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WACLAW ZIMPEL QUARTET (Poland/Germany)

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Klaus Kugel ● Waclaw Zimpel ● Krzysztof Dys ● Christian Ramond

Wacław Zimpel received a classical training as clarinetist. His main inspirations include sacred and ritual music from various cultures. In his compositions he often makes references to composers from the past to create specific contemporary polemics with or commentaries to traditional music. He is the bandleader of polish group Hera, international quintet Undivided featuring Bobby Few and Perry Robinson, polish-german Wacław Zimpel Quartet, group Saagara with South Indian percussionists and ToTu Orchestra – 9 piece band consists of musicians from Warsaw. Additionally, he is a member of Resonance – Ken Vandermark’s project.
He also works with Klaus Kugel, Hamid Drake, Steve Swell, Christian Ramond, Dave Rempis, Joe PcPhee, Mark Tokar, Michael Zerang, Mars Williams, Hilliard Greene, Maallem Mokhtar Gania, Giridhar Udupa and Mikołaj Trzaska.
Wacław Zimpel was pronounced Musician of the Year 2010 in Stef Gijssel’s blog freejazzblog.org and Musician of the Year 2013 in jazzarium.pl. He is also the youngest winner of the City of Poznań Artistic Award.
"Zimpel's name goes straight into the list of European jazzmen that gave new life to clarinet and bass clarinet, continuing Dolphy's example: Surman, Sclavis, Trovesi, and the like." - Francesco Martinelli, pointofdeparture.org
"Polish composer/clarinetist Wacław Zimpel is one of the most promising musicians from the European continent." - Eyal Hareuveni, All About Jazz

Krzysztof Dys, Young generation pianist with classical background. He is fascinated by both classical and jazz music.
During his studies, he spent three months on a scholarship at Universitet Agder in Kristiansand (Norway), were he studied under prof. Teleff Yuva.
His biggest achievement in classical music is winning the 3rd prize at the Alexander Scriabin International Piano Competition in Paris in 2007.
He has been working as an assistant at the Department of Piano at the I.J Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań since October 2007.
He performed at multiple jazz festivals and competitions as a soloist and as a member of “Soundcheck” Jazz Quartet, and Wacław Zimpel Quartet, getting recognition and winning many awards, most notably:
- II Prize at the Jazz Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2006
- Grand Prix at the Festival “Jazz nad Odra” in Wrocław in 2005
- I Prize at the International Jazz - Blues Competition in Ustia (Czech Republic) in 2004.

Christian Ramond lives in Cologne/Germany, where he is constantly in demand.
He was educated in Music High school Cologne, followed by a stipendium in Banff/Canada masterclass with Dave Holland. In the past he has been working with Joe Pass, Albert Mangelsdorff, Philipp Catherine, Tomasz Stanko, Charlie Mariano, Kenny Wheeler and Lee Konitz. Christian performed in countless concerts and tours all over Europe, in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, India, Egypt, Mexico, South Africa, Brasil,Syria amd Uruguay on most important Festivals like San Francisco, Vancouver, Montreal, Sydney, Vilnius, Yokohama.
He is one of the most important german bassplayers, he recorded more than 50 CDs and was involved in numerous TV-, radio-, and theatre-projects.
His musical activities include MainstreamJazz, ModernJazz, Contemporary Jazz, Avantgarde and New Music (perfomances with Musikfabrik NRW, Folkwang Ensemble Modern) as well as World Music (Latin American, African, Arabic and Indian Music).
Current projects include the trio D.R.A.(C.Dell), Engstfeld-Weiss Quartett, Theo Jörgensmann Trio, Sabir Mateen Quartett, Waclaw Zimpel Quartett.

Klaus Kugel studied at the School of Jazz in Munich.
He lives near Cologne/Germany. Since 1989 he has been playing intensively with the outstanding lithuanian soprano-saxophonist Petras Vysniauskas in many different projects. He attracted attention worldwide through projects with Petras Vysniauskas, Karl Berger, Tomasz Stanko, Charlie Mariano, Kent Carter, Michel Pilz, Theo Jörgensmann, Kenny Wheeler, Vyacheslav Ganelin, Bobo Stenson, Glen Moore, Steve Swell, Sabir Mateen, Robert Dick, Peter Evans, Perry Robinson, Hilliard Greene, Charles Gayle, John Lindberg, Louie Belogenis, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Bobby Few, Roy Campbell, Jemeel Moondoc, Waclaw Zimpel, Mars Williams a.o..
Over the past 30 years, he gave numerous concerts and appeared at festivals throughout Europe, the Baltic States, Canada, USA, Syria, Japan, Mexico, Russia, China, Ukraine and Israel.
"Drummer Klaus Kugel is one of Central Europe's busiest and most articulate modern jazz drummers ... he treads the boundary between inside and outside playing in a particularly incisive way; always listening and never getting caught up in his own considerable chops." - Dave Wayne, AllAboutJazz, USA, 2013