Michael Wollny’s debut album “call [em]” was released in January 2005. Since then, critics have raved about the young pianist. “Young enough not to have to carry around the burden of jazz history with you and alert enough that you re-discover something every day,” wrote Zeit. Eleven albums later, Wollny is still considered to be the “Germany’s greatest jazz musician personality since Albert Mangelsdorff” by Hamburger Abendblatt. Born in Schweinfurt in 1978, Wollny began improvising at the age of five. He took his first violin and piano lessons, as well as classical music classes. After hearing Keith Jarrett’s “Koln Concert”, Wollny was inspired to discover jazz and went to Wurzburg, Germany to study with Chris Beier. With his solo album, “Hexentanz”, Michael Wollny demonstrated that he is an internationally recognized pianist. It was also named the CD of the Year in France. Joachim Kuhn (German piano legend) was his partner in 2009 and he produced one of the most intense hours of piano music ever (“Live at Schloss Elmau”) Wollny and Heinz Sauer recorded two duo albums together, both of which were also awarded: “Certain Beauty”, “Melancholia” and “Melancholia”. Wollny’s 2009 album, “Wunderkammer”, featured a celesta harmonium, Fender Rhodes, concert grand, and Fender Rhodes. This proved that Wollny is not only a talented pianist, but also someone who is constantly looking to reinvent his music, both compositionally and soundwise. Wollny, along with Tamar Halperin (Israeli harpsichordist), searched for the unknown and won the ECHO Jazz award in 2010 as the “Best Pianist National” He released “[em]Live at JazzBaltica”, his fourth album, in the autumn of that year with Eric Schaefer and Eva Kruse. Stuart Nicholson, a renowned British critic, called the recording “probably the greatest jazz album in the past 25 years” (Jazzwise). In Germany, the trio was named the top German ensemble (ECHO Jazz 2011,). Wollny’s latest album [em] with his trio is called “Wasted.”
