Whether alone or with (much appreciated) company, my main game is improvisation, harmony and rhythm. Listen and watch..
Click here to ask meA devotion to the African Goddess of the Sea, Iemanja. Composed by the legendary Brazilian guitarist Baden-Powell. I recorded it (obviously) in my bedroom at the place I was staying in Biel, Switzerland.
Part 1 of my ‘Trade Winds Suite’, celebrating the history of global trade. Commissioned by Thomas Cottier for the 10-year Jubilee of the World Trade Institute Bern, Switzerland.
A bit of a showoff with several tunes from the jazz repertoire: 'Orfeo Negro’’, 'The nearness of you’, ‘Triste’ (Bossa Nova) and finally a slow Blues, followed by a fast one.. The year is 2010.
A small excerpt from the third concerto ‘Suite Brasileira’, which is really a celebration of the great songwriters from Brazil. Again very grainy footage, but a good guitar solo, I think.
A heartfelt interpretation of the Beatles song 'Here, There And Everywhere’. Ever since I heard George Benson sing and play it in the early 90s, I have been wanting to play my own version of it. Here it is!
I started playing the guitar when I was 14 years old, having been swept up in the Pop music of the day. It was the heyday of the Beatles and other UK bands. My main interest though was the Blues. As there were no teachers around at the time, I copied the guitarists of the era by endlessly playing along with them through my trusty reel-to-reel, and thus learnt the basics. At 16 I started my own blues band and we were soon gigging around the city of Bern, Switzerland.
By the time I hit 20 I had gotten bored with the limited scope of the pentatonic/blues scale and was looking for other genres to expand on my improviser skills. So I joined the newly opened Swiss Jazz School in my hometown Bern, Switzerland. I realised that in the jazz genre with its dozens of sub-styles there was a vast world of possibilities available, but that there was also an awful lot of practicing work to be done. Today, after quite a few decades of playing Jazz and many of the related styles, I have good confidence in my improvisational skills.
It was pioneer time for Jazz education in Switzerland and beyond, and there were no other institutions around.
Read more about my journey on the Composer and Educator pages.