musica da camera, contemporanea e sperimentale, noise si ritrovano in una sorta di camera di combustione lenta e inesorabile che rischia di esplodere al minimo respiro. Ma a caratterizzare in maniera del tutto unica l'album, a trasformarlo in un prisma dai molteplici riflessi è la mobilità dell'organico. Quando il settetto si muove compatto ...

6
Album Review

Pascal Niggenkemper Vision7: Lucky Prime

Read "Lucky Prime" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Vision 7 led by French-German bassist Pascal Niggenkemper is an ensemble that approaches modern-jazz, free-jazz and improvisation from a holistic perspective, including sensibilities framed on the respective artists personalities. The interconnecting motifs are vastly expressive, including Emile Lesbros' voice overlays, recitations, scat and function as an additional instrument. The band executes a parade of disparate angles, featuring renowned reedman Frank Gratkowski. With fractured theme-building escapades and some rough and tumble improv segments, the musicians ingrain a renegade outlook into the ...

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Album Review

Pascal Niggenkemper: Upcoming Hurricane

Read "Upcoming Hurricane" reviewed by John Sharpe


Since German/French bassist Pascal Niggenkemper moved to New York in 2005 he has become increasingly prominent on the contemporary scene. Alliances with Thomas Heberer’s Clarino on Klippe (Clean Feed, 2011), Joe Hertenstein’s HNH (Clean Feed, 2010), the cooperative polylemma (Red Toucan, 2011), and Jean Carla Rodea’s Azares, with whom he appeared at the 2010 Vision Festival, ensure a busy diary. Fortunately he still found time to wax Upcoming Hurricane with an accomplished multinational cast, completed by Russian pianist Simon Nabatov ...

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Album Review

Pascal Niggenkemper: Upcoming Hurricane

Read "Upcoming Hurricane" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Free jazz trios require an instigator--someone who will incite others to action, counteraction, or response. With the trio of double bassist Pascal Niggenkemper, Simon Nabatov, and Gerald Cleaver, there are three such instigators, and on Upcoming Hurricane, these the three musicians collaborate to create nearly a perfect storm.A relative newcomer, German-born Niggenkemper invited the two veterans for this improvisation session, and as such, he is the architect of these tracks. Certainly, his bass stands up as an equal ...

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Recording

Red Piano Records To Release "Cosmopolitan Greetings" From Frank Carlberg/Joe Morris/Pascal Niggenkemper/Luther Gray

Red Piano Records To Release "Cosmopolitan Greetings" From Frank Carlberg/Joe Morris/Pascal Niggenkemper/Luther Gray

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Available October 16, 2015 Brooklyn-based Red Piano Records is proud to announce the release of Cosmopolitan Greetings, a collective effort by four veterans of the improvised music scene. This album marks the recorded debut of this quartet, with a line up featuring guitar legend Joe Morris, pianist/composer Frank Carlberg, bass wizard Pascal Niggenkemper and unsung drum master Luther Gray, in a program of three Carlberg compositions, and three collective improvisations. In the liner notes Carlberg describes the genesis of Cosmopolitan ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Quartet Live

Clean Feed Records
2019

buy

Strandwal

Aerophonic Records
2019

buy

Talking Trash

Clean Feed Records
2017

buy

Lucky Prime

Clean Feed Records
2014

buy

Lucky Prime

Clean Feed Records
2013

buy

Upcoming Hurricane

NoBusiness Records
2012

buy

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