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Alexander von Schlippenbach

Alexander von Schlippenbach - piano, composer

One of Europe's premier free jazz bandleaders, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach's music mixes free and contemporary classical elements, with his slashing solos often the link between the two in his compositions.

Schlippenbach formed The Globe Unity Orchestra in 1966 to perform the piece"Globe Unity,which had been commissioned by the Berliner Jazztage. He remained involved with the orchestra into the '80s.

Schlippenbach began taking lessons at eight, and studied at the Staatliche Hochschule for Musik in Cologne with composers Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Rudolf Petzold. He played with Gunther Hampel in 1963, and was in Manfred Schoof's quintet from 1964 to 1967.

Schlippenbach began heading various bands after 1967, among them 1970 trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens and a duo with Sven-Ake Johansson which they co-formed in 1976.

Schlippenbach has also given many solos performances.

In the late '80s, he formed the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, which has featured a number of esteemed European avant-garde jazz musicians including Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, KennyWheeler, Misha Mengelberg and Aki Takase.

During the 90`s Duo work with Tony Oxley, Sam Rivers and Aki Takase.

The year 1999 he started performance and radiorecording of Thelonius Monks complete works,(all the compositions) with Rudi Mahall and his group.

Awards: "Kunstpreis der Stadt Berlin "(1976)," Schallplattenpreise der UDJ"(1980/1981), "Albert Mangelsdorff Preis" (1994)

At present activity: "SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO" "MONKS CASINO" "GLOBE UNITY ORCHESTRA" "LOK.03" "PIANO SOLO " "DUO WITH AKI TAKASE "

The German Record Critics Award : "Monks Casino" 2005/3

The "SWR-Jazz Award" 2007

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8
Album Review

Rodrigo Amado The Bridge: Beyond The Margins

Read "Beyond The Margins" reviewed by John Sharpe


The Bridge may be one of the most potent all round units assembled by Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado. That is saying something considering his previous alliances with collaborators as varied as multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, trumpeter Peter Evans, trombonist Jeb Bishop and drummer Chris Corsano. This time out his partners read like an extract from an international free jazz who's who: German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, American drummer Gerry Hemingway and Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Beyond ...

10
Album Review

Rodrigo Amado: Beyond The Margins

Read "Beyond The Margins" reviewed by Troy Dostert


The aptly titled Beyond the Margins is just the latest entry in tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's burgeoning catalog, and it is certainly further proof that Amado is among the most exciting and accomplished practitioners of free music in the jazz world. Each new release seems to allow him to hone his craft with ever-greater precision, and with an even wider range of emotional resonances. And with a line-up of free jazz veterans that includes pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Ingebrigt ...

17
Album Review

Rodrigo Amado / The Bridge: Beyond The Margins

Read "Beyond The Margins" reviewed by Mark Corroto


You might think saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's quartet The Bridge is an allusion to Sonny Rollins' performing and recording hiatus between 1959 and 1961. One spent practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge which links Manhattan and Brooklyn. Besides the name, Amado's previous release, Refraction Solo Live At Church Of The Holy Ghost (Trost, 2022), his first unaccompanied recording, draws inspiration from Rollins' sound and references some of the great man's music. More likely, Amado's bridge is the span linking the ...

8
Album Review

François Carrier/Alexander von Schlippenbach/John Edwards/Michel Lambert: Unwalled

Read "Unwalled" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Don't you love it when a plan comes together? Even if the plan is totally improvised, as is that of Unwalled. The album is the first meeting between Canadian alto saxophonist François Carrier and German-born pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. The free jazz pioneer Schlippenbach was the founder of the Globe Unity Orchestra back in 1966, and it featured Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald, Han Bennink, Derek Bailey, Paul Lovens and Evan Parker, to name just a few of the future legends ...

Album Review

Alexander von Schlippenbach: Slow Pieces for Aki

Read "Slow Pieces for Aki" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Che Alexander von Schlippenbach non sia più il pianista incendiario e irriverente dei suoi anni d'oro, quando s'impose fra i padri nobili del radicalismo free di marca europea (ma anche per un bel po' dopo), lo sappiamo ormai da tempo. Questo suo nuovo lavoro solitario, dedicato alla moglie Aki Takase, ce lo conferma nella maniera più eloquente. Anzitutto un po' di date: il disco è stato inciso a Zurigo nel novembre 2019, quando Schlippenbach aveva passato da ...

4
Album Review

Alexander von Schlippenbach: Slow Pieces For Aki - Piano Solo

Read "Slow Pieces For Aki - Piano Solo" reviewed by John Sharpe


At the behest of his wife Aki Takase, fellow pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach presents 21 short unaccompanied tracks on Slow Pieces For Aki. It is only his fourth solo record in a career spanning over 50 years, during which he has blazed trails with both large ensembles, notably Globe Unity Orchestra, and small groups, in particular his trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens. This current work bears the strongest relationship to his two well- received volumes of Twelve Tone ...

7
Album Review

Alexander von Schlippenbach: Slow Pieces For Aki: Piano Solo

Read "Slow Pieces For Aki: Piano Solo" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach began recording in the 1950s. Twenty years into the new millennium, he continues to do so prolifically, with twenty-five albums under his own name listed on Wikipedia--a seeming short shrift; his three solo albums on the Intakt Records label from 2005 and 2012 somehow didn't make the list, suggesting there are more. His profile rose in the 1960s, with his work with the Global Unity Orchestra and a trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul ...

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108

Interview

Piano Icon Alexander Von Schlippenbach Interviewed at AAJ

Piano Icon Alexander Von Schlippenbach Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

This spring, Alexander von Schlippenbach celebrated his 70th birthday--on April 7th, 2008, to be precise. By way of celebration, he undertook a short tour of England in the company of Eddie Provost. On some dates von Schlippenbach and Provost each played a solo set and then played together; on others, Schlippenbach also played with Provost's trio, including bassist Joe Williamson and saxophonist Alan Wilkinson. Schlippenbach and Provost (minus the trio) played at Blackheath in south London, and the following day ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Unwalled

Fundacja Sluchaj
2023

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Beyond The Margins

Trost Records
2023

buy

Slow Pieces For Aki -...

Intakt Records
2020

buy

Slow Pieces for Aki

Intakt Records
2020

buy

Liminal Field

Not Two Records
2019

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