CHRISTOPH TITZ: A TRAVELLER IN THE UNIVERSE OF SOUNDS
The second album as a leader presents the charismatic german trumpet player Christoph Titz going even deeper and further than on his highly acclaimed debut „Magic“ from 2004. This time around, Christoph adds quite a few beautiful colours to his very own canvas of sounds.
What remains, is the unmistakeable sound, only christoph is able to produce with his instrument and the variety of styles he commands. But this exactly demands absolute concentration of the audience, in order to keep track with the different directions his music takes.
Christoph hates stereotypes! Asked whether it´s jazz, pop, classic or rather classic , the answer is everything and nothing. His deep knowledge and understanding of jazz with all it´s diversified origins harmonises none the less with other ever so distant styles. A celebrated soloist who nevertheless is able to step back and give rooms to others, without risking to loose is identity. The prove is his latest release: MAGIC.
Born in Aachen and now living in Germany’s creative urban metropolis Berlin, Christoph smartly moves within the jazz genre ever since the early 90s, but never felt responsible really to surrender to its boundaries and clichees. Sure he has to live with (and always felt quite honoured by) the usual comparisons to the late Miles Davis or early Chet Baker – but Christoph always had his own and unique ways of dealing with references and routines. And so, the music on „When I Love“ again won’t fulfill all the one dimensional expectations projected on „young lion“ jazz trumpet players usually. „All my idols only believed in themselves and mainly took care of their own handwriting. And once you decided to only follow your heart, there’s no way to avoid that sort of attitude. I never thought I have to do things a certain way just to fulfill commercial aspects or even satisfy the ‚jazz police’. My music is my individual language, based on vocabulary I learned from others, but the main focus always lies on my own conclusions. It is my desire to play my music exactly like I feel it should be“, Christoph says with a smile – and again, it is quite obvious he really means what he says.
As a first call musician both live and in the recording studio, Christoph manages to thrill the audience of a saturday night prime time casting show just as much as the well educated people atending a big jazz festival. Extensive touring in territories like Cuba, India, the middle east and Morocco left marks that always have a deep impact on Christoph’s music and keep on inspiring him on a daily basis.
„My aim is to create an athmosphere of well being, a certain warmth, good entertainment for sure but with enough space for dreaming or dancing. Those are the honey traps I keep on stepping in, too, when listening to music. For me, it can be Robbie Williams first, then Miles or Chet, then a ballade by Metallica. And before I even realize, I enjoy uptempo Coltrane just as much as I do AC/DC, moroccan music, Afrobeat, Latin or even what they call ‚new music’. All those styles have one thing in common: they are honest, serious, and as diverse as they are, carry a lot of warmth and energy. That is what matters, what’s really magic about music to me.“
On „When I Love“, Christoph proves all the above mentioned with every single note. By incorporating a wonderful titletrack, which features tantalizing spoken word by Washington DC based love poet JEN. Also, Christoph’s impeccable band members get quite a bit of room to contribute a lot of their individual magic.
So this is the sound of everything Christoph Titz loves: deeply personal music, with „jazz“ only being one aspect of many in Christoph’s ever evolving sonic world.
THE BAND:
