Urs Leimgruber
Urs Leimgruber | |
|---|---|
 Urs Leimgruber in 2014 | |
| Born | 1952 (age 73–74) Lucerne, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Saxophonist |
| Style | Jazz, Free improvisation |
Urs Leimgruber (1 January 1952 in Lucerne) is a Swiss saxophonist. He lived in Paris from 1988 to 2005. Then he came back to his home town, Lucerne. His fields of activity are improvisation, jazz and 20th-century classical music.[1]
Works
Leimgruber founded in 1972 the Lucerne-based rock-jazz quartet OM, with guitarist Christy Doran, drummer Fredy Studer, and double bassist Bobby Burri. the band toured Switzerland and Germany for almost a decade performing their "electric jazz-free music."[2] He then played with Reflexionen, a quartet featuring Don Friedman, Burri, and Joël Allouche, while also playing in a duo with John Wolf Brennan until 1989. He also formed the quartet Noir with Joëlle Léandre on double bass, pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Fritz Hauser.[3][4]
His collaboration with Fritz Hauser as a duo is publicly documented in two audio recordings from the 1990s. In the 2010s Leimgruber revived this musical-instrumental configuration in jazz, that traces its origins to John Coltrane and Rashied Ali in the second half of the 20th century, paring with Roger Turner and Alex Huber. The improvisation quartet also showcases Leimgruber playing alongside leading figures of the fourth generation of contemporary improvised music such as, Oliver Schwerdt, Alexander Schubert and Christian Lillinger. Leimgruber also has a long and intensive collaboration in a trio with Barre Philips and Jacques Demierre.
Discography
With Steve Lacy
- Mountain Hymn (1986)[5]
- An Chara (1987)[5]
- Statement of an antirider (1988)[5]
- Polyphyllum (1989)[5]
- M.A.P. (1990)[5]
- Ungleich (1990)[5]
- Itinerary (hat ART, 1991)[5]
- Goletter (1992)[5]
- L'énigmatique (1992)[5]
- DUHU (1994)[5]
- Lines (1994)[5]
- No try no fail (1997)[5]
- Xylem (1999)[5]
- Nach der Stimme - Ein Konzertanter Dialog (2000)[5]
- Blue Log: Ten Pieces for Saxophone (2000)
- Wing vane (2001)
- Out of sound (2002)
- The Difference Between a Fish (2002)
- Orbit 2: Voyaging Antipodes (2006)
- Solo - 13 Pieces for Saxophone (2007)
- Albeit (2007)
- Lausanne (2009)
- HIN (2010)
- Chicago solo (2010)
- Montreuil (2012)
- The Pancake Tour (2012)
- Empiricism in the West (2013)
- 1↦3⊨2:⇔1 (2015)
- Pale White Shout (2016)
- The Spirit Guide (2016)
- Broken Silence (2018)
- Elastic (2021)
- It Forgets About the Snow (2021)
- Now and Always (2024)
- In the Endless Wind (2024)[6]
- Room 423 (2026)[6]
References
- ↑ Thom Jurek. "Urs Leimgruber | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
- ↑ "Squidco: OM (Urs Leimgruber / Christy Doran / Bobby Burri / Fredy Studer) : It's About Time". www.squidco.com. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- ↑ Kelsey, Chris (2019-04-26). "Quartet Noir: Lugano". JazzTimes. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- ↑ Wagner, Von Christoph (2016-06-22). "Komposition: Klänge wie Hefeteig". www.woz.ch (in German). Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Urs Leimgruber — Biography, Discography, Albums & Expert Reviews". AllMusic. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- 1 2 "Urs Leimgruber". 2026.