Theo Jorgensmann

Jörgensmann was born in 1948 in the town of Bottrop in the Western Rhur industrial region of Germany. Theo Jörgensmann is one of the most advanced modern free improvisers on his instrument, combining moody chamber jazz with hints of a modal hard bop sensibility. His work with the 'Bottrop Sextet' reveals that he continues to retain great affection for the town where he grew up. In the middle of the sixties he worked as a laboratory technician in a chemical laboratory. He started to play clarinet at the age of 18, taking private lessons from a music teacher at Folkwang Academy of Music in Essen. His dedication to the clarinet as his only instrument was only briefly interrupted during a 15 month spell doing National Service, when he was asked to play soprano saxophone for the Army dance band. After the phase in the German Army, Jörgensmann worked with handicapped children and studied several of semesters social pedagogics and computer science.  The distinctive tonal quality of Jörgenmann’s playing owes something to his choice of clarinet. Many of his albums, available on hatOLOGY, were recorded using a straight basset clarinet in Bb, made by Harald Hüyng, a pupil of the great Herbert Wurlitzer. This clarinet, although an Oehler System, would have some essential similarities to that played by Stadler when playing the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in the 1780’s. It has extended keywork to enable an additional D and C at the bottom of its range. In 2008, however, Jörgensmann switched from his basset clarinet in Bb to a Low G clarinet, built by another pupil of Herbert Wurlitzer, Wolfgand Dietz. The special sound of his playing arises from the fact that Jörgensmann blows with less pressing of the teeth. As a result, he can play other phrasing and accents, as it is usually possible on the clarinet. It is thus more closely related with the 'hard bop' saxophonists. Jörgensmann made his first appearance at a major event as a member of the 'Contact Trio' with Michael Jullich at the 1972 Frankfurt Jazz Festival. During this period he began working with local musicians. He didn't become a professional musician until 1975. In the early 1970's Jörgensmann played in a Jazz Rock group which included the keyboard player Hendrik Schaper (later a member of Klaus Doldinger and Udo Lindenberg) and the drummer Udo Dahmen. At this time he used electronic effects pedals, such as fuzz, wah-wah and chorus. Probably he was one of the first clarinetists which electronically distorted their instrument. But by 1975 when he formed the clarinet ensemble, 'Clarinet Contrast', he was interested in the pure acoustic sound of his instrument. 'Clarinet Contrast' included Bernd Konrad, Hans Kumpf and Michel Pilz as well as one of the musicians Jörgensmann had most admired when he first began playing clarinet, Perry Robinson. In 1975 he also founded his first Quartet, which end of the seventies was one of the most successful jazz bands in Germany. In 1977 the 'Theo Jörgensmann Quartet' performed as German representative at the festival of the European Broadcasting Union in Hilversum, Netherlands. Jörgensmann's exclusive focus on the clarinet has led him to form a succession of partnerships with other clarinet players and because of its commitment to the clarinet he was part of the Renaissance in the jazz and improvised music scene. In 1979 the influential European producer and music journalist, Joachim-Ernst Berendt helped Jörgensmann call together the members of the 'Clarinet Summit'. This was an all-star clarinet group with soloists: John Carter, Perry Robinson, Theo Jörgensmann, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky and Gianluigi Trovesi. John Carter and Theo Jörgensmann met each other at the Moers Jazz Festival in 1979. There they performed solo and as a duo on three days. Eckard Koltermann is another clarinetist who Jörgensmann has collaborated with on many occasions. As well as working together as the 'German Clarinet Duo' , in the mid 1980's they were both regular members of the clarinet ensemble CL 4, along with Lajos Dudas, Dieter Kühr, Eckard Koltermann and Gerald Doecke. By no means are all Jörgensmann's collaborations with clarinet players. As a young musician Jörgensmann also favoured to work in larger ensembles or duos. So he was member in the big bands of Andrea Centazzo, Willem van Manen, Michael Sell - Composer , Franz Koglmann and the 'Grubenklangorchester' and he also performed as a duo with pianist John Fischer from US, Dutch guitarist Jan Kuiper, German pianist Bernd Koppen, German poet Oskar Ansull, French bass clarinetist Denis Colin, German actor Bernt Hahn, German church organist Hans-Günther Wauer, Swiss pianist Daniel Ott, German performer Limpe Fuchs and Hungarian pianist Karoly Binder, with whom he recorded meanwhile 4 duo CDs. Jörgensmann is active as an improvisation theorist. He is convinced that improvised music is the most modern kind of music, since it has created a completely new kind of musician, an integral musician, who is conductor, composer and performer at the same time. „To find the right balance between communication of motion and non- communication is the major part of improvised music; that communication of motion as a part of interaction in music is an opportunity to create a new structure of time, which the listener could perceive as a new kind of musical space; that the idea of jazz does not depend on a specific material and special form; that the essential aspect of jazz is the fact that jazz musicians discovered the fourth dimension of time in music.“ Together with the musicologist and musician Rolf-Dieter Weyer, Jörgensmann wrote a philosophical book about improvisation "Kleine Ethik der Improvisation". As a lecturer Jörgensmann taught improvisation and clarinet at University of Duisburg between 1983 and 1993. At the same time, he hosted a radio program on jazz at West German Broadcasting. And from 1993 until 1997 he was a lecturer for free improvising at Music Therapeutics Institute of Witten/Herdecke University. Several of his recordings on the HatHut / hatOLOGY label are with the Theo Jörgensmann Quartet which consists of Theo Jörgensmann on clarinet, Christopher Dell on vibes, Christian Ramond on double bass and Klaus Kugel on drums. The quartet performed with Lee Konitz at the Muenster Jazz Festival 1999. Another regular partner has been Kent Carter, working together on the 'Theo Jörgensmann Workshop Sextet' (Charlie Mariano, Petras Vysaiauskas, Theo Jörgensmann, Karl Berger, Klaus Kugel, Kent Carter), as well as the 'Vysniauskas - Jorgensmann Quintet': (Petras Vysniauskas, Theo Jorgensmann, Andreas Willers, Kent Carter. Klaus Kugel) and the Riviere Composers' Pool.

