STEFAN HEIDTMANN ...

... studied piano at the conservatory in Cologne. Projects as a pianist and composer between contemporary chamber music and open European jazz brought him together with ...
... Arkady Shilkloper, Albrecht Maurer, Gerd Dudek, Steffen Schorn, Carl-Ludwig Hübsch, Reiner Winterschladen, Roger Hanschel, Christian Ramond, Gabriele Hasler, Vitold Rek, Christian Bollmann, Dieter Manderscheid, Heribert Leuchter and many others.
With his Stefan Heidtmann Project he was a prize winner at the ‘jazz a r t’ festival in Cologne 2002. Since 2005 he is a member of the band windsleepers (with a.o. Strasbourg singer Christine Clément and Luxembourg saxophone-player Roby Glod).
2002 he toured Mexico with the Stefan Heidtmann Project (performances at the Euro-Jazz Festival Mexico-City, in Monterrey, Mérida and Campeche).
2006 he toured China with the Albrecht Maurer Quartet feat. Peter Schönfeldt and Klaus Kugel (concerts a.o. at the Nanjing Jazz Festival).

(BOOKABLE) ENSEMBLES:

I.
STEFAN HEIDTMANN PROJECT

LINE UP:

STEFAN HEIDTMANN / PIANO, COMPOSITION

REINER WINTERSCHLADEN / TRUMPET

GERD DUDEK / TENOR-SAXOPHONE

DIETER MANDERSCHEID / BASS

KLAUS KUGEL / DRUMS

Independent of space and time

The music of the Stefan Heidtmann Project is not easy to digest. Perhaps it’s jazz as the sum of influential traditions, modern European tone architecture, contemporary improvisation and a concentrated shot of the highest possible individuality. Bursting dynamics and spherical chamber sounds equally belong in the expressive spectrum of these seasoned individualists, as does the fixed change between composed dictates and the free power to design.
And thus the quintet does not rest in the latest jazz trends, which at the moment seems to be more interested in the appearances of female protagonists than in content. Really great music lives independently of space and time and doesn’t give a damn about dubious placements in the sales hit lists as if these had anything to do with the quality of a work of art. And great music that develops far away from all trends and obsessions is what the Stefan Heidtmann Project delivered at the last concert of the first International Autumn Jazz Festival in Dachau on Saturday in the Café Teufelhart.
Pianist Heidtmann, coming from classical music and responsible for half of the compositions, is not one of these unceasing, swinging, predictable hit makers. Very level-headed and economical, one almost wants to say hesitant, but not strained, he presses the keys and gives expression to an atmosphere, he enwraps the music, hovers as if appearing from another world, above his band.
Trumpeter Reiner Winterschladen, who is perhaps the secret star of the evening and member of the glorious NDR Bigband, blows his instrument perfectly; unchained on “Future Blues” and “Vu Du Al Pin”, he creates an unbelievable storm of energy, that takes everything along and can only find its way out the space with effort.
Gert Dudek played saxophone with Kurt Edelhagen in Cologne in 1960 (!) as one of his youngest saxophonists, before he traced the paths of John Coltrane. He holds experience and ability in balance, which search for a common vent in the form of individual creativity. Dieter Manderscheid, house bassist of the Cologne scene and Klaus Kugel on drums, know each other well indeed and give the music backbone and swing, cleverly leading the soloists through a labyrinth of provocative rhythms and soulful atmospheres.
Triumphing in this great form, the Stefan Heidtmann Project belongs to one of the very important voices in the contemporary music scene. Were it only a question of the music‘s quality, then a chart nomination would be certain. That not being the case, however, this wonderful concert remains, the finale of the International Autumn Jazz Festival in Dachau, a concert that fulfilled all expectations club-organized jazz has worn on its sleeves in the last three years.

JÖRG KONRAD • SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

Strong music. I especially appreciate the beautifil, always dangerous balance between melancholy and daring.

