Biography
Among the trombone-playing Bauer siblings, Johannes stands as the elder with the most extensive recorded output and greatest visibility within free jazz circles, even as his younger brother Connie continues to challenge that standing. Listeners can readily contrast their approaches through frequent joint ventures, notably the Doppelmoppel ensemble that merges a pair of electric guitars with twin trombones and the plainly titled album Bauer, Bauer. During the 1970s the Bauer family anchored East Germany’s jazz community, and the nation’s boisterous free-jazz idiom would scarcely be conceivable without Johannes’s commanding trombone contributions. Connie participated for fewer years before the Berlin Wall fell and the country dissolved, taking with it the network of state-supported venues that had sustained its musicians. Johannes, by contrast, cut his earliest sides for the government-operated Amiga imprint; after unification he emerged as one of the more vocal proponents for restoring elements of the prior cultural framework.
Born in the 1950s in Halle on the Saale, the river once nicknamed “a dally on the Saale” by American G.I.’s, he pursued musical studies in Berlin. From the late 1970s onward he worked as a freelance improviser and directed several workshop ensembles that performed his own specially conceived pieces. While Germany remained divided he appeared regularly with the Manfred Schulze Bläserquintett, documenting multiple acclaimed projects, and with the Ulrich Gumpert Workshop; he also belonged to the high-energy Slawterhaus unit alongside violinist Jon Rose and maintained an enduring partnership with the bearded Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove. Whenever large European ensembles required trombonists, his name surfaced on the rosters of Alexander von Schlippenbach’s Globe Unity Orchestra, Barry Guy’s New Orchestra, the Tony Oxley Orchestra, Peter Brötzmann’s März Combo, and Cecil Taylor’s European Orchestra—occasionally alongside his brother. North American audiences, however, more often encountered him in intimate duo settings during late-1990s tours with Van Hove, prompting one commentator to observe, “this is not the typical kind of smooth jazz audiences are used to in the Tampa Bay area.” Achtung! ~ Eugene Chadbourne
Born in the 1950s in Halle on the Saale, the river once nicknamed “a dally on the Saale” by American G.I.’s, he pursued musical studies in Berlin. From the late 1970s onward he worked as a freelance improviser and directed several workshop ensembles that performed his own specially conceived pieces. While Germany remained divided he appeared regularly with the Manfred Schulze Bläserquintett, documenting multiple acclaimed projects, and with the Ulrich Gumpert Workshop; he also belonged to the high-energy Slawterhaus unit alongside violinist Jon Rose and maintained an enduring partnership with the bearded Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove. Whenever large European ensembles required trombonists, his name surfaced on the rosters of Alexander von Schlippenbach’s Globe Unity Orchestra, Barry Guy’s New Orchestra, the Tony Oxley Orchestra, Peter Brötzmann’s März Combo, and Cecil Taylor’s European Orchestra—occasionally alongside his brother. North American audiences, however, more often encountered him in intimate duo settings during late-1990s tours with Van Hove, prompting one commentator to observe, “this is not the typical kind of smooth jazz audiences are used to in the Tampa Bay area.” Achtung! ~ Eugene Chadbourne
Albums
