Schlippenbach & Walsdorff Quartet

GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE 2024:

Chamber music improvisation: in 2011, the 86-year-old pianist and architect of European free jazz, Alexander von Schlippenbach, founded the Schlippenbach-Walsdorff Quartet together with saxophonist Henrik Walsdorff, born in 1965. In addition to Schlippenbach’s compositions, the quartet plays arrangements of Thelonious Monk and Eric Dolphy compositions with bassist Antonio Borghini and drummer Heinrich Köbberling. For many years, von Schlippenbach has been exploring the characteristic melodies, rhythms and formal design of Monk’s compositions in various projects, such as “Monk’s Casino”, the arrangement of the complete works of this legendary pianist and composer. For the critically acclaimed Walsdorff, who also plays in the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra and in von Schlippenbach’s Globe Unity Orchestra, it is the work of saxophonist and flautist Eric Dolphy that he improvises on various levels.