Linda Sharrock - voice
Wolfgang Puschnig - as, fl
Franz Hautzinger - tp
Woody Schabata - vb
Achim Tang - b
Reinhart Winkler - dm
Laurinho Bandeira - perc
Wolfgang
Puschnig was discovered a
couple of decades ago as the alto saxophonist
(and flute player) in the Vienna Art
Orchestra, which he still plays with
and of which he was one of the founder
members.
Very few artists have been able, in
the way he was, to combine the passion
and smoothness of a Cannonball Adderley
with the acidity and warmth of Ornette
Coleman and the bite and the voluble
elasticity of Eric Dolphy.
In addition to the Vienna Art Orchestra,
he has been collaborating regularly for
many years with various formations, among
these are: Big Band Carla Bley, a free-funk
trio along side bassist Jamaladeen Tacuma,
a duo with singer Linda Sharrock, the
band Red Sun, which unites him with SamulNori
on Korean drums, or a duo with violinist
Mark Feldman.
Wolfgang Puschnig: Carinthian
cosmopolitan
To be open-minded without forgetting
where one comes from. A cosmopolitan
attitude with strong regional roots:
Wolfgang Puschnig, both as a person and
musician, embodies this essential bi-polarity
which is being reduced to a simple catch-phrase
far too often. From the early 1980ies
onwards, this has made him not only an
advertisement but a perfect example in
the world of European jazz. For Puschnig,
Austria`s southernmost province Carinthia
has been the foundation of his musical
thinking and feeling, located at the
intersection of Germanic, Slavic and
Romanic culture and language.
He was born in Klagenfurt (Celovec
in Slovenian) on 21 May 1956 where he
also spent his youth, characterised by
folk songs (“there always was a
lot of singing”), jazz and a variety
of other musical movements. Shortly after
his school-leaving examinations, in the
autumn of 1974, he turned his back on
Carinthia in order to try his luck in
Austria`s faraway capital Vienna. Wolfgang
Puschnig registered to study musicology
and English at the University of Vienna
. He went on the look-out as a saxophonist
in Austria`s jazz scene and attended
jazz lessons at Vienna`s Academy of Music.
On 19 May 1977 , in the course of a concert
during which he originally wanted to
perform only as a duet together with
pianist Mathias Rüegg, he unexpectedly
contributed to the foundation of an ensemble
which should become famous as “Vienna
Art Orchestra” (VAO).
In the years to follow, Wolfgang Puschnig
became the leading soloist of the orchestra
in many legendary programmes such as “Concerto
Piccolo” (1980), “From No
Time to Rag Time” (1982), “The
Minimalism of Erik Satie” (1984)
and “Lonely Nightride of a Saxophone
Player” (1985). Guest performances
in Thailand and the United States in
the mid 1980ies and first places of VAO
in the ranking of “Down Beat”-polls
within the TDWR-category (1984 and 1985)
consolidated their reputation as leading
European big band as well as leading
European big band-musicians.
His elegiac intonation, melodious vocal
expression of lines which contribute
to his personal style, move both amateurs
and connoisseurs. They furthermore show
that even today – in the era
of an irritatingly confusing post-modernist
variety – it seems possible to
develop an idiom, already recognisable
at first sound, so to speak “romantically
grown”. Open-mindedness without
forgetting one`s roots. Only very few
succeed in such aesthetic splits. Hardly
any are as credible and disarmingly sensuous
as those of Wolfgang Puschnig. A message
which can provide a model. Not only for
Europe . Not only for Carinthia . (Andreas
Felber)
Wolfgang Puschnig worked with Lauren
Newton, Herbert Joos, Linda Sharrock,
Megadrums, Carla Bley, Milton Cardona,
Mathias Rüegg.
Linda Sharrock was
born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ,
USA . Although she has sung for most
of her life, Sharrock first attracted
widespread attention when touring internationally
with guitarist Sonny Sharrock. It was
while she was on one such tour to Europe
in 1987 that she found her unusual niche.
She met up with a group of Korean musicians
who were attracted by her wordless vocalizing
technique. For her part, Sharrock found
that the Koreans’ mainly percussion
instrumentation was not only complementary
to her singing style but was also musically
stimulating. Sharrock’s interest
in ethnic music is by no means restricted
to the East. Her music is contemporary
but fuses pop and R&B with latter-day
fusion and, as indicated, blending in
an eclectic selection of music from lands
not usually associated with jazz. She
also appeared on Ballads by the Vienna
Art Orchestra.