Born:
April 12, 1939
1939 born in Zurich, grows up in or near Berne
1958 professional musician, tours in Europe with the TREMBLE KIDS, Oskar Klein, Albert Nicholas, Bill Coleman, Joe Turner, Wild Bill Davison, Peanuts Holland
1960 after short guest performance with Armand Gordons Ragtime Band, moves to Paris: Bill Coleman, Stéphane Grapelli, Memphis Slim a. o.
1961 Claude Bolling Sextet / Big Band
1963 LP-recordings with Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorne, Alice Babs, Tour with Beryl Bryden, Diz Dizzley and Johnny Parker in Malaysia and Sarawak.
1964 with tap-dancer Harold Nicholas, Renè Urtreger
1965-68 studio-musician in Paris, again with Claude Bolling
1969 moves back to Berne. “FOUR FOR JAZZ”, Heinz Bigler, Isla Eckinger, Joe Haider, Gerd Dudek, Benny Bailey. Co-founder of the Swiss Jazz School
1970 Initiator of the first international Jazz Clinic in Wengen, Switzerland
1972 moves to Frankfurt / M., Albert Mangelsdorff Quintett, until 1977 tours in Europe, Asia, Africa, Near East.
1973 publication of his “neuen schlagzeugschule” Vol. I (out of print)
1975 solopercussion LP: “family of percussion”. Founds Label “nagara-records”
1976 trio “Giger-Lenz-Marron”. Initiator and director of the first percussion-course in Weikersheim
1977 solo performance at the Berliner Jazztage. “neue schlagzeugschule” Vol. II (out of print). Solo-LP is produced in the USA by the initiative of Max Roach. Founds the FAMILY OF PERCUSSION (FOP) with Trilok Gurtu, Doug Hammond and Tom Nicholas
1979 “direct-to-disc”-LP: “Africa meets Europe” with Papa Oyeah Makenzie (Ghana)
1980 LP and tour with FOP and Archie Shepp
1984 FOP in India. New Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Concerts a. o. with Zakir Hussein, Umayalpuram K. Shivaraman and Palgat Raghu. Guests in Gigers different groups: Nana Vasconcelos, Gerd Dudek, Wolfgang Dauner, Joachim Kühn, Steve Swallow, Michal Urbaniak, Victor Bailey, Alan Skidmore, Christian Escoudé, Sam Rivers, Chistof Lauer, John Schröder, Thomas Heidepriem a.m.o.. Directs the “World Percussion and Jazz Jubilee” in Wengen/Switzerland
1985 start of the collaboration with Mangelsdorff / Dauner & FOP - “Moon at noon”
1986 duo-concert with Max Roach at the Jazzfestival, Hofheim
1988 “Peter Giger Quartet” with Jasper van t‘Hof, Tomasz Stanko and Vitold Rek.
1991 “FOP & Friends” in Mozambique. Fusion with timbila-musicians from Zavala (Leader: Eduardo Durao). “Peter Giger Trio” with Gerd Dudek and Vitold Rek
1992 “FOP & Friends” with senegalese Group SAF SAP. Second journey to Mozambique. “JAZZ meets TIMBILA” at the JazzFest Berlin, Live-CD “Mozambique meets Europe”
1994 moves to Meißen (Saxony) and founds Sound-Studio. Tour with his trio and with FOP in Eastern Germany
1996 Third visit of FOP to Mozambique. Festivals in Zavala and Maputo.
1999 Film: HERR DER TROMMELN (Lord of the drums) “the Peter Giger Story”. Initiates “Association Worldmuseum of Percussion-Instruments Dresden”, with teachers and professors of the music-academy “Carl Maria von Weber”, a. o. Siegfried Ludwig, Günter “Baby” Sommer and Bernhard Schmidt.
2000 FOP participates at the “Euro Art Meeting” in Wroclav, Poland: “Ethnic Percussion Symphony” by Sambor Dudzinski
2002 �” 2003 Moves to Ticino (Switzerland), Solo concerts, regular participation at “Perugia Classico”, concerts at the Film-Festival Locarno.
2004 Solo Tour in Westafrica (Ivory Coast, Cameroun, Senegal)
2005 Concert in Dakar with “Géwél Rhythm Begg Falou” for the Goethe-Institut
2006 Issue of “A Drum is a Woman”, double CD by Intuition Records.
2007 Concerts a. o. at the Film-Festival Locarno. Tour with a nine piece Ensemble „World Family of Percussion Pack” in Germany (30 years Family of Percussion).
Switzerland
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