Attila Zoller

Attila Cornelius Zoller (June 13, 1927 – January 25, 1998) was a Hungarian born Jazz guitarist. He won Deutscher Filmpreis for Beste Filmmusik (best score) in Germany for the film Das Brot der frühen Jahre in 1962.

Biography

Born in Visegrád, Hungary, as a child Zoller was taught classical violin by his father, who was a professional violinist. In his teens, he switched to flugelhorn, then bass, and finally guitar. Zoller quit school during the Russian occupation of Hungary following World War II and began playing professionally in Budapest jazz clubs. He escaped Hungary in 1948 just before the permanent Soviet blockade of the country and began his serious music career after he moved to Vienna in 1948. He formed a jazz group with the accordionist and vibraphonist Vera Auer. Zoller left Austria for Germany in 1954, where he played with pianist Jutta Hipp, saxophonist Hans Koller and trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff. Visiting American musicians Oscar Pettiford and Lee Konitz found Zoller's work notable and they urged him to move to the US which he did in 1959, after winning a scholarship to the Lenox School of Jazz. There he studied with Jim Hall and roomed with Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, whose influence sparked Zoller's interest in free jazz.

Zoller played in drummer Chico Hamilton's group in 1960, with Benny Goodman and flautist Herbie Mann from 1962-1965. He, in 1965, began leading a free jazz-influenced group with the pianist Don Friedman, and in 1968 co-led a group with Konitz and Mangelsdorff.

Zoller played and recorded with, among others, Tony Scott, Stan Getz, Red Norvo, Jimmy Raney, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Shirley Scott and Cal Tjader. In addition to his activities on stage which take him regularly to the European festival circuit, to Japan and to the various US jazz clubs,

Zoller was the founding president of the Vermont Jazz Center (1985) where he also taught music until 1998. He, in 1995, received Lifetime Achievement Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts for his lifelong musical contribution to jazz. He was also a designer of musical instruments; he patented a bi-directional pickup for guitars in 1971 and helped design his own signature line of guitars with different companies. He died in Townshend, Vermont.

Awards

• Deutscher Filmpreis for Beste Filmmusik (best score) in Germany for the film Das Brot der frühen Jahre in 1962
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts

Discography

• 1965: Zo-Ko-So (MPS) with Martial Solal, Hans Koller
• 1965: The Horizon Beyond (Emarcy/Act) with Don Friedman, Barre Phillips Daniel Humair
• 1969: Gypsy Cry (Embryo Records)
• 1979: The K & K in New York (L & R) with Koller, George Mraz
• 1979: Common Cause with Ron Carter & Joe Chambers
• 1986: Memories Of Pannonia (ENJA Records) with Mickael Formanek & Daniel Humair
• 1992: Live Highlights (Bhakti)

As sideman

With Shirley Scott

• Roll 'Em: Shirley Scott Plays the Big Bands (Impulse!, 1966)

External links

• Attila Zoller at Allmusic
• Attila Zoller discography at JazzDiscography.com
• Vermont Jazz Center on Zoller