STANDARD EDITION
DAVID ANGEL (USA) – TENORSAX
ALESSANDRO d’EPISCOPO (I) – PIANO
LEON DUNCAN (JAM) – ACC.BASS
MARC HALBHEER (CH) – DRUMS
Booking Contact: © by texit
Marc Halbheer Bergstrasse 32 CH - 8836 Bennau Tel.: +41 79 605 36 69
Bergstrasse,32 8832 Bennau Tel. +41/79/605 36 69 E-mail:[email protected] STANDARD EDITION
The Name of the Band says it all. It follows the tradition of the great Jazz- Quartets from the Bop- and Cool-Jazz period and is lining up four exceptional instrumentalists. With the legendary Saxophonist David Angel (from Los Angeles /USA), Standard Edition has a member that grew up during the "prime time" of this Music and dedicated his life to it.
The material consists of tunes from the American songbook and original compositions of the band members. Due to the distinct personalities of the four musicians and their joy for playing together, the interpreted music stays always fresh. The band creates an enormously swinging sound which guarantees a rousing musical experience for the audience.
Bergstrasse,32 8832 Bennau Tel. +41/79/605 36 69 E-mail:[email protected] DAVID ANGEL
David Angel was born and raised in Los Angeles (USA).
He grew up in an utmost musical environment and picked up the Saxophone at an early age. At the age of 14 he started playing steady in Jazz- and Latin-bands and gained routine as a performer.
For more then 25 years David worked for the movie and music industrie in Hollywood. He is a well-respected composer and arranger and wrote music for a vast number of Bands, for Film and TV-Series. (Bonanza, Lassie, Streets of San Francisco, Jerry Lewis, Andy Williams, The Invaders, Woody Hermann Band and many others)
A part from his work as a composer, David kept a busy schedule as a Sax- player. He worked in the bands of. Art Pepper, Bill Perkins, Blue Mitchell, Clare fisher, Richard Davis, Frank Strazzeri, Cat Anderson, Victor Feldman, Kid Orey, and others and worked in the Big Bands of Takisho Akioshi, Dave Grusin, Bud Shank, Bob Brookmeier or Conte Condoli to name a few. He was in demand as a studio-musician and recorded as a soloist for a lot of records, movie-soundtracks and TV-series.
David Angel also had a successfull teaching-career in Hollywood. For more then twenty years he gave lectures for composers and arrangers as well as teaching the saxophone. David held classes for studio- and jazz musicians, was leading the sax-class at the Pasadena college, taught composition at the Dick Grove School and worked at the Valley College in Los Angeles.
In Europe he was a lecturer for film-music at the I.A.C.P. - Paris and the Cultural Institute of Music Paris (award for composer in residence). He lectured at the royal conservatory in Oslo/Norway, the conservatory in Trondheim/Norway and the Moscow State Music Academy/Russia.
Together with Ed Semester he is currently leading the composition and arranging department at the music academy in Lucerne/Switzerland.
Bergstrasse,32 8832 Bennau Tel. +41/79/605 36 69 E-mail:[email protected] LEON DUNCAN
Leon Duncan was born February 20th 1972 in Kingston Jamaica.
His musical career started at the age of eleven, when he started to accompany the Church Choir on Guitar. His affinity for the Bass grew and at the age of 14 he knew he'd found a media through which he could express himself. Soon after, Leon started copying bass parts from records of all genres.
When he was about 15, he started gigging regularly with Stanley Beckford from Stanley and the Turbines as well as other local reggae acts. Nightly playing in hotels played an integral role in the eclectic background and approach towards Leon's bass playing. This enabled him to blend into any musical situation and preconciously he became a much talked about player.
At eighteen he met world-renowned Guitarist and one of Jamaica's greatest music exponents: Ernest Ranglin. Leon was getting a first hand introduction to the jazz idiom in the trio with Carl Mc Leod on Drums. During those years, the trio was a first choice rhythm section for visiting artistes such as Courtney Pine, Pharoah Saunders, Othello Molineaux to name a few.
In 1994 Leon went on a European tour then decided to settle in Zurich Switzerland where's he's been based since. He connected well with the music-scene and participated in many projects.
In 2002 Patrice called Leon two days before a scheduled performance at the Nyon festival in Switzerland, Leon has since then toured extensively with him all over Europe, USA and Africa.
