Episode 6 Timo Vollbrecht: Gives and Takes
German-born saxophonist and jazz educator Timo Vollbrecht is a mild-spoken man which slightly disarms you. You would not know by first sight that he is a practitioner and scholar of electronic-infused improvised jazz. He has long been a fan of transforming acoustic sounds with synthesizers, including using the saxophone as a tool.
Timo is also a scholar of the “nth” degree and a saxophonist who adores the multitude of sounds he can create with electronic tools. Meet Professor Vollbrecht, Director of Jazz Studies at Brown University. Yes, that Brown University. He was, in his previous academic pursuit, an adjunct professor at NYU.
His passion is 21st-century experimental electric-infused music, merging the sonic colors and texture of electronic sounds with acoustic intricate song forms. Timo became interested in improvised music at an early age. He fell in love with the saxophone first and later pursued creating the coolest and most captivating sound collages to his music.
What’s even more important to Timo, though, is community; he keeps it in the broader sense as well as in the studio and on the bandstand. He remarks that he is likely to be seen with his friends in the local pub in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
Timo, who has a PhD from NYU Steinhardt, was asked if the old school of learning jazz by ear had fallen off to the wayside. His response reveals the marriage he has as an improvisor and a professor of jazz studies. Students need to step out from behind the classroom walls and hang out at the jazz clubs.
Another amazing thing about Timo is the dissertation he wrote about one of the more mysterious characters in the jazz diaspora, ECM owner/producer Manfred Eicher. The dissertation “Manfred Eicher, ECM Records: An Analysis of the Producer as Auteur,” portrays the producer as an improvisor whose ‘instrument’ is the studio. A cool thing about this is that he was able to observe Eicher producing albums with Joe Lovano, Ralph Alessi, Ravi Coltrane, among others.
Timo has three albums on the Berthold label. They are Givers and Takers (2022), Fly Magic (2016), and Faces in Places (2018), all released to international critical acclaim. Timo’s bold sound is inspired by saxophonist Sonny Rollins while his electric sound concept, combining acoustic with noise was embodied in Jim Black’s band AlasNoAxis. “He’s an inspiration to his band members, encouraging them to make the sound interesting, to do it in a different way so that the elements shine balancing the music with other components,” says his remarkably talented guitarist Keisuke Matsuno.
We had so much to talk about. I was hoping Timo could provide a live display of him playing his saxophone while creating the electronic sounds he is known to do but couldn’t figure out how to make it happen via the internet connection. He did, though, pass on an extended piece he recorded so listeners could hear his extraordinary work.
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