Projects

Solo-Piano Improvisations, Jazz

(CD “Griot”)

Without a doubt the influence of the great jazz musician Keith Jarrett is felt in this concert project. Since 1975 Blume has dealt with the work of the exceptional, boundary-crossing pianist, which led to his dissertation on Jarrett’s work from 1998, as well as several interviews and talks with Jarrett.

However, Gernot Blume is not an epigone but defines instead his own musical horizon in this program. He articulates a highly individualistic aesthetic, which relies on the diverse influences and his knowledge of the most varied world music cultures. One hears distant echoes of the music of Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane, und Ornette Coleman, but also Miles Davis, Bill Evans und Lennie Tristano.

But only a moment passes, and one becomes aware of Blume’s understanding of the occidental tradition, which traveled a path from Wagner, Liszt, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel to the break-up of traditional harmony in the music of Schönberg, Berg and Webern. In between you can find traces of Gershwin or Afroamerican gospel. And again a moment later one feels Blume’s knowledge of the ancient musical worlds of Bali, India or Africa.

His concept of harmodal improvisation - harmonic structures, that are based on the tone selections of ancient Indian Ragas - alternates with sound experiments, that reinvent the piano as a sound source over and over again. Multicultural techniques of improvisation melt with a recognizable compositional style. Blume’s concerts, as opposed to Jarrett’s freely improvised solo concerts, always also include the aspect of the written score.

Gernot Blume’s solo concerts are extended and profound journeys through the world of music and his border-transcending aesthetic with a global horizon is packed into a single instrument: the piano.

Solo-Piano Concerts New Music

(CD “Universum” in progress)

This concert program consists of a list of completely notated music for piano, without jazz improvisation, more in the Western music tradition. Blume’s experience as a composer and pianist, who has digested the legacy of piano composers from Chopin, Liszt, Debussy to Gershwin, Schönberg, Bartók, Messiaen and Ligeti comes to the fore.

Blume’s repertoire is comprised of his cycle “Universe” (2001), the piano version of his three movement chamber symphony “The Lost Paradise” (2002) as well as “Cross-Over” (2000), a translation of Javanese Gamelan orchestra sounds to the piano. Blume also interprets the piano compositions of Julie Spencer. Her cycle “Vingt questions de l’homme Jésus” is also a part of this program.

Solo Harp Concerts

(CD “Harp Travels”)

Blume’s harp concerts reflect his unique cross-stylistic aesthetic with focus on the folkloristic legacy of the Celtic harp. His compositions have an often meditative, introverted or dance-like character. They are predominantly tonal and melodic, consist of sometimes blurred, impressionistic sound images or rhythmic minimalist textures.

He concertizes in churches, spaces with special acoustics as well as wineries and small stages.

Gernot Blume cooperates with various musical partners:

Gernot Blume & Peter Epstein: "Griot"

(CD “Griot”)

Gernot Blume and the American saxophone artist Peter Epstein (www.peterepstein.com) perform Blume’s jazz oriented repertoire in the formation saxophone/piano.

This program is suited for jazz festivals, jazz clubs, and concert stages.

Griot is the term for a musician born into a family of storytellers in West-Africa. The griot recounts history through song and poetry. As a living library, a conscience of the past and guide to the future, the griot preserves the treasures of his people’s shared experiences.

In this music, jazz, free improvisation, Western contemporary composition, and the traditional music of West-Africa, India, and Indonesia, are fluid points of reference, which reflect the story of a new kind of griot - a traveler between different worlds.

Gernot & Guido Blume: ’Ss brent” - yiddish Songs

Since 1981 Gernot Blume sings and plays together with his brother Guido yiddish songs, inspired by ensembles and musicians like Zupfgeigenhansel, Espe and Manfred Lemm. For the Blume brothers this is a medium for dealing with the history of the Holocaust as well as the discovery of an interesting and moving musical repertoire. A musical journey from the love songs to resistance songs.

Gernot Blume plays harp, accordion, mandolin, violin, keyed fiddle, concertina, contrabass and he sings.

The program is suited for concert stages, culture centres, churches, synagogues and schools.

Gernot Blume & Sigurd Rentz: “Blick ins Wunderland”

(CD “Blick ins Wunderland” released October 2007.
More info: www.sigurd-rentz.de)

The German song writer Sigurd Rentz sings his sensitive and imaginative songs about childhood, growing up, being adult, and other stories of life. Gernot Blume accompanies with harp, piano, and various instruments.

The program is suited for small and large stages.

Guest Lecturer · Lecturer · Workshops · Guest Musician

Gernot Blume teaches as professor, lecturer, adjunct faculty, or presenter with respect to ethnomusicological and musicological topics, as a teacher in workshops and masterclasses with respect to practical aspects of music, and performs as guest musician in festivals or ensembles.

Among the institutions that have asked Gernot Blume to work in this area, are:

USA:

University of Michigan Ann Arbor • The University of Michigan Flint • Eastern Illinois University • University of Valparaiso Indiana • Western Washington University • California State University Fresno • California Institute of the Arts • University of Indianapolis • The Indianapolis Children’s Museum • Pontiac High School Illinois • Bowling Green University • Western Illinois University • Butler University • Kennesaw State College • Lewis & Clark College • University of Soutern Oregon Ashland • Northern Illinois University • University of North Texas • University of Mississippi • Lawrence Conservatory of Music • Berklee College of Music • Princeton University • Percussive Arts Society International Conventions • The Society for Ethnomusicology • International Association of Jazz Educators • Walt Disney Company • Wild Swan Theatre Ann Arbor • Orgeon Ballet Company Orchestra • Oregon Symphony • Music Northwest Festival

Germany:

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt • Universität des 3. Lebensalters an der Goethe Universität Frankfurt • Peter Cornelius Konservatorium Mainz • Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster • Stefan George Gymnasium Bingen • Lions Club Wiesbaden • Horst Schmidt Klinik Wiesbaden • Friedrich Magnus Schwerd-Gymnasium Speyer • Realschule Ludwigshafen-Edigheim • Anne Frank-Realschule Ludwigshafen • Hildegardisschule Bingen

Japan:

Kunitachi College of Music Tokyo • The Japan Percussion Society

France:

Université de Nancy • Sciences Politiques de Paris à Nancy

Poland:

Crossdrumming Festival, Warsaw

Among the topic areas of his lecture series are:

• Introduction to World Music
• American Music in the 20th Century
• Music of Asia
• Music of Latin America
• History of Jazz
• Jazz Theory
• World Music Theories
• The Phenomenon of World Music – Traditional Music Systems in the Context of Popular Music
• Only Noise and Ugly? – Understanding Contemporary Music
• Structures of Thinking in the Music of Our Time

As an ethnomusicologist Gernot Blume has published articles on the music of Keith Jarrett, in:

• Popular Music, Cambridge University Press, Great Britain
• Jazzforschung / Jazz Research, Institute for Jazz Research, University of Music and Art, Graz, Austria

His dissertation is entitled:

„Musical Practices and Identity Construction in the Work of Keith Jarrett“

and was submitted at the University of Michigan in 1998, supervised by one of the leading ethnomusicological scholars, Dr. Judith Becker