Till Brönner

Till Brönner (born May 6, 1971 in Viersen) is a German jazz musician, trumpet player, singer, composer, arranger and producer. He has a unique jazz approach influenced by bebop and fusion jazz, but also modern pop music, movie soundtracks (especially old German movies), country music and even German pop songs. His trumpet playing is primarily inspired by the listening experiences of Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie and Chet Baker. His most influential teachers were Bobby Shew and the internationally renowned chop doc Malte Burba.

Till was raised in Rome and received classical trumpet education at the Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn followed by a study of the jazz trumpet at the music academy in Cologne under professors Jiggs Whigham and Jon Eardley.

History

• 1989 - 1991: Member of the Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination & Brass.
• 1991 - 1998: At the age of only 20 he became solo trumpet player of the renowned RIAS Big Band Berlin under Horst Jankowski and Jiggs Whigham.
• 1993: First solo album "Generations of Jazz" (with Ray Brown, Jeff Hamilton, Frank Chastenier and Gregoire Peters) which won several awards: "Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik" and "Preis der Deutschen Plattenindustrie". Brönner 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.
• 1998: First album on Verve ("Love") with his first appearance as a jazz singer. Concert tours in Japan and a Gold Disc Award by the Japanese "Swing Journal".
• 1999: Song writer and producer for Hildegard Knef's album "17 Milimeter".
• 2001: Movie soundtrack for "Jazz Seen" (a movie about the jazz photographer William Claxton).
• 2002: Featured on single "Don't Let 'Em" by Rosie Gaines also featuring Snoop Dogg & Bootsy Collins.
• 2003: Concert tour with the soul singer Joy Denalane.
• 2005: The 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".

• 2006: Release of his most recent 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. In July he played at the famous Jazz Festival in Montreux (Switzerland). He has a guest appearance on Madeleine Peyroux's album "Half the Perfect World" and Vienna Teng's current album "Dreaming through the noise"
• 2007: He wins the "Echo Award" (equivalent to the Grammy Award) in Jazz Production (National and International). European concert tour with the band project REUNION, feat. Chuck Loeb, Eric Marienthal, Till Brönner, Jim Beard, Tim Lefebvre, Dennis Chambers and Michael Franks (special guest). In March 2007 he produced "The jazz album" for legendary classical singer Thomas Quasthoff, featuring pianist Alan Broadbent and drummer Peter Erskine. The album wins the "Echo Award" (equivalent to the Grammy Award) in the classical category and is nominated for a Grammy 2008.
• 2008: release of his new album "RIO". Produced by Grammy winner Larry Klein in Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles, with featured guest vocalists Vanessa da Mata, Kurt Elling, Melody Gardot, Annie Lennox, Aimee Mann, Sérgio Mendes, Milton Nascimento & Luciana Souza.
• 2009: nominated for a Grammy in category 47 for "Best instrumental Jazz solo" along with Terence Blanchard, James Moody, Pat Metheny, Gary Burton & Chick Corea for his Solo on the track "Seven steps to heaven" on the album "The Standard" by vocal group Take 6.

Discography

• 1993 Generations of Jazz
• 1995 My secret Love
• 1996 German Songs
• 1997 Midnight (with Michael Brecker and Dennis Chambers)
• 1998 Love
• 2000 Chattin with Chet (A Tribute to Chet Baker)
• 2001 Jazz Seen (O.S.T.)
• 2002 Get Well Soon (Bob Brookmeyer)
• 2002 Blue Eyed Soul (feat. Mark Murphy)
• 2004 That Summer
• 2004 Höllentour (O.S.T.)
• 2006 Oceana (feat. Carla Bruni, Madeleine Peyroux, Luciana Souza)
• 2007 The Christmas Album (feat. Curtis Stigers, Yvonne Catterfeld, Frank McComb, Kim Sanders, Don Grusin)
• 2008 RIO (feat. Vanessa da Mata, Kurt Elling, Melody Gardot, Annie Lennox, Aimee Mann, Sérgio Mendes, Milton Nascimento & Luciana Souza)
• 2009 Midnight
• 2010 At The End Of The Day (Island)

Live-DVD

• 2005 A Night In Berlin

External links

• official web site (in English, German)
• Till Brönner at Allmusic
• Till Brönner at All About Jazz
• Biography and Discography at JazzEcho (all tracks as RealAudio) (in German)
• Till Brönner at laut.de (in German)
• MySpace Till Brönner MySpace
• REUNION website
• Bam Bam Music / Management