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Welf Dorr

The Welf Dorr Unit combines free jazz spontaneity with the urgency of funk and rock inspired by the the motto “Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher”.
WDU, with Welf Dorr on alto sax/bass clarinet, Dave Ross on guitar, Dmitry Ishenko on bass and Joe Hertenstein on drums, was launched in 2012 with a performance at the Evolving Music Series run by Arts for Art (presenters of the Vision Festival) and since has played at clubs like nublu and the Red Hook Jazz Festival. Their debut record "Blood" was released in 2018 on Chant Records (online) and Creative Sources Recordings (CDs).

Underground Horns is Welf's other main project - a 6-piece brass band which special recipe includes some funk, jazz and hip hop spiced up with African and other world rhythms...MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE!
Ken Waxman reviewed their 2nd album BIG BEAT (2010) in The New York Jazz Record calling them "an unapologetic party band with brains...with tonal inflections from the Big Easy, central Africa, the Maghreb and the Baltic states".
UH performed internationally in Egypt, Germany and most recently at Tudo é Jazz in Brazil, stateside at the Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival, NYC Winter Jazz Festival, Dizzy’s (Jazz at Lincoln Center), the Blue Note and various Jam Band Festivals, sharing the bill with Rebirth Brass Band, Big Sam's Funky Nation and B.B. King.

Besides leading his own projects Welf is playing in Karl Berger's Improvisers Orchestra, Kenny Wollesen’s Himalayas, On Ka'a Davis and the Famous Original Djuke Players and was a member of the Nublu Orchestra conducted by the late Butch Morris (“You guys sound good”, David Murray).

Originally from Munich (Germany) he studied at Berklee before he moved 1995 to New York. Here he played and recorded a.o. with Frank Lacy, Sonny Simmons, Sabir Mateen, Kim Clark, Ronnie Drayton, Graham Haynes, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jeffrey Shurdut, Daniel Carter, Steve Swell, Lukas Ligeti, Vernon Reid, Juini Booth, Jojo Kuo and the Goldsparkle Brass Band.

1996 he founded Funk Monk with members from the US, Europe and Africa, a band that combined the hypnotic groove of hip hop with the complex harmonies of jazz. 1998 Funk Monk recorded their debut CD “Live at the Knitting Factory”.

In 2005 he recorded a concert with a quintet including Kenny Wollesen on drums and Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet released as FLOWERS FOR ALBERT.

Welf performed in the US, Europe, Mexico, Brazil and Egypt including festivals such as Willisau (Switzerland), Vision Festival or Celebrate Brooklyn as well as places as City Hall of New York.

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87
Album Review

Welf Dorr Unit: Blood

Read "Blood" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


NY-based, German saxophonist Welf Door pilots this exciting multinational quartet through hardcore jazz fusion, funk, and detours into the solar system via these impressive pieces, often executed with tenacity and forthright intentions. Essentially, the band packs a massive punch as they grind out a diverse track mix with plenty of flare-ups, embellished with progressive jazz lines and blistering improvisations. The band gets right to the point on the opener “Sympathicus," featuring Dave Ross' scorching electric guitar licks along ...

358
Album Review

Underground Horns: Funk Monk

Read "Funk Monk" reviewed by Elliott Simon


Alto saxophonist Welf Dorr has spent the last several years putting his own unique spin on the brass band, an instrumental lineup that is usually found in NYC crossing jazz with Balkan music. Although Dorr does look to Serbia for part of his musical muse he also draws heavily on a host of things including Afro-Cuban rhythms, funk and Thelonious Monk; thus the title of this release from his Underground Horns. Tubaist Joe Keady, who must have ...

200
Album Review

Welf Dorr: Flowers for Albert

Read "Flowers for Albert" reviewed by Celeste Sunderland


In 1905 Albert Einstein published three monumental papers. His theory on Brownian motion showed that minute particles in liquid move randomly; the photoelectric effect said that light can exist as either a wave or a particle; and special relativity states that the speed of light is constant, regardless of the observer's velocity. A hundred years later the United Nations declared 2005 the World Year of Physics and German-born alto saxophonist Welf Dorr played “Flowers For Albert, a ...

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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Blood

Chant Records
2018

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Funk Monk

Self Produced
2009

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Flowers for Albert

Self Produced
2006

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Videos

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