Markus Strothmann

His project Transitions Organ Duo, a Hammond/Drum duo with Dutch organist John Hondorp, does not only continue work with renowned guest soloists. It displays Markus’s vision of a contemporary jazz music that combines communicational and dynamic aspects of jazz music with the rawness of rock sounds, always in respect of the heritage of jazz music. He likes to refer to this music as “Razz”. On Transitions album “No Idea”, which is to be released end of 2013, Jeanfrançois Prins (guitar) and Frederik Köster (trumpet, winner of the German Jazz Echo prize) join Transitions on Markus compositions “Emerald” and “No Idea”, as well as Prins’s composition Futebol. Larry Goldings listened to this album and commented: ”I’m really impressed with the thoughtfulness of the music.”

During his master's degree studies, Markus was able to broaden his network strongly through writing a research on the network of jazz music in Europe. He visited and lived in London, Dublin and Brussels and interviewed important jazz personalities, such as the heads of the jazz departments at the conservatoires (e.g. the royal academy of music and the guildhall London) or club managers. These interviews as well as various concerts and lessons he took during this research gave him an understanding of the various (jazz)music outcomes and structures on jazz across Europe. He was always able to keep connections made during this time active, which for example resulted in Markus being interviewed by Linley Hamilton of BBC radio. They talked about the Transitions Organ Duo as well as Markus’s research activities. Some tracks of Transitions were played.

He was able to initiate his career as a jazz musician 2009 with his own concert series “Markus Strothmann meets...”, in which he met European jazz personalities such as Nippy Noya, Norbert Gottschalk, Bart van Lier and many more on stage.