The award-winning trumpeter and composer Jakob Bänsch is one of the rising stars of the European jazz scene and is already being compared to the young Wynton Marsalis by the famous jazz critic Bill Milkowski. "Powerful, sovereign in the footsteps of classical masters of his craft" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), his debut album Opening was awarded the German Jazz Prize 2024 as "Debut Album of the Year", among others. He has already played with his bands in the most renowned jazz locations and festivals in Germany and worked with international jazz greats such as Nathan East, Nils Landgren, Wolfgang Haffner, Emil Mangelsdorff, Michael Abene and as a soloist with the WDR Big Band.
At a young age, he was a member of the Bundesjazzorchester and the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy and was awarded the soloist prize of the Munich Jazz Prize in 2022. Bänsch's compositions find their greatest sources of inspiration in classical music around 1900 with e.g. Maurice Ravel, Alexander Scriabin as well as in modern jazz of the 1960s/70s with e.g. Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock). He creates an unmistakable sound from this mix, peppered with lyricism, epic intensity and virtuosity. The newly formed Jakob Bänsch Quintet stages the Latvian guitarist Ella Zirina, who is one of the most exciting newcomers on the European jazz scene. She studied in Amsterdam and plays under her own name at the biggest international jazz festivals.

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