about Axel Zwingenberger
A stage.
A man at the piano.
The music: boogie woogie

Rolling bass figures, the dynamics of a roaring steam train. Passionate blues sounds that seem to evoke memories of long ago. Just a man at a grand piano, just a seemingly simple music, but fascinating perhaps for just that reason.

Axel Zwingenberger has been playing this game for more than two decades. With his ardour for the boogie woogie, "the hottest music that was ever invented for the piano" (Axel Zwingenberger), he has engaged cultivation of this almost forgotten African-American folk music art and contributed decisively to the revival of a flourishing boogie piano scene in Central Europe. 		  Portrait Axel Zwingenberger
Born in Hamburg, in 1955, he enjoyed eleven years of conventional piano training. In 1973 he listened to authentic boogie woogie piano for the first time engraved on vintage shellacs by Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson respectively. "I didn´t kow you could play the piano like  t h i s ", Axel explains today, "and from that very hour I didn´t want anything else but learning to do so". Soon he met piano playing partners like Hans-Georg Möller, Vince Weber and Martin Pyrker, and word about the abilities of the four friends began to spread. The 1974 "First International Blues- and Boogie Woogie Festival" of the West German Radio Station in Cologne turned out to be their first presentation to a greater audience, soon to be followed by more, such as Hans Maitner´s annual festival "Stars of Boogie Woogie" in Vienna.

In 1975, Axel got his recording contract with Frank Dostal and their co-operation continues successfully today. Solo albums like "Boogie Woogie Breakdown", "Power House Boogie" or "Boogie Woogie-live" (the latter also available as sheet music) had a considerable impact on the junior set of boogie pianists. Axel recorded with American music stars like Big Joe Turner, Lionel Hampton, Mama Yancey, Sippie Wallace, Champion Jack Dupree, Jay McShann and many others. These recordings were essential in shaping his personal style and helpful in building his International reputation. They also testified the encounter of black and white, young and old, experence and enthusiasm and are part of the history of boogie woogie.

When Axel Zwingenberger hits the stage today, he scoops from skills gained in thousands of performances all over the world, from Hamburg to New York, from Vienna to Ouagadougou. When his most recent compositions such as "Thundertrain", "Steel Dragon" or "Snow Flake Dance" start to sound you can notice the same fire in his playing as twenty years ago when he first started out.

Facts

 plays Blues- and Boogie Woogie-Piano
 11 years of classical piano-training
 1st performance with Boogie Woogie: February 3rd, 1973
 app. 3500 concerts in more than 40 countries on 4 continents
 24 CDs recorded under his own name: 320 tunes released, including 159 originals – so far!
 more than 300 000 records sold
 sheet music: 12 transcriptions of Blues and Boogie Woogie-originals, authentic and complete for the first time ever!
 dozens of TV- and radio-appearences, interviews, documentaries
 tours, concerts and/or recording-sessions with musicians like a.o.: Lionel Hampton, Jay McShann, Big Joe Turner, Lloyd Glenn, Joe Newman, Sippie Wallace, Mama Yancey, Champion Jack Dupree, Sammy Price, Ray Bryant, Charlie Watts, Vince Weber, Mojo Blues Band and many more
 musically influential: initial figure, mentor and support for many young pianists
 author of several publications about Boogie and its musicians

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© Axel Zwingenberger, August 1999