Gerdband
Biography Gerdband
Gerd Baier
born 1961 in Heidelberg, Germany, discovered music by introducing himself to the piano at the age of three. He received a high quality training in classical music from age fife to fifteen and at that time a starting extraordinary career as a classical pianist seemed to be obvious. However when he came in touch with contemporary music he became so enthusiastic that he decided to break with traditions and devote himself to jazz and modern music. An autodidact since then he developed a highly independent style where the merging of different musical directions is constitutive and a specific way of handling harmony and rhythm shows up in his compositions.
Gerd Baier is engaged in different projects, the most part working with his own compositions of Modern and Contemporary Jazz. He performed in important Jazz places all over Germany and other European Countries as well as on international Jazz Festivals. With his formation NorthSide Quartet he played on the major European Jazz Festival “Jazz an der Donau” 2005 alongside Al Jarreau and David Sanborn. Since 2005 he introduces his new compositions in New York on a regular basis.
On February 2009 he appeared in the New York Times, in a review about „Project Perpetuum“, a collaboration of Baier / Gutbrod and dancer Emma Desjardins, a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, New York.
The gerdband
is an exceptional formation, generating a distinctive sound. All three band members are senior masters of technique and improvisation, with a deep passion for their instruments.
The trio plays original compositions by Gerd Baier exclusively, which allows ample room for the development of own musical ideas of all members. Expect startling improvisations, melancholic notes , upbeat tempos ,atmospheric sounds and thrilling drive.
