Jazz musician Till Brönner releases new jazz album

Don't let his youthful spirit fool you: Till Brönner has a colorful career to look back on. The 45-year-old jazz trumpeter has been performing and recording as a professional musician for more than two decades. His reputation has taken him to the US, where he is equally celebrated as one of the greatest jazz musicians of our time.

Brönner nowadays splits his time between Los Angeles and Berlin and speaks candidly about the differences between the two cultures. His latest album, "The Good Life," is inspired by his experiences living in California. It features not only some stellar interpretations of jazz standards but also a number of Brönner's own compositions. The award-winning musician says he takes a laid-back approach with regards to the upcoming release.

Deutsche Welle: Your new album "The Good Life" is being released on September 2nd. How many albums have you released to date anyway?

Till Brönner: I haven't kept count, but I suspect that this is my 17th.

Do you find that whenever you release a new album people expect it to be something completely different and new from what you've done before?

What I've noticed is that only jazz musicians ever get asked about producing something new or different. To give you an example, I've never heard anyone ask that about [German rock singer] Herbert Grönemeyer. That's rather amusing. I mean there are artists who've announced their next album 12 years in advance, and people know exactly how it will sound. And that's what most people want in those cases.

However, it would appear that with jazz there's a collective assumption that musicians have to be in a constant state of development. When I look back, I find that this is actually true, that I got to explore quite a bit over the years. I think I've at least managed to find out what I no longer want to do.

But there's still that impression that you're undergoing a certain risk with your new album - even though you don't have the reputation of being a rebel. In addition to jazz standards, the album also features some of your own compositions. How important is that for your career?

I'm not so sure whether the sound of the new album is really all that new. On the contrary, I'm actually going back to my roots somewhat. I released my very first album in 1994, "Generations of Jazz." And the sound there is almost identical to that on "The Good Life." But I didn't realize that while I was busy recording and producing it. When it comes to your own development, you only get to be an observer in hindsight.

And it's funny that you mention rebel. I never rebelled against having the rebel image. I do rebel but don't provoke, and that's not welcomed in the jazz scene.You enjoy mixing elements from pop music into your jazz. Do purists consider that a violation? Or has genre-bending become a norm in the international music world?

It's nothing new and certainly doesn't constitute a violation. This kind of blending started back in the 1970s. The term used to describe it back then was "fusion." I think that what matters today is to establish a sense of recognizability. The greatest compliment you can give any musician is if people can recognize quickly who's playing or singing - especially since musicians are typically always on a quest of self-discovery. An artist is compelled to follow whatever impulses lead him from within.

But people who know your music will perhaps still be surprised when they hear "The Good Life," because you also sing on many of the tracks - more so than on previous CDs. Was it important to you to add another dimension here?

I worked with a producer who's done many different kinds of records. And he was only interested in making this album if I agreed to sing on it. I didn't intend to sing in the run-up to the recording as much as I ended up doing on the final result. I had wanted to try things out and at least balance the instrumental tracks in number against the vocal ones before making the final decision on what goes on the new CD. But he convinced me in the end, and I really enjoy the sound.

Do you treat your voice as an instrument or is singing something completely different from playing the trumpet?

For me, it's completely different. For one thing, you'll notice that I don't sing as a main occupation nor did I have vocal training. But I noticed that people pay a lot more attention to the stage if you sing a number or two as well. It would appear that at the end of the day, the human voice is the most perfect of instruments, even if - as in my case - that voice didn't have perfect training.

Have you become competent enough in singing that you can automatically apply your jazz instinct, as you do when you play the trumpet?

I think every singer would be well-advised to choose numbers that suit him. This is a rather sensitive issue - more so than is the case with a wind instrument. The delivery of the lyrics, which has a lot to do with the singer himself, is also important. That's why I only choose songs with lyrics I can relate to. When I interpret them, I find that they have to say something about me, almost as if I'd written them myself.The album title "The Good Life - Music for Peaceful Moments" and the tracks on it share a certain light and jaunty spirit, which perhaps represents the easygoing lifestyle in California. Could the atmosphere at the recording studio in LA also be described as more laid-back than what you would have in Berlin?

The attitude towards life in LA studios actually approximates "The Good Life" quite well. The atmosphere there is simply drenched in the Californian sunlight. People take their time; sometimes they'll have a cigar between takes. A day at the studio doesn't take very long either, which is not to say anything about productivity or quality. What matters most is the kind of authenticity you will only get when recording there. We wanted an atmosphere where there were no questions asked. If we had attempted to do the same in Stockholm with Swedish musicians, it would've have been a different story altogether.

Did you notice in any way while you were in California that you still carry the German virtues in you wherever you go?

You notice these things whenever you're faced with other people's prejudices. For instance, if you want take something a little more seriously and dig deeper or ask further questions, you hear things like "Come on, man, we're in LA. Chill out…" or "That's very German!"

We Germans like to worry about things so we can predict when something isn't going to work out. That habit may hold us back at times. When ideas come up in LA, there's always a welcoming "yes" at the outset, and parameters and boundaries can always be set at a later stage. I find that this approach markedly benefits the final outcome.

You must have invested a lot of thought into the presentation of the CD. Was it a long process for you and your management team to come up with the title of the album and the cover image?

First we had no concept at all. We spent a lot of time thinking about the title we wanted to choose. In the end, we narrowed it down to a combination of the sound and the visuals we wanted to evoke. "The Good Life" is not only the name of a track on the album but is a quality in terms of the overall sound you'd associate with the recording. But there's also a poetic aspect to all this dwelling in the background, which we discovered much later.You are also an outstanding photographer, and your portrait photography has been featured in exhibitions. How much importance do you place on the message a cover image is to convey? After all, these are the kinds of things that immortalize an artist.

I believe it is important to reflect carefully about what kind of cover you'll be happy to autograph for the rest of your life. That's why these kinds of decisions take a lot of time.

You've sold more than one million albums to date. That is pretty impressive for jazz. Are there any downsides to that kind of commercial success?

There have been times when a lot of attention was paid to everything I did. Nowadays I find that it's perfectly fine if the gap between two albums can be up to two years. I relish in that, and need this. The frequency of releases in the music industry has notably increased over the years. It's not easy to stand out anymore.

If you turn out to have less success in your career than what you'd hoped for, you should still at least be able to look at yourself in the mirror for the rest of your life. I'm no longer solely focused on success or willing to change musically in order to have more commercial success - or to compromise to that end.

Interview: Heike Mund/ss