The Frankfurt Musikmesse 2009 After Work Session with the Hartmut Hillmann Band were a nice series of concerts with fantastic musicians from all over the world! Thank You!
Hartmut Hillmann appreciates, loves and endorses the exceptional pieces of craftsmanship provided by these wonderful companies:
Besides bass playing and composing for "The Hartmut Hillmann Band", Hartmut plays with Dgroove, SELF, as a bass solo artist and with the Japanese R&B Band "Ushi-Tora" as MD, producer, drummer and bass player.
Etkilendikleri
Music: Herbie, Miles, Sting, Joe (Zawinul), Africa (for me that's the place, where the rhythm comes from), Charlie Banacos (the greatest teacher on earth!).
Bass: Jaco, Gary Willis (who was not very polite, when I asked him to write some liner notes for the Uncivilized CD at the Frankfurt Music Fair in 2001), Marcus Miller (who's always helpful answering my nerving questions), Jeff Andrews (thanks for two afternoons studying in the Bronx - music and life -, travelling fearfully from Fodera's Brooklyn workshop, taking a ride in an at last completely empty subway (the travel-guide book had said "never ride an empty train!!!", and just two black guys jumped in and... sang a song for me and leaving me almost fainting), then, after a search for a yellow cab (Oh yes, I thought all cabs were yellow all over the USA), with a black arab taxi, driven by father and son, raising my fear to get ripped off of my brand new Fodera bass, arriving at Jeff's house totally pertubed, being unable to play "Stella By Starlight" and being told that my playing was not so well ("I can't hear any references in Your playing..."), Anthony Jackson, Victor Wooten, Buster Williams (a Buddhist fellow along with Herbie and Larry Coryell, with the latter I had once the chance to do our evening ceremony, called "Gongyo") Ron Carter, Jean-Francoise Jenny-Clarke (who was such a beutiful human being and teacher: "Hartmut, You have to learn, to address Yourself!"), Stanley Clarke (the first bass player I noticed and who made me switching from guitar to bass), Alain Caron, Gerald Veasley, Claus Fischer (Franck Band, one night hearing him in Fulda, when he told me after our "Zabriskie Point" concert at the same event: "You inspired me to practice again", and he played so great, that I was really ashamed, because I played a lot of garbage, not only because I had to drive 650 kilometers to the gig and back the same night, I was back at 7 in the morning, in 1992?)
Life: Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, Nichiren Daishonin, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Josei Toda, Daisaku Ikeda, Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, my wife Julia and our kids Tatsuya (5) and Yumi (4).
Cooking & eating: My Mom, drinking: My Pa ;-)
Neye Benziyor?
Some of Hartmut's YouTube videos, some new, some ten years old:
Hartmut was born in 1961 in a small village in the backwoods, the Taunus hills in Germany near the Lorelei rock. He started on guitar at age 15 and switched immediately to bassguitar when he heard a Stanley Clarke record. Though he had just his brother's "Hoefner" guitar for practicing, he tried to tune the strings as low as possible, to get a bass sound. He didn't have any clue, how a bass was tuned. He just tried to make it sound somehow looow...
After two years of saving all his money, he started off to the next bigger city to acquire a Japanese Jazzbass copy called: "Marvin", just for the beautiful black, red-wrapped ends, nylon flatwounds. Immediately he was hired by a guitar playing classmate, Udo (not John) Meyer, for the school Rock band "BREAK"(still existing after 30 years), just because he was impressed by those black strings, for playing Rolling Stones songs. He hated these songs from the bottom of his heart, because he wanted to be, uhh, a jazz musician, which he thought of to be so cool.
Later he indeed found some people to play jazz, and nowadays he loves to play "Brown Sugar" and "Jumping Jack Flash" (but struggles still every day with songs like "Giant Steps" or "Donna Lee"). Working as a musical theater musician for "Line One", "Little Shop Of Horrors" and "Personals" widened his music view and allowed him to pay his rent for two years.
He played all kinds of Jazz standards in many bands, won the "First Bass International Bass Magazine" award in the jazz category (finalist in the Fusion category together with Les July) in 1985, auditioned in 1992 at the Frankfurt Music Fair for a Berklee scholarship, which he got, but decided to stay in Germany playing with his first own band "Hartmut Hillmann Eclecticband" and later "Zabriskie Point". The latter was quite successful with two CD releases (the second produced by Mallet virtuoso David Friedman) and an Africa tour in 1995, playing in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Influenced by the African grooves and musicians he decided to build a new band: "Illicit Poetry" (the songs You can listen to here), playing his original compositions, rehearsing and recording in Tuscany in 1998 and 1999 resulting in two CD releases "Eclecticjazz" and "Uncivilized". Though the record industry showed some interest, the band was never signed... and Hartmut was pissed like hell...
Since 1990 he works with young peolpe with special needs, teaching them all kinds of instruments, rap and vocals and coaching the handicapped band
"SELF".
Since 2000 he works as a drummer for the Japanese R&B band "Ushi-Tora", since 2006 he collaborated with "MBAF"(mikeburn and friends) featuring the scottish singer Kate Cassidy.
Freundschaft ist... Freunschaft ist... sowohl gute als auch schlechte, Zeiten zu durchleben, von Herzen zu lachen, aus tiefster Trauer zu weinen.
Freundschaft ist... füreinander da zu sein, ihn so zu lieben wie er ist, mit ihm Spaß zu haben, aber auch ernst zu reden.
Freundschaft ist... den anderen gut zu kennen, ehrlich zu sein, auch wenn es schwer fällt, ihm bei fast alem zu helfen/unterstützen, für ihn da zu sein,jedezeit!
Das alles macht die Freundschaft zwischen zwei Menschen aus!
Just recorded a new version of a classic by The Jets, You Got It All... (one of my favorite songs of all times) Would love for you to come by to check it out or click the link on my profile to download it for free. Hope you enjoy my friend. :)
Hallo Meister, ich wünsche Dir alles Liebe und Gute, viele Gesundheit, tiefe groovige Töne und alles das , was Du Dir wünschst. Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag. Lass Dich schön feiern, das Wetter passt ja super dazu! ;-) Stay tuned Ralf
Hallo !!!
<br />Herzlichen Dank für Deine Freundschaft – es ist mir eine Ehre. Dein Profil ist echt klasse. Hey gerade ist mein erstes Soloalbum erschienen. Es heißt "An Ocean Of Dreams" ich würde mich wirklich sehr freuen wenn Du Dir die Zeit nehmen könntest mal reinzuhören und einen Kommentar zu schreiben.
<br />Ich wünsche Dir ein tolles Wochenende
<br />Mindmovie
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Hey there. I like your style of play and was coming back through for a quick listen. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. Trying to play like you one of these days.
Online!
