Michael Wollny
Michael Wollny is an internationally successful jazz pianist, music inventor, unconventional thinker, popular figure. Nobody plays piano like him. His trademark: the unpredictable, the quest for the never-before-heard, the courage to devote himself to the moment, to make the unforeseen sound self-evident. His desire to keep reinventing himself, both in terms of sound and composition; that is what makes him a “consummate piano maestro” (FAZ) and “the biggest (jazz) musician personality that Germany has produced since Albert Mangelsdorff” (Hamburger Abendblatt). Wollny feels at home in many different formats: solo, in duo with musicians like Heinz Sauer, Vincent Peirani, Tamar Halperin or Konstantin Gropper, with the Michael Wollny Trio, the quartet „Out Of Land“ and many other collaborations with musicians from all kinds of musical directions such as Nils Landgren, Emile Parisien, the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Marius Neset, Leafcutter John or Joachim Kühn.
Since the debut album "call it [em]", the piano trio has been a constant format in Michael Wollny's musical universe. From beginning to present Wollny's Trio-Partner-in-Crime: Drummer Eric Schaefer, with whom he has spent almost two decades of playing, improvising and composing. The big breakthrough for the trio came in 2014 with the release of the album "Weltentraum". A real game changer that fascinatingly blends genres, epochs and styles of playing, from Coldplay over Schubert to Messiaen, from Monk to Evans. Since 2015, Swiss bassist Christian Weber has been a regular member of the trio and contributes as broad a range of expressions as his fellow musicians - from classic arc playing to free expression and deep grooves.
As of August 2020