Oliver Schwerdt

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Oliver Schwerdt (born 13 November 1979) is a German musicologist [1] and musician (piano, percussion) in the field of free improvisation. [2]

Contents

Academic career

Born in Eisenach, Schwerdt attended school in Eisenach until his university entrance qualification and received classical piano lessons at the municipal music school there. He did his military service as a piano accompanist in the training music corps of the German armed forces. He began his studies of music and cultural sciences as well as art history at the Leipzig University in 1999 and completed them in 2006 with a master's thesis on Georg Simmel and Dadaism submitted to Klaus Christian Köhnke  [ de ]. In 2012 he received his doctorate from Sebastian Klotz at the Institute for Musicology at the University of Leipzig  [ de ], for which he also worked as a lecturer. His dissertation focuses on the musical strategies of central actors in the scene of free improvised music in the wake of Free Jazz and their spatial theoretical interpretation. [3] He has taught at the Museum of Musical Instruments of Leipzig University [4] and with the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

From his musicological work, Schwerdt identified the challenge facing contemporary museum practice in relation to the "reinvention of the drum set combination" [5] as they are "in European improvised music" [6] of the 20th century became reality. He is committed to securing the "acutely endangered, historically so delicate, aesthetically highly fascinating and epistemologically valuable object complexes". [7] the first generation of European free jazz or contemporary improvised music. [8] As an author of music-critical articles, Schwerdt wrote for the Neue Musikzeitung , the Jazzthetik  [ de ] and the Jazzzeitung  [ de ], among others. He also wrote accompanying texts for albums by Günter Sommer/Wadada Leo Smith [9] and Alexander von Schlippenbach/Evan Parker/Paul Lovens [10] and Urs Leimgruber. [11] In 2003 he founded the publishing house Euphorium Productions. [12] [13]

Activity as a musician

Since 1999 Schwerdt has been artistic director of the EUPHORIUM_freakestra, a project ensemble between contemporary improvisation, jazz, Neue Musik and theatre with Günter Sommer, Friedrich Schenker, Rudi Mahall, Paul Rutherford, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Frank Möbus, Wadada Leo Smith, Axel Dörner, Barre Phillips, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Sven-Åke Johansson, Ulrich Gumpert, Manfred Hering, Dietmar Diesner, Roger Turner, Barry Guy, Akira Sakata and others worked together. [14] [15] [16] [17] At the 2009 33. Leipziger Jazztage, he performed with the project Transatlantic Freedom Suite Tentets at the Leipzig Opera. [18]

From the project ensemble the quartet ember with Urs Leimgruber developed, Alexander Schubert and Christian Lillinger. [19] From 2006 to 2016 Schwerdt worked with Lillinger and Petrowsky in the New Old Luten Trio. [20] The recording of Petrowsky's late works, documented from 2013 to 2015 with the albums Tumult!, Krawall!, Rabatz! in a quintet formation expanded by the double bassists John Edwards and Robert Landfermann received great attention. [21] With Schubert and Friedrich Kettlitz, Schwerdt operates the electrified Noise-Ensemble trnn. [22]

In 2006, Schwerdt received the Leipzig Jazz Young Talent Scholarship of the Marion-Ermer-Foundation for his performance as pianist and ensemble leader. [23] The critics Ken Waxman (Jazzword) and Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy) hear reminiscences of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Cecil Taylor [24] and Alexander von Schlippenbach in Schwerdt's piano playing. [25]

Schwerdt uses the following pseudonyms: Edithrakneff Weinermond, Frautastem!, Ingrid Ingulfwieher, Rita Deixis, Solveig Reberp-Klamt and Elan Pauer.

