Solothurnmann, Juerg

Solothurnmann, Juerg, jazz tenor, alto and soprano saxophonist, musicologist; b. Zurich, April 22, 1943. He grew up in the town of Solothurn, where his first instruments were the accordion, piano, banjo and marching drum. He began his music studies at the Univ. of Bern (1963); in the late 1960s, he became interested in ethnomusicology. At the same time (1968–72), he studied saxophone and jazz theory at the Swiss Jazz School; from 1972–74, he studied at Ind. Univ. He taught jazz history at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern until 1986. Since 1969, he has done jazz programs for Swiss National Radio DRS. Since the mid-1970s, he has performed with blues, jazz-rock and salsa bands, and later with his own jazz ensembles Uepsilon (1976–84), S.A.H. (1985), Alpine Jazz Herd (1982–94), First Aid Band I, II & III (1985–92), At the Crossroads (1988), Agasul Orchester (since 1990), Raw & Cooked (1992–96), Sound & Space (from 1996), The Magic Triangle (from 1995), a project with Harry Tavitian and Corneliu Stroe, and Live According to e.e. cummings with Ellen Christi. Solothurn-mann’s style is to combine contemporary jazz and Swiss folklore. He is co-founder and longtime board member of the Musiker Kooperative Schweiz (MKS) and the Interessegemeinschaft improvisierte Musik (IGIM) in Bern. In 1992, he organized and directed the Swiss-Spanish Jazz Festival at the Swiss Pavilion within the World EXPO Sevilla. He founded Unit Records (1983), a musician-owned label, and served as its director until 1991. He has won the Zurich Radio Award (1988) and the Big Music Prize 1996 of the Canton Bern.

Discography

Alpine Jazz Herd: Swiss Flavor (1983); Uepsilon: Head in the Clouds (1984).

—Lewis Porter