Thilo Kreitmeier, Classic jazz Artist

He is a multi-instrumentalists, and his musical repertoire includes a wide range of mainstream, blues and soul jazz with avant-garde elements. This week’s Featured Artist – jazz saxophonist Thilo Kreitmeier

Born in Munich, Germany

Genre: Jazz

Born 1967 in Munich, Germany, he grew up in a musical environment. During his childhood he was introduced to the recorder and Orff instruments designed for children. At the age of 8 he began to produce his first melodies employing his father’s discarded clarinet. Later he received classical training at the hands of an experienced clarinetist and attended a secondary school which offered music as a major subject. At the same time, he was exposed to jazz music visiting famous munich jazz clubs like the “Domicile” and “Allotria”, and saw some well-known jazz greats of that period such as Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Dusko Goykovich, Roman Schwaller, Stan Getz, The Jazz Crusaders and Miles Davis, just to name a few. To listen to their music constituted an intuitive experience for him.

At the age of 16, upon the occasion of one of his first public recitals, he selected Mozart’s clarinet concert in A major accompanied by piano. Under the direction of the music teacher in school, a jazz combo ” BELA BÜCHL JAZZBAND ” mainly dedicated to playing Dixieland and Swing, in which he participated as a clarinetist, was formed. This was to mark a temporary transition away from his education in classical music. Various performances in the local music scene and at private shows ensued, followed by invitations to play in Austria and Italy as well as the opportunity to make some first recordings.  Upon completing his secondary school education in 1987, he commenced his studies in Business Administration while he pursued training as a saxophonist at the MAZS ( Münchener Ausbildungszentrum für Saxophon) under the direction of Enrique Kropik where he also received instruction by established musicians such as Evan Tate, Axel Kühn, Jürgen Seefelder and Thomas Zoller. His interest in Jazz had now been irrevocably aroused.

1990 he then formed a quintet by the name of “THE JAZZ COLOURS”. With this band Thilo played performances at jazz shows, in regional and local Munich clubs and smaller performances on radio and TV, also subsequent contacts with diverse music groups specializing in Soul, Blues, Funk and Reggae… were established. After concluding his studies in Business Administration in 1994 and finishing the MAZM, he was faced with the decision of selecting his future career. Thilo`s love for music and the search for the selmer tenorsax of his dreams resulted in him traveling to the jazz metropolis of New York. Given his deep love of music and influenced by several sojourns to New York and the USA he decided to devote himself wholly to music.

After several undertakings in 1995 a new band, the “THILO KREITMEIER & GROUP” was formed. With this Band Thilo played at festivals and in affiliated Munich and regional clubs (Nachtcafe, Bayerischer Hof, Unterfahrt, Allotria…). This group also afforded him the opportunity to record his first CD:  “Thilo Kreitmeier & Group, JAZZPERIENCE” (1996, Woopee Records)  In his first CD he combined his own arrangements and compositions with the atmosphere of a jam session. Thilo was lucky to have some of the best local musicians in the band, like Rocky Knauer, Heinz Frommeyer, Guido May …Excerpts of this first CD ranked within the top 4 among over 200 participants during the nationally held Hennessy Blue Note Jazz Search in 1996 and was often heard on the legendary Munich jazz- radio station Jazzwelle Plus.

Also Thilo started to work as a teacher giving lessons in several music schools. The drummer George Greene calls Thilo to join his ” Hotline Band ” where Thilo got the chance to work and learn from fantastic musicians like Eddie Taylor, Gottfried Seidl, Andrey Lewis, Angela Brown, William Paul, Chuck Henderson… Especially as a regular member of the Al Jones Blues Band, Williams Wetsox, Ludwig Seuss Band ( pianist of the famous Spider Murphy Gang ) and Living Blues Legend Lousiana Red ( grew up in Muddy Waters`band ), Thilo discovered his affinity for the Blues toured in whole of Germany, Switzerland and Italy playing in all kinds of etablisments, Jazz clubs and Festivals -until now wandering the different ways of the Blues… Also in the Al Porcino Big Band he participated as a tenorist and played alongside musicians like saxophonist Herb Geller, pianist Walter Lang, Hermann Breuer, Henning Sieverts, Guido May, Gerd Fink, Franz Weyerer… just to name a few of the great players of Al´s Band. Thilo is very proud that he reached to be first call of the first – hot 🙂 tenor- chair in that excellent Big Band.

Biographical information courtesy of: Thilo Kreitmeier official website