Christian Lillinger (born 21 April 1984) is a German

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

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 ...

and

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

. He was born in Lübben, grew up in the German village of Kuschkow, and has been living in Berlin since 2003 working as a musician and composer. Christian has performed in concerts and at festivals in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the US. He has played with

Joachim Kühn Joachim Kurt Kühn (born 15 March 1944) is a German jazz pianist. Biography Kühn was born in Leipzig, Germany. He was a musical prodigy and made his debut as a concert pianist, having studied classical piano and composition, with Arthur Schmidt-E ...

Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (10 December 1933 – 10 July 2023), often called Luten Petrowsky, was a German jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, flautist, composer and author. He is considered the father of free jazz in East Germany (GDR). He was one of f ...

Beat Furrer Beat Furrer (born 6 December 1954) is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2018 ...

Miroslav Vitouš Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš (born 6 December 1947) is a Czech jazz bassist. He is known as a founding member of the ensemble Weather Report, and for working as a bandleader and alongside Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette and others. Biography E ...

Dave Liebman David Liebman (born September 4, 1946) is an American saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator. He is known for his innovative lines and use of atonality. He was a frequent collaborator with pianist Richie Beirach. In June 2010, he received a ...

Wadada Leo Smith Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the field of creative music. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Freedom Summers'', released on ...

, William Parker,

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

Louis Sclavis Louis Sclavis (born 2 February 1953) is a French jazz musician. He performs on clarinet, bass clarinet, and soprano saxophone in a variety of contexts, including avant-garde jazz, free jazz, free improvisation and contemporary classical. Life ...

Joe Lovano Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952)"Joe Lovano." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 13. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 1994. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, May 5, 2017. is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. T ...

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (6 March 1941 – 22 June 2023) was a German jazz saxophonist and clarinetist regarded as a central and pioneering figure in European free jazz. Throughout his career, he released over fifty albums as a bandleader. Amongst his m ...

and

Tony Malaby Tony Malaby (born January 12, 1964) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Malaby was born in Tucson, Arizona. He moved to New York City in 1995 and played with several notable jazz groups, including Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, ...

History

Christian Lillinger studied with

Günter Sommer Günter "Baby" Sommer (born 25 August 1943) is a German jazz drummer. Career Sommer was born in Dresden on 25 August 1943. His first instrument was the trumpet, which he studied at school. He started playing the drums aged 15 or 16. He studie ...

Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber The Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber (or Dresden University of Music Carl Maria von Weber; also/formerly known as Dresden Conservatory or Dresden Royal Conservatory) is a university school of music, university of music in Dresden, ...

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

from 2000 to 2004. In 2000, he won the International Improvisation Contest in Leipzig. From 2001 to 2003, he was a member of the Bundesjazzorchester (BuJazzO), the German federal youth jazz orchestra. Since 2004 he has constantly contributing to projects of the EUPHORIUM_freakestra, particularly working in trios and quintets with Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky. Joining Oliver Schwerdt (alias Elan Pauer) his corporate recording of the late work of the German free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist coming along with the albums ''Tumult!'', ''Krawall!'', ''Rabatz!'' released on EUPHORIUM Records attracted vast attention. In 2008, Lillinger formed the band Grund. Their first release, ''First Reason'' was released in September 2009 with ''Second Reason'', the second release, following in 2013. Both appeared on

Clean Feed Clean may refer to: * Cleaning, the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment * Cleanliness, the state of being clean and free from dirt Arts and media Music Al ...

. The third album ''Grund'' was released on Pirouet Records in 2015. The latest album ''COR'' was released in 2018 on his own Plaist label. It was among the best reviewed albums of ''

Downbeat Magazine ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

'' in 2018. In 2014, he co-founded the band Amok Amor with Peter Evans,

Petter Eldh Frans Petter Eldh (born 19 September 1983 in Gothenburg) is a Swedish jazz bass player and composer, who predominantly has worked first in Denmark, and since 2009 he has lived in Berlin. Biography Eldh was raised in a family of artists. At t ...

and Wanja Slavin. Amok Amor released their self-titled debut in 2015 on Boomslang Records. In 2017 they followed up with ''We know not what we do'', which was released on

Intakt Records Intakt Records is an independent record label, based in Zürich, Switzerland. History The label was founded in 1986 by Patrik Landolt.Margasak, Peter (September 2013) "Intakt's Landolt Takes Long-Term Approach to Avant-Garde". ''Down Beat''. p. ...

. In April 2017 Amok Amor played at the Cheltenham Festival, which was broadcast on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. Between August 2016 and March 2017, Lillinger was a scholar of the Bartels Fondation in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. In 2016, the German TV Network

3sat 3sat (, ''Dreisat'') is a free-to-air German-language public service television channel. It is a generalist channel with a cultural focus and is jointly operated by public broadcasters from Germany ( ZDF, ARD), Austria ( ORF) and Switzerlan ...

produced a documentary about his life and musical passion. In 2017, he founded his music label Plaist-Music. In the same year Christian was awarded the SWR Jazzpreis 2017. He plays in the trio Punkt.Vrt.Plastik with Swedish bassist

and Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, with whom he released a self titled album in 2018, which was released on

Honors

2017: 2017

Discography

* Christian Lillingers Grund ''First Reason'' (Clean Feed, 2009) with Tobias Delius, Wanja Slavin, Robert Landfermann, Jonas Westergaard and Joachim Kühn * ''Tumult!'' (Euphorium Records, 2015) with New Old Luten Quintet featuring Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Elan Pauer, Robert Landfermann and John Edwards * ''Karacho!'' (Euphorium Records, 2017) with Big Bad Brötzmann Quintet featuring

, Oliver Schwerdt, John Edwards and John Eckhardt * ''Open Form for Society'' (Plaist, 2019) with Antonis Anissegos, Kaja Draksler, Elias Stemeseder,

Lucy Railton Lucy Railton is a British musician, primarily known for playing cello. Railton studied cello at the New England Conservatory in Boston, and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she graduated in 2008. In the field of improvisational m ...

, Robert Landfermann,

, Christopher Dell and Roland Neffe

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lillinger, Christian German male drummers German drummers 1984 births Living people Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber alumni 21st-century German musicians Clean Feed Records artists 21st-century German male musicians Intakt Records artists Pirouet Records artists People from Lübben (Spreewald)