Manu Koch (born June 12, 1972, in

Baar, Switzerland Baar () is a municipality in the canton of Zug in Switzerland. History Baar is first mentioned in 1045 as ''Barra''. Geography Baar has an area, , of . Of this area, 51% is used for agricultural purposes, while 25% is forested. Of the rest o ...

) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Life and career

Koch studied classical piano from age 6 and started tenor saxophone at age 18 while also taking courses at the Jazz School Lucerne. In 1993 he attended

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in Boston where he graduated four years later and relocated to New York in May 2000 where he still lives today. Besides touring around the world with various projects since the late 1990s he has spent extended amounts of time in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

). His sideman work includes collaborations with

Angélique Kidjo Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo (; born July 14, 1960) is a Beninese- French singer-songwriter, actress and activist noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Kidjo has won five Grammy A ...

(US ''Oyaya!'' touring band from 2004-2006),

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer * Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp ** Santana 20 ** Santan ...

’s musical director and former

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

bassist Benny Rietveld (various projects since 2005),

Teodora Enache Teodora Enache-Brody (30 September 1967, Onești) is a Romanian jazz singer, songwriter and lyricist. She is considered one of Romania's foremost jazz vocalists. Teodora Enache studied mathematics at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași graduat ...

, Prasanna, Kofo The Wonderman (band member since 2007), KJ Denhert,

Malika Zarra Malika Zarra is a Moroccan singer, composer, and music producer, based in New York City. She is known for singing in Moroccan Arabic, Berber, French, and English. Her music has been on the JazzWeek Top 20 radio chart in world music. Biography Z ...

Fantcha Fantcha (born Francelina Durão Almeida on October 14, 1956) is a Cape Verdean singer. Biography Fantcha was born as Francelina Durão Almeida in chã De Alecrim on São Vicente, Cape Verde, São Vicente Island, Cape Verde. She grew up singin ...

, the Mendes Brothers (João and

Ramiro Mendes Ramiro Mendes (born 1961) is a Cape Verdean musician, singer and author. Together with his brother João, he formed the Mendes Brothers. Biography Ramiro Mendes was born in the small village of Palonkon on the island of Fogo, Cape Verde. Together ...

), the New York Gypsy All-Stars (touring the US, Brazil, Europe and Asia from 2011-2016), and participating on 15 album productions by blues/soul artist Tomás Doncker for True Groove Records since 2012.Iman Lababedi
''Manu Koch And Filtron M's "Mandatory Underground" Reviewed.''
In: '' RockNYC'', November 21, 2014.

Filtron M

Koch’s own project ''Filtron M'' is a platform of a multi-national network of musicians and a compositional display of his extensive influences. The core idea of ''Filtron M'' goes back to the formation of his first group with

Anat Cohen Anat Cohen (; ; born 1975) is a New York City-based jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and bandleader from Tel Aviv, Israel. Biography Cohen was born into a musical family and began playing the clarinet at age 12 with Jaffa Conservatory’s Dixiel ...

, Guilherme Monteiro, Gustavo Amarante and Harvey Wirht during his Boston years in the late 1990s. After Koch’s official debut album ''Triple Life'' (2011) he released the EP ''Mandatory Underground'' (2014) which introduces the initial members of ''Filtron M'' with Panagiotis Andreou and Patrick Andy on bass, Mauricio Zottarelli and Harvey Wirht on drums, and Sebastian Nickoll and Brahim Fribgane on percussion. The album ''Astoria Roots Live'' (2017) features additional guests with performances at ''

Iridium Iridium is a chemical element; it has the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. This very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density ...

'' in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and at ''Moods'' in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. Other musicians that have appeared with ''Filtron M'' in performances, videos or on recordings include

Samuel Torres Samuel Torres (born September 4, 1976) is a Colombian percussionist composer and arranger. He was born in Bogotá, and started playing at age twelve and became involved with different bands in his hometown. Torres' musician credits includes coll ...

, Camila Meza, Gino Sitson and

Kaïssa Kaïssa is a Cameroon born world musician. She moved to Paris with her family at thirteen and to New York City in 1996. Kaissa worked on stage and in studio with Salif Keita, Manu Dibango, Kofi Olomide, Papa Wemba, Cesária Évora, Martha Wash, ...

Discography

As leader/Filtron M

As sideman

References

External links

Filtron M @ Drom NYC February 5th 2013

Filtron M Blue Note NYC March 30th 2013

Prasanna @ Terraza 7 December 3rd 2016

Teodora Enache & Benny Rietveld Quintet in Bucharest September 19th 2014
on the website of the

National Theatre Bucharest The National Theatre Bucharest () is one of the national theatres of Romania, located in the capital city of Bucharest. Founding It was founded as the ''Teatrul cel Mare din București'' ("Grand Theatre of Bucharest") in 1852, its first director ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Manu Swiss jazz pianists Berklee College of Music alumni 1972 births Living people Swiss composers Swiss male composers Swiss keyboardists People from Baar, Switzerland Swiss musicians 21st-century Swiss pianists