till brönner
Calling Till Brönner “the new aspiring German trumpet talent” is obsolete, since he has sold more records than any other German Jazz musician. He plays big time now and is well known in the New York Jazz circuit, which itself is top of the crop.”
Me Sounds/Rolling Stone
Born in 1971 in Viersen, Germany and raised in Rome, Italy, Till experienced his outset with the help of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker: hearing Bebop for the first time, Charlie Parker; that set the whole thing off for me. I was 13 years old and it was an almost erotic sensation. I thought that it was indecent. The music was like a woman having a go at me.
Till stems from a family of musicians; after a well-protected childhood, he enjoyed a classical education followed by a study of the Jazz trumpet at Cologne’s Music Academy. After only three semesters he convinced the leader of Berlin’s RIAS-Tanzorchester at an audition, taking his first hurdle at the age of 20. Only two years later, he raised more than one eyebrow with Generations of Jazz, being both a classic mainstream recording and his debut as a bandleader. The album won several awards: Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and Preis der Deutschen Plattenindustrie. By the time he released German Songs, his third album of old German film songs, arranged for Jazz quartet and classical orchestra, he was the talk of the trade.
Love (1998) was his debut album on Verve, and his first appearance as a jazz singer, followed by concert tours in Japan and a Gold Disc Award by the Japanese Swing Journal.
In 1999 he contributed as a songwriter and producer for Hildegard Knef’s album 17 Milimeter. In 2001 he was featured in the movie soundtrack for Jazz Seen (a movie about jazz photographer William Claxton). In 2005, his album That Summer reached rank 17 in the German pop charts (he’s now the best selling German jazz artist of all times). Brönner also wrote the movie soundtrack for Pepe Danquart’s Höllentour (English title: Hell On Wheels; a movie about the Tour de France bicycle race). The soundtrack was nominated for a German Movie Award in the category Best Music Score. In 2006 he released his album Oceana, recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Larry Klein (former producer of Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Peter Gabriel). Guest stars on Oceana are Madeleine Peyroux, Luciana Souza and the singing top model Carla Bruni (now Mrs. Nicolas Sarkozy!). In July of the same year he appeared at the Jazz Festival in Montreux (Switzerland). In 2007 Till won the Echo Award (equivalent to the Grammy Award) in Jazz Production (National and International).
In 2007 Till was part of the European concert tour of the project REUNION, featuring Chuck Loeb, Eric Marienthal, Till Brönner, Jim Beard, Tim Lefebvre, Dennis Chambers and special guest Michael Franks.
In March 2007 he produced The Jazz Album for legendary classical singer Thomas Quasthoff. The album won the Echo Award in the classical music category and was nominated for a Grammy.
In 2008 Till released his album Rio, produced by Grammy winner Larry Klein in Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles, and featuring guest vocalists Vanessa da Mata, Kurt Elling, Melody Gardot, Annie Lennox, Aimee Mann, Sergio Mendes, Milton Nascimento and Luciana Souza.
Brönner has worked with a lot of musicians of international fame such as Dave Brubeck, James Moody, Monty Alexander, Aki Takase, Joachim Kühn, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Ray Brown, Johnny Griffin, Ernie Watts, Klaus Doldinger, Nils Landgren, Al Foster and others.