Manfred Schoof is a legendary European jazz trumpeter. He has been since the mid-sixties. His first group was formed in 1965. The instrumentation for the LP “European Echoes”, which he recorded that year, reads like a “Who’s Who”, listing the most important European Free Jazz musicians. Schoof played an important role in the development and promotion of Free Jazz in Europe since those early days. He worked with Peter Brotzmann and Mal Waldron in their New Jazz Trio and with the Clarke/Boland Bigband, the Gil Evans Orchestra, and the German Allstars. Schoof was part of what was perhaps the most unique and important big Free Jazz Ensemble, The Globe Unity Orchestra. He is still a key figure in this amazing group. Manfred Schoof is not only a part of the avantgarde of jazz. He also performs in the trumpet concerts of Bernd-Alois Zimmermann (Berlin Festival Weeks), and Johannes Fritsch (“Music of the 20th Century” with the Saarland Broadcasting Company). Schoof has composed television and film music, as well as numerous commissions (for the Musical Festival at Donaueschingen 1975), as well as choral or orchestral works for various German broadcasting companies. Schoof has been a lecturer at the Cologne Academy of Music since 1972 and a professor starting in 1990. He has been on numerous tours with jazz groups all over the world, including as far as South America as Asia. In 1975, he founded his second quintet. One of their three albums, “Scales”, was the German Record Prize of German Phono Academy (1977 Japo/ECM Records). Schoof was awarded the 1st Prize of Union of German Jazz Musicians (UDJ), for “The Early Quintet”. The 19-strong Schoof Orchestra, which was founded in 1980, can still look back at many highly-acclaimed performances. These include appearances at the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, and the Berlin Jazz Festival. German Federal Government sent the Schoof Band to Prague as part of the German Cultural Week. 1982 was the beginning of a long relationship with Rainer Bruninghaus, the pianist. Manfred Schoof, considered the best universal jazz musician of our time, is a versatile trumpeter, composer, and university lecturer. Since 1987, he has been a member the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band as well as the European Jazz Ensemble. “Old Friends”, an all-star group that was founded in 1996 and which included some of the most well-known German jazz musicians (Albert Mangelsdorff and Klaus Doldinger), Wolfgang Dauner and Eberhard Weber as well as Wolfgang Haffner, Manfred Schoof, Wolfgang Haffner, Wolfgang Dauner and Wolfgang Dauner), is still around today. From www.gema.de