TOM R. SCHULZ • NDR (NORTH GERMAN RADIO CORPORATION)

An illustrious group. And it would not be remotely exaggerated to claim that there isn‘t much better in German jazz. Or in European. The music becomes most forceful when the classically instrumented quintet - trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums - pounces on a detail and enlarges it as if it were under a magnifying glass. Heidtmann‘s “Poem 4”, for instance, seems like an introduction stretched out extra long, a slow groping approach upon something that doesn‘t come. At another place, they will leave a thoroughly classical structure and suddenly, float freely in space for minutes, without an obvious bond to tact, pulse, melody, as if they wanted to extend a second into eternity. An enormous desire for unspent, iridescent sound is the fertile source of this attitude. The other is the longing (and the courage) to move into the form- and structureless, to go on a trip whose end is uncertain, in order to collect what one encounters with open ears. Together one calls them “jazz“.

TIM GORBAUCH • FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU

Thank you for your CD - it brought life to my Sunday today. It sounded rich and flowing (like that great river!); I know, I‘m going to enjoy listening to it many more times.

DJANGO BATES

Place to Breathe

Music means change. Playing a game with sounds and breaking through long-held listening patterns assume a bit of courage. In the musician as well as in the listener. Music also means working on details, the tiniest shifts, from whose sum the music continues to develop. Stefan Heidtmann is such a courageous detail worker.
The classical trained pianist and composer is not afraid of striking off on new paths with Gerd Dudek (tenor saxophone), Reiner Winterschladen (trumpet), Dieter Manderscheid (contrabass) and Klaus Kugel (drums). All done to further the development of modern European jazz. The project traveled together through Mexico in 2002. Impressions that were immortalized in memory have also found their reflection in the music. On the current album Hay que salir adelante – which means, approximately, “it (always) has to continue” – the impressions and convictions appear to unify.
One cannot expect easy fare, however. The first piece, which unifies three songs, “Dunst” [haze], “Cuauhhtémoc” and “Xotchimilco Gardens” in a kind of suite, nearly clobbers one thanks to its length of around 45 minutes. The hustle and bustle of the metropolis Mexico City as well as its calm beauty are made into a central, musical subject. Beginning with hovering tonal surfaces in the wind instruments, the music heightens tension through repeating tonal and rhythmic structures. The web spins itself again and again. The melodic lines are built incessantly, expanded and led back to the apparent beginning, only then to digress into even more distant areas. Individual design and solo insertions do not only face each other well, but are woven together. One appears to be hover in space free of musical fetters such as time and melody. What might seem like tonal anarchy actually comes across as well-rounded. Here is where the musicians’ long years of experience shows as well as their lofty technique. Even if it were possible, no one would foreground his mastery without consideration of losses.
There are also more reserved pieces, such as “Comdesa” and “Ballade For G,” which is dedicated to Gerd Dudek. The tonal architecture is, however, as demanding as in the faster compositions. Skewed intervals in the winds, tender piano sounds and pulsing bass and drum rhythms bounce off each other and demand that the listener turns off his thinking, in order to abandon him or herself entirely to the listening experience.
Music means giving and taking. Whoever accepts the challenge to give freer jazz its space it needs to breathe, will be rewarded. At least with Stefan Heidtmann.

ELISA REZNICEK • BADISCHE NACHRICHTEN. 25 FEBRUARY 2005

MP3-Soundfiles: Stefan Heidtmann Project - Hay Que Salir Adelante

... furthermore:

II.
ORNAMENTS OF LIGHT AND SOUND

- performance -

Since it was founded in 2001, the project ‘Ornaments of Light and Sound’ has persistently explored the limits of extensive sound structures and melds three levels of medial art together, thanks to its unmistakable plan: the tonal mosaic is enriched with slide and video composition and Japanese character dance to create a masterly ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ ...

LINE UP: Artists

RUTH HOMMELSHEIM / VIDEO PROJECTION

MAKIKO TOMINAGA / BUTOH DANCE

ROGER HANSCHEL / SAXOPHONE

STEFAN HEIDTMANN / KEYBOARDS

KLAUS KUGEL / PERCUSSIONS

MP3-Soundfiles:

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