Line Up by Lennie Tristano - Solo Transcription

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Over the last months I have been working on a famous solo by Lennie Tristano. The tune is called "Line Up" and is based on the chord progression of the Jazz standard "All of Me". Most notably, the recording is originally overdubbed on a bass and drums track, but also allegedly recorded at half speed an octave below and then sped up for the final recording. The timbre of the piano and the abundance of micro-accents within lines at the speed of the recording are obvious traces of this process.

I found it to be a compelling task to record the solo in the original tempo on tenor sax. It forced me e.g. to use circular breathing within the lines and to find alternate fingering combinations for difficult parts. I decided to retain the result of this eternal practice process in a video. Here it is:

ANIMA Interview - Jazzpodium

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The German Jazz Magazine "Jazzpodium" published a nice article about Philipp Brämswig and myself, our latest release ANIMA and our mutual development over the last years. Thanks to Dietrich Schlegel for the interview and the kind words. (click HERE to download article)

Shannon Barnett Quartet // past, present & future

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One of the most exciting projects I have the honor being part of is the fantastic Shannon Barnett Quartet with Shannon on trombone, David Helm on bass and Fabian Arends on drums. Three months ago we played two beautiful gigs at the PENG Festival in Essen and the KLAPSMÜHL in Mannheim. The WAZ newspaper wrote these kind words about our concert in Essen:

"Geradezu genial die australische Posaunistin Shannon Barnett, jüngstes Mitglied der WDR Big Band, die in subtilen Dialogen mit dem beeindruckenden Saxophonisten Stefan Karl Schmid den Modern Jazz neu definierte - große Kunst und die Entdeckung eines Festivals, das man schon jetzt nicht mehr missen möchte."

Now Shannon released a little EP on Bandcamp from a concert we did last year at the Loft in Cologne. Not only the cover art is worth having a look, also the music sounds very good. It can be examined/ purchased/ consumed HERE.
From the past through the present to the future: We are doing a 2 week Australia tour in October this year and afterwards we will record our first CD. I'm very much looking forward to this!

Subway Jazz Orchestra - PRIMAL SCREAM

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A few days ago the SUBWAY JAZZ ORCHESTRA released its debut album PRIMAL SCREAM on FLOAT MUSIC. It features 8 compositions by the 4 orchestra arrangers Johannes Ludwig, Jens Böckamp, Tobias Wember and myself. Everybody involved put a lot of effort in the working process and we are very pleased how it all came out. Thanks to the beautiful acoustics of the Kammermusiksaal at Deutschlandfunk, the masterful work of sound engineer Christian Heck and the great orchestra performance the CD is really audiolicious. More Info here.

Artwork by Nadine Targiel

Schmid/ Brämswig Quartet @ Dell Jazz 2015

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We had a great ANIMA CD release concert at DELL JAZZ Festival in Cologne, Delbrück feat. Matthias Nowak and Oliver Rehmann. Norbert Berghaus took some nice pictures of us - never played in a carpenter's shop before :-)

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

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Here are two nice feedbacks of all the playing and composing I have been doing over the last months. The first one is a review of my latest release STEFAN KARL SCHMID/ PHILIPP BRÄMSWIG - ANIMA by the fantastic author Hans-Jürgen Linke which appeared in the german magazine Jazzthetik and the other one is a look on a MICHEL REIS QUARTET concert we played as part of the Münsterland Festival on a beautiful castle in Kolvenburg. Check it out...

European Composers Scholarship (GEMA)

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This week I had the opportunity to participate in a great workshop by trombonist and composer Nils Wogram at the GEMA headquarters in Munich. The workshop was part of the EMAS-series conducted by the german GEMA. We had a great time discussing all kinds of music related topics and also got an inside view of the amazing work the GEMA is doing for us.

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