Jazz Articles about Urs Leimgruber

About Urs Leimgruber

Album Review

Formed in Lucerne in 1972 by saxophonist Urs Leimgruber, guitarist Christy Doran, bassist Bobby Burri, and drummer Fredy Studer, the original quartet fused the raw voltage of rock with the open architecture of free improvisation, arriving at a sound they eventually dubbed “ElectroAcoustiCore." Studer's death in 2022, weeks ahead of the release of the anniversary album 50 (Intakt), 2022), might reasonably have closed the book. Instead, the three surviving founders did something a lesser band would not have attempted: they ...

Multiple Reviews

Two very different albums from Urs Leimgruber

by John Eyles
March 20, 2026

In 2021, Urs Leimgruber was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a serious chronic illness of the lungs, which causes ever-worsening shortness of breath and is ultimately fatal. A lung transplant offered the only possible way of avoiding this outcome, and, in March 2025, he underwent this complicated and dangerous operation. It was a success, and now another human's respiratory organs are enabling him to breathe and to express himself as a musician again. Two and a half months after his ...

Album Review

Christy Doran's May 95 Sextet: Same But Different

Read "Same But Different" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
October 14, 2025

Curse or blessing? A festival handing a musician carte blanche for a one-off adventure sounds liberating, but the allure of artistic freedom can be tempered by pressure: what if the personalities do not gel? What if it bombs? Christy Doran, the Ireland-born Lucerne-based guitarist, has never been one to dodge a challenge. His entire career has been marked by adventure and innovation. From jazz-rock fusioneers OM in the early '70s to his later groups New Bag, Sound Fountain, ...

Album Review

Urs Leimgruber: AIR Vol. 2

Read "AIR Vol. 2" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
September 26, 2024

Released a year after the four-disc album AIR Vol. 1 (Creative Works Records, 2023) comes the three-disc AIR Vol. 2, which has a similar layout to the earlier release. Each disc of the four-disc album featured Swiss saxophonist Urs Leimgruber in a duo with a different player: American drummer Gerry Hemingway, Swiss pianist Hans Peter Pfammatter, Swiss amplified spinet player Jacques Demierre, German synthesiser player Thomas Lehn. Each disc of the three-disc follow-up does the same: French double bassist Joëlle ...

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Album Review

Leimgruber, Demierre, Lehn: in the endless wind

Read "in the endless wind" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 25, 2024

Per the marketing release, LDL emerged from the trio LDP, which had already made waves in the European music scene. However, the transformation did not stop there. The addition of analog synthesizer ace Thomas Lehn expanded the group, resulting in the quartet LDP+L. Interestingly, Barre Phillips, who played a pivotal role in shaping LDP's style and form, does not appear on the LDL lineup. In The Endless Wind invites listeners on an introspective journey. Urs Leimgruber's soprano saxophone ...

Liner Notes

Christy Doran: in The Corner Of The Eye

by Ian Patterson
January 15, 2024

For forty years, Irish-born, Lucerne-based guitarist Christy Doran has recorded prolifically for numerous labels. Inevitably perhaps, many of his earlier works are out of print, so it's cause for celebration that this release brings together the very best of Phoenix (hat Art, 1990) and What a Band (hat Art, 1992), two long-neglected yet essential Doran recordings. The majority of Doran's releases have been with bands, from the seventies jazz-rock/free jazz group OM to New Bag, his main working ...

Album Review

Euphorium_freakestra: Free Acoustic Supergroup

Read "Free Acoustic Supergroup" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 5, 2023

Thanks to pianist and director Oliver Schwerdt, the Euphorium_freakestra is and always has been a glorious experiment in organized disorganization. The double CD Free Acoustic Supergroup is the ensemble's seventh release. Schwerdt's experiments began with the single disc Ðal Ngai (Euphorium Records, 2004) and eventually the group's 3-CD Grande Casino (Euphorium Records, 2018). Ðal Ngai included the guest artists Friedrich Schenker and Günter Baby Sommer. Other releases found the ensemble hosting musicians such as Thomas Lehn, Barry Guy, and Bertrand ...