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.

www.puschnig.com