Klaus Paier & Florian Dohrmann
Biography Klaus Paier & Florian Dohrmann
Klaus Paier
is a tireless, style-integrating creator amidst the European jazz scene. This means enormous luck for jazz - and for the accordion!
Variable in style, beautiful in sound and innovative, that and much more can be said about the music of Klaus Paier. The Austrian artist (*1966) has chosen jazz, improvisation, and especially the accordion as a fascinating life task. Klaus Paier today? The musician already today can look back onto a remarkable wealth of works, although he is just within the creative process.
He definitely startet early enough. When seven years old, he received his first private accordion lessons. Already at twelve years old, he started writing his own compositions and performed publicly for the first time for a radio broadcast. Curiosity about self-created music was initiated. He began to intensively explore the musical and sound possibilities of the accordion. Especially jazz he found to be a source of inspiration, and he more and more turned toward corresponding compositions - and toward free improvisation. At that time, during the 1980ies, when it came to universities, he didn't have many choices but to complete mainly classical studies. He did so at the conservatory of the region (Kärntner Landeskonservatorium) in Klagenfurt. There he learned about classical music, composing, and also jazz. Having studied he for a few years gathered artistic as well as pedagogical experiences. That eventually inspired him to publish his own, three-part accordion course "The Accordion Book" in 2013.
Even more he was drawn to the stage. He formed ensembles and played his first jazz concert in 1993. In 1996 he founded a long-lasting jazz trio with bassist Stefan Gfrerrer and drummer Roman Werni. Their debut album, released in 1998, they simply called "Accordion". Paier initiated a bunch of bands and continued them many years. Long-term, fine-tuned cooperation for him mostly is the basis for sound exploration and innovation. Especially with the trio, the accordionist did much touring. In this combo and others, he travelled the whole world, for example Canada, the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Russia. On European stages he is a frequent guest. In 1999, Paier initiated his first duo with saxophonist and clarinetist Gerald Preinfalk. Since then, they have played numerous concerts and released two albums (More than Tango, 2000; Saion, 2006).
The year 2000 became an important turning point for Paier. He had discovered a new musical instrument in Paris one year before, the bandoneon. With that he began further expanding his creative and sound possiblities. He also had the idea to combine his trio with Gfrerrer and Werni with a string quartet and thus to create a completely new musical context. Back then, string quartets were not as present in genre-integrating areas of jazz, classical and world music as they are today. With their debut record "Movimiento" the original septet did some pioneer work. The music was received really well. It was Paier who finally convinced the string players to form a permanent quartet in 2004. It was the beginning of radio.string.quartet.vienna, that exists until today. Paier released two records as a soloist with them (radio.string.quartet feat. Klaus Paier, 2004; Radiotree, 2008). From that combination a duo with cellist Asja Valcic developed in 2009. Within ten years, several tours and four records, the two explored the possibilities of the accordion-cello-duo. Over the years, Paier received some nominations and awards. In Moscow, he was the first Austrian accordionist to be presented with the Silver Disc Award in 2011. In Austria, he was nominated several times for the Amadeus Award.
But Paier wasn't Paier, if he didn't keep on developing new things. Recently he combined his trio with Gferrer and Werni and the duo with Valcic into a new quartet. In 2018 they released the album "Cinema Scenes". Now in 2019 the accordionist has started two other bands. From the duos with Preinfalk and Valcic he formed a new trio. He created another duo with double bass player Florian Dohrmann, who has played with "David Orlowsky Trio" until the farewell tour in 2019. Tango and world music, jazz, improvisation and classical music, accordion and bandoneon, Paier for sure is going to further contribute substantially to shaping the European music scene. Not least, he likes performing as a soloist and has published a bunch of solo music. The recent list of 18 records and 24 books of sheet music is supposed to be continued. Since 2019, Paier even plays an accordion that was manufactured corresponding to his specifications and is called "Passion". After many years of preparations he now has found the ideal music instrument.
Florian Dohrmann
Solo parts with style, walking bass with groove or a subtle song foundation: musician Florian Dohrmann has garnered a broad artistic spectrum through the years with his Benjamin Patočka- double bass from Bohemia. The double bass model with the warm, full sound is almost 120 years old (built in 1903), more than double the age of his human sound creator (*1972 in Tübingen) - but that corresponds excellently with innovative music. Maybe the strings (made by Gerold Genssler, Sonores) add the last refinement to the aesthetic sound - their core is made from silk.
