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Thomas Borgmann

Borgmann began his career in the early 1980s, working mainly with the Berlin Art Ensemble around Nick Steinhaus (participating in the 1981 Tour Southamerica for the Goethe-Institut, and the 1982 Nickelsdorfer Konfrontationen). He went on to the Sirone Sextet in New York (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, John Tchicai, Pat Thomas, Jay Oliver, Mark Sanders, Lol Coxhill and others). Later he toured with his Quartet Ruf der Heimat (founded in 1993 with Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Peter Brötzmann, Willi Kellers, Christoph Winckel), and with the Trio Blue Zoo (with Borah Bergman and Brötzmann). Starting in 1984, and continuing until 1996, he organized the festival STAKKATO in Berlin.

In 1995, Borgmann began working with Wilber Morris and Denis Charles, 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 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 concerts, tours and recordings with artists including Caspar Brötzmann, André Jaume, Jason Kahn, Tony Buck, Paul Lytton, Evan Parker, Conny Bauer, Johannes Bauer, Charles Gayle, Lol Coxhill, Phil Minton, William Parker, Jason Hwang, Heinz Sauer, Thurston Moore, Enver Ismailov, Shoji Hano, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Vladimir Chekasin, Rashied Bakr , Roy Campbell, Melvyn Poore, Perry Robinson, Vattel Cherry, Kip Hanrahans Latin Groove and Jean-Paul Bourelly.

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19
Album Review

Ruf Der Heimat: Secrets

Read "Secrets" reviewed by John Sharpe


Originally an outfit exploring perspectives on free jazz from either side of the Berlin Wall, Ruf Der Heimat continues to thrive on Secrets, only its fourth release over the near three decades since its 1992 birth. Leader and reedman Thomas Borgmann remains at the helm beside his longtime accomplice drummer Willi Kellers but, in the meantime, the former East German contingent of saxophonist Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky and bassist Christoph Winckel has departed to be replaced in the current incarnation by ...

29
Album Review

Keys and Screws: Some More Jazz

Read "Some More Jazz" reviewed by John Eyles


In Berlin, in June 2010, a trio calling themselves Boom Box recorded the album Jazz (Jazzwerkstatt, 2011) which was released to considerable acclaim; that group comprised Thomas Borgmann on tenor, soprano and sopranino saxophones plus harmonica, Akira Ando on double-bass and Willi Kellers on drums and percussion, each of whom penned two of the album's six tracks. Collaborations between Borgmann and Kellers date back at least as far as 1995, when they recorded the album Erste Heimat (Konnex, 1995) by ...

32
Album Review

Thomas Borgmann Trio: One For Cisco

Read "One For Cisco" reviewed by John Sharpe


This limited edition LP documents a collectively birthed exploration spread across the two sides by the visiting German pair of reedman Thomas Borgmann and long time associate drummer Willi Kellers, who team up with NYC bassist Max Johnson. The concert took place as part of the New York Tenor Saxophone Festival at Ibeam in 2015 organized by Cisco Bradley of Jazz Right Now fame, hence the title. The trio constitutes a favored format for Borgmann. He's helmed two killer outfits ...

298
Album Review

Boom Box: Jazz

Read "Jazz" reviewed by John Sharpe


Some might think there an element of presumption in titling a CD Jazz, but German saxophonist Thomas Borgmann gets right to the essence in this set by his Boom Box trio, with drummer Willi Kellers and bassist Akira Ando: spontaneous three-way conversations which swing. Borgmann has a back story that takes in iconoclasts such as saxophonists Peter Brotzmann and Charles Gayle, and pianist Borah Bergman, so the lyrical freedom which he purveys here may come as something of a surprise. ...

378
Album Review

Boom Box: Jazz

Read "Jazz" reviewed by Henry Smith


Free jazz can have some fairly antisocial connotations. Too often, the term raises an undeserved fear in the uninitiated, as freedom can be scary. That hardly necessitates that it lack beauty, lyricism or intimacy, however; it simply means that those traits are arrived at by organic means rather than controlled ones. Few artists understand the form's capability for such qualities as the three musicians comprising Boom Box. All veterans of the world, multi-reedist Thomas Borgmann, bassist Akira ...

449
Album Review

Boom Box: Jazz

Read "Jazz" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose


Inspired by the spirit of the great reeds and woodwinds player Eric Dolphy, Thomas Borgmann is not the only musician in Europe to become a Dolphy acolyte. Dolphy is, in fact, all but deified across the pond and it is not hard to understand why. In many ways he personifies not only the eternal, fluttering quality of the magic of music, but also its mysterious milieu, seeming to exist in each fleeting moment of its echo. It was also Dolphy, ...

457
Album Review

Boom Box: Jazz

Read "Jazz" reviewed by John Eyles


Surprises can come in the most unlikely guises and under the least likely names. Jazz is the latest example of that old maxim to never judge a book by its cover. The combination of the group name Boom Box--conjuring up images of hip-hop and oversized ghetto blasters--and a graphic style reminiscent of Peter Brötzmann albums does nothing to hint at the subtle delights to be found within. Fortunately, the album title itself is well chosen, acting as a counterweight to ...

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“(...)These three musicians have grown up in a world of music that has to some extent been defined by constant flux, constantly balancing the old traditions of craftsmanship, genre, and sound against more recent developments. Yet with “Jazz” they have produced a CD that bears no trace of this trend. Inspired by a mixed bag of ideas, they have created an altogether new product, packed with wholly surprising transformations and tremendous, absolutely original diversity. It can be heard right from the start with “Little Birds May Fly.” Borgmann’s soprano sax cultivates an unusual melodious quality and a delightful sound that is somehow childlike in its innocence. (...) This CD is undoubtedly free jazz. But it’s safe to say that nobody is expecting free jazz to sound like the music on this recording.” uli ohlshausen (frankfurter allgemeine zeitung) - CD booklet boom box

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Secrets

Jazzwerkstatt
2021

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Some More Jazz

NoBusiness Records
2020

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One For Cisco

NoBusiness Records
2016

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Nasty & Sweet

Recorded
2013

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Jazz

Jazzwerkstatt Berlin-brandenburg E.v.
2011

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Live In Poland

Recorded
2010

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Videos

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