Leon later had a short tour that same year in France and Germany with another Jamaican giant Monty Alexander. Then he recorded with Monty on his Disk entitled "My America" with some of the most prolific names in the business such as John Pizzarelli, Freddy Cole, Kevin Mahogany Bobby Thomas Jr. and Desi Jones. He also toured Japan that same year with Monty Alexander.
Bergstrasse,32 8832 Bennau Tel. +41/79/605 36 69 E-mail:[email protected]
ALESSANDRO d'EPISCOPO
Alessandro d'Episcopo was born in Naples on February 1, 1959. Already at the age of 13, he decided to devote his life to music and to become a jazz musician. _He succeeded to graduate from high-school while at the same time he studied classical music at the conservatory of S. Pietro a Majella in Naples.
When he was 20, he moved to Milan, which at the time was the centre of the Italian Jazz. There he worked with musicians such as Tullio de Piscopo, Larry Nocella, Gigi Cifarelli, Chet Baker, Tony Scott, Gianni Basso, Billy Cobham, Toots Thielemans etc.
He played at various jazz festivals, e.g. Umbria Jazz, Clusone, S. Anna Arresi (Sardinia), Livorno, Cagliari and Genua. Together with Tullio de Piscopo he composed and recorded the music for Pasquale Squitieri's film "Naso di Cane" (RAI 1).
Since his early youth he was influenced by Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett as vivid examples of musical versatility and curiosity. At the age of 30, he went abroad to pursue his musical development and career, studying classical music under Rudolf am Bach in Zurich and Nina Tichman in Cologne. Concurrently, he attended courses of Thierry Lang at the conservatory of Montreux for two years, obtaining a diploma in Jazz Performance.
He always was and still is eager to explore all the various stylistic directions. Driven to go forward and to experience new dimensions, he studied Jazz Improvisation under Charly Banacos (Boston/USA) for many years.
His urge for musical freedom and his enthusiasm for experiments induce Alessandro to participate in most diverse events and to work together with different musicians like George Robert, Franco Ambrosetti, Marianne Racine, Benny Bailey, Peter Appleyard, etc.
Bergstrasse,32 8832 Bennau Tel. +41/79/605 36 69 E-mail:[email protected] MARC HALBHEER
Marc Halbheer was born in Zurich/Switzerland in 1965.
Soon it showed that his main area of interest was in music. The fascination for rhythm was obvious and during his early youth he discovered the passion for Drums. He continuously developed his skills and became a master on those instruments.
1988 Marc traveled to Los Angeles (USA) where he studied with topdrummers like Ralph Humphrey, Joe Porcaro or the longtime Frank Zappa-bandmember Ed Man. Soon he had opportunities to work with jazz- and latinbands and played a lot of club-dates in southern California. During that time he became friends with his longtime musical pears Yiotis Kiourtsoglou (GR), (IL) and (CH/USA)
On his return to Zurich (CH) in 1991 Marc soon became one of the busiest drummers on the scene. Since 1992 he has a professorship for drums and rhythm at the Music University Lucerne (CH).
In his work, Marc consequently follows the multiple aspects of Music. As one of the most versatile musicians in Switzerland he influenced and initiated a remarkable number of projects.
Aside from his enthusiasm for jazz he is involved in the music of different cultural backgrounds. On his frequent trips to Greece with EXIT he became familiar with the music of the Balkans. Together with Chinese Erhu-Master Xiao Jing Wang he started the band Yuan Wei in 2001 and started exploring the Asian traditions.
One of the most important recent experiences for Marc is the work with the TienShanSwiss-Express, founded in 2002. This group assembles 20 artists from Kyrgyzstan, Khakasia (South Siberia), Mongolia and Central Europe.
Bergstrasse,32 8832 Bennau Tel. +41/79/605 36 69 E-mail:[email protected] The most successful appearances of the TSSE include Concerts on Festivals in Europe (a.o. Paleo Nyon, Forum 2004 Barcelona) and extensive touring through Central Asia and Mongolia.
Marc's history also includes touring and recording internationally with Mathias Rüegg's Vienna Art Orchestra, EXIT, Tillman and Ambient Groove Artists, Gotthard, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, John Voirol's Flow'n-Jazz, Heiri Känzig, Christy Doran, 's Paralpin, Arild Anderson, Standard Edition, Yuan Wei, TSSE and many more.
Bergstrasse,32 8832 Bennau Tel. +41/79/605 36 69 E-mail:[email protected]