AUSTRIAN SYNDICATE
David Helbock – tastiere, synth
Peter Madsen – piano
Raphael Preuschi – basso
Herbert Pirker – batteria
Claudio Spieler – percussioni
American jazz pianist Peter Madsen („…a well-kept secret favorite among piano enthusiasts…“ – Jazztimes) can look back on a successful career in jazz that has lasted over 40 years. His first breakthrough came in 1987 when world star Stan Getz brought him into his band to tour the US and Europe.
Since then Peter has played with the “Who’s Who” of the jazz scene – and in very different styles – with traditional musicians like Benny Golson or Stanley Turrentine, with modern musicians like Chris Potter, Joe Lovano or Kenny Garrett, free players like Dewey Redman and Don Cherry or in his more than 30 years of collaboration with funk greats like Fred Wesley or Maceo Parker.
In 2001 Peter moved from New York to Austria, where he met 16-year-old David Helbock, already an exceptional talent on the piano, and became his teacher, mentor and friend.
In the meantime, David Helbock has outgrown his former teacher’s footsteps and become his most successful student.
Helbock is a multiple prize winner of the world’s largest jazz piano solo competition in Montreux (CH), has released over 20 albums as a leader – the last five of them on the renowned German record label ACT – and the press celebrates him as a “clever sound tinkerer and consistent tracker on the pulse of time” (3sat Kulturzeit) or as a “shooting star of the European scene” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
In this joint project, Peter Madsen and David Helbock are now bringing on board the best rhythm section Austria has to offer in jazz for their “Austrian Syndicate“.
Raphael Preuschl and Herbert Pirker have been a well-rehearsed team for over 20 years and are the most sought-after bass-drums duo in Vienna.
Raphael, who actually studied double and electric bass, has also made the unusual bass ukulele his own like no other, and Herbert otherwise contributes his grooves to bands as diverse as Shake Stew or the rapper Fiva, while also teaching at jazz universities such as Linz and Graz, as one of the youngest professors in Austria at the time.
The quintet is further refined by the percussion skills of Claudio Spieler, who followed a similar path as David Helbock and studied in his younger years with the Afghan master drummer Hakim Ludin in the traditional master-pupil relationship and now himself makes guest appearances on the big stages together with Konstantin Wecker or Martin Grubinger.
A great project coming deep from David Helbock’s heart
… in which the “young wild lions” of Austrian jazz meet one of the most sought-after sideman of international jazz of the last decades – with a lot of percussion and groove and above all many keyboards and keyboard instruments completely in the spirit of Austria’s most successful jazz musician – Joe Zawinul.
The band will record their first album beginning of 2023, which will be released on ACT Music mid 2023.
Biographie David Helbock:
Biographie Peter Madsen:
www.petermadsen.us/about-resume
video: track from live in Vienna 2023