Matthias Bergmann – trumpet and flugelhorn
Matthias Bergmann (born 1972 in Emden) came to Cologne in 1997 after studying at the Conservatorium Hilversum / NL.
There he leads his own quartet with Hanno Busch, Cord Heineking and Jens Düppe, with whom he has released the highly acclaimed CDs “Pretend It’s A City” (2021, Float Music) “All the Light” (2016, Float Music) and “Still Time” (2008, jazz4ever).
He also regularly plays in duo formations with Clemens Orth (piano) and Oliver Schroer (church organ) and can be heard as co-leader in a quintet with saxophonist Raimund Moritz and guitarist Sandra Hempel as well as the North German Latin jazz band Tin Tin Deo and the drummerless Hammer/Bergmann/Senst Trio feat.
As a much sought-after sideman, he has appeared on over 80 jazz CD productions by Axel Fischbacher, Andre Nendza and Florian Ross, for example, and has toured extensively, including with the Florian Ross Sextet in India and Mexico and with the Christoph Eidens Band in China.
From 1998, he was a regular member of Peter Herbolzheimer’s legendary Rhythm Combination & Brass and is now a member of the Fuchsthone Orchestra and the Jorik Bergman Large Ensemble. He is also a co-founder of the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.
In addition to teaching trumpet at the Cologne University of Music and Dance and the Mainz University of Music, he gives workshops for trumpet, improvisation, combo playing and big band throughout Europe.
www.matthiasbergmann.com
Raimund Moritz – tenor and soprano saxophone
Raimund Moritz was born in 1971 in Brühl, Rhineland, where he first took clarinet lessons and then saxophone lessons from the age of 11. He gained his first jazz experience in the big bands of the local Max-Ernst-Gymnasium and in the jazz combos of the art and music school of the city of Brühl.
He took part in big band workshops under the direction of Peter Herbolzheimer, Bill Dobbins, Jerry van Rooyen, Erik van Lier, Bob Mintzer and others.
He has won first prize several times at the NRW state competition “Jugend jazzt” (in the solo and big band categories). This was followed by several years as a member of the LJJO North Rhine-Westphalia.
In the 1990s he studied jazz saxophone at the Hilversum Conservatory (NL) with Ferdinand Povel, Herman Schoonderwaldt and Jasper Blom.
He has lived in Oldenburg since 1998. Since then he has regularly collaborated (in concert) with musicians from the (North) German jazz scene.
Tours with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, his participation in the Nordwest Big Band and the Joe Dinkelbach Trio, a trio under his own name, currently the Bergmann/ Moritz Quintet feat. Sandra Hempel, a duo program with the pianist Elmar Braß, as well as the CBM Trio with the bassist Michael Bohn and the drummer Hannes Clauss, have taken him to stages in Germany and abroad.
He teaches at various music schools, the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and as a lecturer for the LAG Jazz Niedersachsen. He has also led youth big bands (including competition successes at state level).
www.moritzjazz.com
Sandra Hempel – guitar
Sandra Hempel grew up in Tornesch near Hamburg and played the accordion and piano for several years in her childhood and youth before switching to the guitar at the age of 15.
Shortly afterwards, she became interested in jazz and studied jazz guitar in Hamburg, Amsterdam and New York after graduating from high school.
Concert activities and CD recordings have taken her to Germany and abroad: with Steve Swallow, Herb Geller, Danny Gottlieb, Seamus Blake, Ingrid Jensen, Will Vinson, Nils Landgren, Wolfgang Schlüter, NDR Big Band, Bujazzo (directed by Peter Herbolzheimer) and the New Cool Collective Big Band/ NL.
Sandra currently plays in numerous jazz and jazz-related projects throughout northern Germany, including with the Lutz Krajenski Group, Dan Gottshall’s Artful Eariull, Operation Grandslam, Kosmischer Souverän, her own band, the Sandra Hempel 4- tett, and regularly with the Jazzbaltica Ensemble and the NDR Big Band.
She has taught at the Hochschule für Musik Osnabrück (2005-2009), Hamburg School of Music, at various jazz workshops and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
Prizes/awards: 2002 Louis Armstrong Award of the American ASCAP Foundation, 2007 Jazz Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Cultural Forum, 2011 Pinneberg Cultural Promotion Prize.
www.sandrahempel.de
Peter Schwebs – bass
Double bassist Peter Schwebs began his musical studies at the Hanover University of Music and Drama and then continued them at New York University on a Fullbright Scholarship. He was a member of the NDS state youth jazz orchestra “Windmachine”.
Peter Schwebs has received various prizes and awards, including an artist scholarship for music and composition from the state of Lower Saxony in 2011.
In addition to his own bands, he works as a sideman in various bands, including various formations of pianist Stefan Schultze (Schultzing, Oktoposse, Stefan Schultze Large Ensemble) as well as in various US formations such as Teo Macero’s Inner World Band. In 2010 he released his first album “Stories from Sugar Hill”.
www.peterschwebs.com
Christian Schoenefeldt – drums
Christian Schoenefeldt studied music at the conservatory in Hilversum (NL). He was a member of the NRW State Youth Jazz Orchestra for several years, with whom he toured India, Australia and South and Central America.
Since 1992 he has worked as a drummer in various jazz formations in Europe. He has worked with artists such as Benny Golson, Jimmy Woode, Herb Geller, Richie Beirach, Ian McDougle, Bobby Lamp, Bennie Bailey, Tony Lakatos, Dusko Goykovich, Doug Rainey and Peter Herbolzheimer.
Christian Schoenefeldt has won several prizes at the Jazzpodium with the “Joachim Raffel Sextett”, the “Winck-Büning-Schoenefeldt” trio, the “Hervé Jeanne Trio” and the “Volker Winck Quartett”. His artistic work is documented on numerous CDs. Schoenefeldt is a member of the Lower Saxony Jazz Orchestra and received the Lower Saxony Promotion Prize.