Florian Dohrmanns ensembles integrate styles from jazz, soul and pop through classical and contemporary influences to klezmer and world music. There were moments and encounters in his life that turned his way to a certain direction. The enthusiastic piano student, who already saw himself on the classical concert stage, discovered the electronic bass, soon the double bass - and most important: jazz. Miles Davis' quintet records Cookin', Steamin' and Relaxin', all with Paul Chambers on double bass, brought him on his way. He decided to study jazz and pop at Stuttgart Music College (Musikhochschule Stuttgart). Thomas Stabenow became an important professor and mentor there, and outside of the music college, also Dieter Ilg. Among his idols, Dohrmann names senior jazz greats like Paul Chambers and Charlie Haden, but he was, and is, also inspired by other artists, for example Dave Holland or Lars Danielsson.
A first trio that lasted two decades came about, when he was 25 years old and finishing his studies. His cooperation with at that time only 16 year old, exceptional clarinetist David Orlowsky turned out to be an essential step toward big stages. There were two different guitarists, until from 2005 Jens- Uwe Popp became a long time member of the band. In 2019 the three played four sold-out farewell concerts at Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival. What they created until then, is well worth listening to (and seeing): several records (with Sony Classical), two ECHO Klassik awards (for Noema in 2008 and for Klezmer Kings - a tribute to Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras in 2015), the publication of many compositions (with Schott/Advance Music), and numerous concerts worldwide. At home in Germany, the trio with their special integration of Yiddish folklore, klezmer, classical music, jazz and other styles were frequent guests in concert halls and at big festivals, from Rheingau Musikfestival through Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival. Their concert tours equally led them into renowned Carnegie Hall in New York, to Ukraine and South Corea. Among the highlights are performances with orchestras like Kammerakademie Potsdam, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Aachen Symphonie Orchester, Nürnberger Symphonikern and Swedish Jonköping Sinfonietta. There they presented their trio music in large scale arrangements to an enthusiastic audience. Also worth listening to are their various
cooperations with musical partners as Avi Avital, Daniel Hope, Iveta Apkalna, Klaus Paier and many more.
From 2019 on new things were ahead! In the last few years Florian Dohrmann has initiated various ensembles. That means more space for the double bass, as it now can be heard more often than before with inventive solo parts. As he already did in the former trio and other, earlier bands, the bassist also writes pieces and arrangements. Already started in 2017, there is his jazz quartet Blank Page with Joachim Staudt (saxophone, clarinet), Christoph Neuhaus (guitar) and Lars Binder (drums). The four dedicated their debut to composer Claude Debussy, whose music once already inspired jazz legends like Duke Ellington and Bill Evans. For a wanderer between the styles as Dohrmann, that is an ideal starting point for a repertoire, that makes recognize Debussys influences, integrates, changes, adds to and expands them. Well-known compositions Claire de Lune or La fille aux cheveux de lin can be heard in a new style and sound, combined with other arrangements and original pieces. The bands debut New Impressions of Debussy was added to the second quarter of the year list of best musicians in 2019 (list 2/2019) of German Record Critics' Award (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik).
Together with Austrian accordion and bandoneon artist Klaus Paier, who already had performed earlier with David Orlowsky Trio, the bass player founded a fascinating new duo end of 2019. With a great amount of space and sovereignty these two, who both compose and like to improvise, vividly exchange ideas between bow and strings, buttons and reeds.
Dohrmann took on several functions at a time for the stage project Feeling Good? to honour extraordinary singer Nina Simone. Fascinated by her music and life he developed script, dialogues and show, light design as well as film projections, and invited artists to his ensemble, like Fola Dada, storyteller Katharina Eickhoff, Ulf Kleiner on piano, drummer Felix Schrack and guitarist Christoph Neuhaus. With excitement the premiere in Theaterhaus Stuttgart at festival Osterjazztage 2020 was awaited. Due to Covid it eventually had to be postponed to an unknown date, as many other concerts and performances since early 2020.
Dohrmann and his ensembles keep going further on their creative ways - in the now existing forms. As soon as it is possible, they intend to bring their repertoires to the audience live and on site. Already now one thing is sure: there is going to be more than one premiere!