Discography

As leader

With Ember

With Euphorium Freakestra

With others

Publications

Further reading

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References

  1. ↑ Olshausen, Ulrich: Magier am Schlagzeug in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , 19 August 2013, Nr. 191, p. 32
  2. ↑ Archivierte Kopie at the Wayback Machine (archived 2014-08-13)
  3. ↑ Ott, Detlef: Baby Sommer XXL. Monografie über einen außergewöhnlichen Musiker in Jazzpodium, 62. Jg., Nr. 2, p. 7
  4. ↑ "Museum für Musikinstrumente der Universität Leipzig - Musikinstrumentenmuseum".
  5. ↑ Schwerdt, Oliver: Baby, the younger one, turned seventy. Seven colourful sentences on Günter Sommer in Alltag, Kunst und Wissenschaft in Jazzpodium, 62nd Vol., No. 9, p. 21
  6. ↑ Schwerdt, Oliver: Baby, the younger, turned seventy. Seven colourful movements on Günter Sommer in Alltag, Kunst und Wissenschaft in Jazzpodium, 62nd year, no. 9, p. 21
  7. ↑ Schwerdt, Oliver: Fortschritt springt – oder: Von welcher Revolution ich mit dem Schlagzeuger Günter ,Baby Sommer schreibe. Zu einem raumtheoretischen Aspekt der Erforschung des Zeitgenössischen Jazz bzw. der Frei Improvisierten Musik in Ernst Helmuth Flammer (ed.): Fortschritt, was ist das...?, Hofheim 2014, Wolke, S. 486
  8. ↑ Archivierte Kopie at the Wayback Machine (archived 2014-01-03)
  9. ↑ "INTAKT RECORDS Wadada Leo Smith, Günter Sommer. Wishdom in Time. INTAKT CD 128".
  10. ↑ "Intakt Records Alexander von Schlippenbach. Schlippenbach Trio. Bauhaus Dessau. Intakt Cd 183".
  11. ↑ "LEO RECORDS: CD LR 570: Urs Leimgruber - Chicago Solo".
  12. ↑ Scheiner, Michael: Überirdischer Auftrag. Labelporträt: Euphorium Records in Jazzzeitung, 34. Jg., Nr. 4-09, p. 23
  13. ↑ Dieckmann, Christoph: Woodstock am Karpfenteich. Man hat es fast vergessen: Die DDR war Weltmeister im Free Jazz in Die Zeit , 28 November 2013, Nr. 49, p. 65f.
  14. ↑ http://www.jazzword.com/reviews/105170; vgl. also Konrad, Jörg: Dal Ngai in Jazzpodium, 53. Jg., Nr. 5, S. 63; vgl. also Polaschegg, Nina: Dal Ngai in die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , 165. Jg., Nr. 5, p. 80
  15. ↑ vgl. auch Georgi, Steffen: Wie viel Freiheit lässt eine Sackgasse? in the Leipziger Volkszeitung , 117. Jg., Nr. 293, p. 11
  16. ↑ vgl. auch Steinmetzger, Ulrich: Dynamisiert. Euphorium freakestra entwickelt den Free Jazz weiter in Leipziger Volkszeitung, 118. Jg., Nr. 289, p. 11
  17. ↑ Archivierte Kopie at the Wayback Machine (archived 2013-12-20)
  18. ↑ Archivierte Kopie at the Wayback Machine (archived 2009-11-01); vgl. Steinmetzger, Ulrich: Große Inventur in Leipziger Volkszeitung, 115. Jg., Nr. 202, p. 10
  19. ↑ http://www.creativesourcesrec.com/catalog/catalog_167.html; vgl. also Wagner, Christoph: Oullh d'baham in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 168. Jg., Nr. 3, p. 89
  20. ↑ "Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky - der "dienstälteste Jazzer der DDR" wird 75 Jahre alt | NMZ - neue musikzeitung".
  21. ↑ Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Bestenliste 1-2018
  22. ↑ "Home". ahornfelder.de.
  23. ↑ "Jazzzeitung 2006/07: News".
  24. ↑ "One review | Jazzword".
  25. ↑ Rigobert Dittmann: Bad Alchemy Nr. 68, January 2011, p. 25ff.
  26. ↑ Mein Bauhausgang : eine Harzreise durch die moderne Architektur ; herausgegeben als Festschrift anlässlich des 10-jährigen Jubiläums der Führung Schwerdt am Bauhaus Dessau on WorlddCat
  27. ↑ Jubelheft für Baby : Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag Günter Sommers : 47 Beiträge von 46 beitragenden Individuen, zum Grossteil übergeben auf der Radebeuler Wilhelmshöhe während der Feier in der Nacht vom 24. zum 25. August 2013 on WorldCat
  28. ↑ Zur Konstitution, Repräsentation und Transformation des Räumlichen in der Musik : eine Untersuchung des von Günter Sommer musikalisch realisierten Symbol-, Instrumental- und Handlungs-Raums on WorldCat
  29. ↑ Geld und Unsinn, Georg Simmel und der Dadaismus : eine systematische Studie zu relativistischer Philosophie und Kunst on worldCat
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