Beyond that Jörgensmann had a collaboration with the younger musicians from Poland Marcin Oles and Bartlomiej "Brat" Oles since 2003. In 2009 Jörgensmann performed a few concerts with younger musicians from UK (Sebastian Rochford, Dominic Lash and Shabaka Hutchings ) in London. In 2010 Theo Jörgensmann and his wife became owner of the venue "Kulturknastfenster" in Brüel, Germany, where mostly concerts with chamber jazz and improvised music or art exhibitions take place about 5 - 6 times a year. Since 2011 he mostly played solo or in duo with the pianist Bernd Koppen and plays in the 'Theo Jorgensmann & Albrecht Maurer - Duo Melencolia' with violin player Albrecht Maurer. In 2011 he also formed a new trio - 'The Freedom Trio' - with bassist Christian Ramond and acoustic guitar player Hagen Studemann. Since 2014 he plays with Christopher Dell and Christian Ramond in the trio "art of making" which attempts to implement the concept of the „Holistic Jazz" with a European background. Theirs improvised music dissolves the contrast of such different musical elements as swing and pulsation; harmony and atonality or melody and noise. Currently Jorgensmann is also working with the "Clarinet Summit". The members of the group are Perry Robinson, Gianluigi Trovesi, Bernd Konrad, Albrecht Maurer, Sebastian Gramss and Günther "Baby" Sommer. He is also a member of the group "Contact 4tett" and he plays with the group "Kollektiv N", which was supported by the radio station NDR. Only musicians from northern Germany belong to "Kollektiv N". In 2018, Jörgensmann was artist in residence at Singers Festival Warsaw, the biggest festival of Jewish culture in Poland. Since 2015 Theo Jörgensmann has been working with guitarist Evert Brettschneider in Contact 4tett. The Contact 4tett is the successor band to the Contact Trio, which Jörgensmann founded in 1970. At the end of 1972 Theo Jörgensmann left the group. His successor as a soloist was Evert Brettschneider. Around 1984 the Contact Trio dissolved. In 2023 the Contact 4tett released a new CD entitled "Wundertüte" on the Jazzwerkstatt label in Berlin. Also in 2022 Theo Jörgensmann switched from the German to the French system and only plays a CONN alto clarinet from the 1960s.

Awards

Kunstförderpreis der Stadt Aachen (1980) - Kulturpreis der Stadt Bottrop (1991) Jazzpott Kulturpreis des Ruhrgebiets (2018)