ACT | |
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Parent company | ACT Music + Vision |
Founded | 1992 |
Founder | Siegried Loch |
Distributor(s) | Allegro Distribution |
Genre | Jazz, blues |
Country of origin | Germany |
Location | Munich |
Official website | actmusic |
ACT is a German record label founded in 1992 by Siegfried Loch. [1] It is a division of ACT Music + Vision founded by Loch and Annette Humpe in 1988. ACT started as a pop music label but folded soon after it started. Loch turned it into a jazz label, at first reissuing music he had recorded for Liberty, Philips, and WEA before turning to new recordings. [2]
ACT's first release was the album Jazzpaña by Vince Mendoza and Arif Mardin and featured Michael Brecker, Al Di Meola, and Steve Khan. Though it earned two Grammy nominations, the artist that brought ACT Music to international attention was Swedish jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson, along with his collaborators Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund, who together formed e.s.t. [3] [4] e.s.t. released a string of acclaimed albums on ACT Music and are considered to have been highly influential on modern jazz music, as well as commercially successful. [5] [6] [7] [8] Though their commercial success in Europe was not replicated in the US, their impact was nevertheless such that they became the first European jazz musicians to feature on the cover of DownBeat . [7]
ACT was voted Label of the Year in the German Echo Jazz online poll four times in a row from 2010 to 2013. [9]
ACT artists include Marius Neset, Bugge Wesseltoft, Lars Danielsson, Viktoria Tolstoy, Vijay Iyer, Leszek Mozdzer, Iiro Rantala, Nils Landgren and Esbjörn Svensson Trio. [10]
Also: Esbjörn Svensson, Rigmor Gustafsson, and Ulf Wakenius. Artists contracted from other countries are the Norwegian saxophonists Geir Lysne, Tore Brunborg, Frøy Aagre, violinist Henning Kraggerud, the band In The Country, the Swedish pianist Jacob Karlzon, the Danish vocalist Cæcilie Norby, the Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine, the Austrian pianist David Helbock, the French drummer Manu Katché. German musicians on the label include Christian Muthspiel, Joachim Kühn, Christof Lauer, Wolfgang Haffner, and Michael Wollny (winner of the ECHO Jazz award in 2010 for best instrumentalist, piano/keyboards). [11]
ACT has recorded Nguyên Lê and Youn Sun Nah (winner of the Echo Jazz award in 2011 for best singer internationally), Jasper van't Hof, Simon Nabatov, and Paolo Fresu. [12]
Nils Landgren is a Swedish R&B, funk, and jazz trombone player and singer. He is known as The Man with the Red Horn because he plays a red trombone.
Esbjörn Svensson Trio was a Swedish jazz piano trio formed in 1993 consisting of Esbjörn Svensson (piano), Dan Berglund, and Magnus Öström (drums). Its music had classical, rock, pop, and techno elements. It listed classical composer Béla Bartók and rock band Radiohead as influences. Its style involved conventional jazz and the use of electronic effects and multitrack recording.
Bradford Alexander Mehldau is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Bror Fredrik "Esbjörn" Svensson was a Swedish jazz pianist and founder of the jazz group Esbjörn Svensson Trio, commonly known as e.s.t.
Winter in Venice is a studio album by Swedish jazz band Esbjörn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.), released in 1997. It was awarded the Swedish Grammy in 1998 for Best Jazz Album. It was released by the record label ACT Music.
Strange Place for Snow is a studio album by the Swedish group Esbjörn Svensson Trio released in 2002.
Leucocyte is a posthumous jazz album that Esbjörn Svensson Trio released on 30 September 2008 after pianist Esbjörn Svensson had died in June 2008.
Michael Wollny is a German jazz pianist and a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. He has played with international musicians including Joachim Kühn, Tamar Halperin, Marius Neset, Andreas Schaerer, Émile Parisien and Vincent Peirani, and recorded award-winning albums. In his Michael Wollny Trio, he has played with percussionist Eric Schaefer and bassist Tim Lefebvre.
This is a timeline documenting events of Jazz in the year 1964.
Room of Mirrors is the third album by Italian jazz musician and composer, Kekko Fornarelli, featuring his 'Kube' trio. It was released in 2011 by Auand records and was acknowledged by Fornarelli as a tribute to the late Swedish musician, Esbjörn Svensson.
Lina Nyberg is a Swedish jazz singer and composer. She has composed works for string quartet, big band, and symphony orchestra. She is married to the Swedish jazz clarinettist and saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist.
Phronesis is a jazz trio, formed in 2005 by Danish bass player Jasper Høiby. The piano trio is completed by British pianist Ivo Neame and Swedish drummer Anton Eger. Phronesis have been described by Jazzwise magazine as "the most exciting and imaginative piano trio since e.s.t. - Esbjörn Svensson Trio". In 2017 the band was awarded Jazz Ensemble of the Year in the APPJAG Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
Marius Søfteland Neset is a Norwegian jazz musician (saxophone) living in Copenhagen. He is known from collaborations within the jazz bands "People Are Machines", "Kaktusch", "JazzKamikaze" and Django Bates projects "StoRMChaser" big band and "Human Chain". He is the son of music teachers guitarist Terje Neset and pianist Anne Leni Søfteland Sæbø, and the brother of the vocalist Anna Søfteland Neset flautist Ingrid Søfteland Neset.
Vincent Peirani is a French jazz accordionist, vocalist and composer who has played internationally, collaborating with Denis Colin, François Jeanneau, Youn Sun Nah, Émile Parisien, Michel Portal, Louis Sclavis, and Michael Wollny, among others.
Dan Berglund is a Swedish musician who mainly plays the upright bass and is known within jazz and fusion.
Magnus Öström is a Swedish drummer, and known for being part of the first Esbjörn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.).
The Echo Jazz was a German music prize, an Echo Music Prize for personalities and production of jazz. It was awarded annually by the Deutsche Phono-Akademie between 2010 and 2018.
E.S.T. Live in London is an album by the Esbjörn Svensson Trio recorded at the Barbican Centre in 2005 and released on the ACT label in 2018 to mark the tenth anniversary of Esbjörn Svensson's death.
E.S.T. Symphony is an album of symphonic versions of compositions by the Esbjörn Svensson Trio which was recorded at the Stockholm Concert Hall in 2016 and released on the ACT label.
Siegfried "Siggi" Loch is a German record producer, a record industry executive, and the founder of the ACT Music record label. As both a producer and record label pioneer, Loch is considered to have had a significant impact on the exposure, development, and success of modern jazz music, particularly European jazz.