A little summary of what keeps me busy

I play drums for a living and love Jazz and creative and soulful music. Originally from Germany, I've been living in the Netherlands since 1999. Creating music and sharing it with an audience is one of the greatest blessings I know and fortunately my possibilities to do so keep expanding. I also love to combine music and other disciplines such as dance, theatre and poetry and hope to do this more and more in the near future.

Right now I'm acting in a theatre play which was written especially for my jazztrio "Robinson, Freitag & Caruso" (RFC). It's called Lucky Track and shows the habits of teenage guys wanting to be the best and the coolest, but eventually realize that it's all just a show and that friendship matters most.
I think the common denominator of all forms of Art is to tell stories and/or create moods through different means.
I believe that all aspects of life basically follow the same rules and principles which eventually lead back to understanding one's own mind. The exploration and liberation thereof are a big inspiration to me. This is where Buddhism and other precious teachings come in and provide constant guidance. I should add, though, that I'm also quite good at looking away from problems before actually solving them...

That said, being a sucker for good stories I can waste endless hours watching movies and television series. Add to that a habit of spending too much money on CDs, books, comics and gadgets and you get an idea of what keeps me occupied.

A while ago I won the "Dutch Jazz Competition" (with RFC)

at the North Sea Jazz Festival and received the prize for "Best Soloist".

Since I got my motorcycle driver's license in 2009 I love cruising to far away places (or just the grocery store) on my big, beautiful, roaring Harley Davidson. I'm under 50 and don't sport a beard and a big beer belly, but someone's gotta break the clichée, right?

I like lists. So here's a list of things I like.

Salmon with broccoli (and everything my mother cooks).
The "Wayne Shorter Quartet". It's simply the best band in the world.
Comics. Especially "Bone", "Calvin & Hobbes", "Invincible", "The Walking Dead" and everything drawn and written by Carls Barks, Floyd Gottfredson & Don Rosa.

Buddhism & my parents.

Here's a description of my musical background
And it's only the beginning..

I started playing the piano when I was seven. As a kid I also wanted to play the saxophone, bass and drums. When I was 11 I got my own drums (after always bashing on my cousin's set when we visited my uncle). I don't know how my teacher survived the first couple of years, but as far as I remember I was a lousy and lazy student and didn't understand a thing about drumming. Well, I did play Beatles songs with a friend. He played keyboards, I drummed and we both sang. We mostly played "Yellow Submarine".

After my piano teacher made a very clear remark about what a shame it was that I had absolutely no interest in getting involved in any of the music school's other bands and projects I felt a bit guilty. So I gradually got involved until I played in almost all of the school's bands. I played drums in one band, vibraphone and congas in another, Samba with the percussion ensemble, sort-of-classical-percussion with a sort-of-classical-orchestra and at one point I even played piano in the Big Band (rather poorly though).

When I was 14 someone gave me a videotape. He said: "You make music, right? Check this out, maybe you like it." As it turned out it was a 1988 live recording of Chick Corea and his Akoustic Band with Tom Brechtlein on drums (instead of Dave Weckl) and the great John Patitucci on bass playing at the "Stuttgarter Jazz Gipfel". At that point I had no idea of what Jazz was and the only music I had bought for myself were mainly soundtracks of movies that I liked. I was not quite aware of the different musical genres. Anyway, what I saw and heard blew me away. They played with so much fun and freshness and the sounds they produced were so beautiful. They were really "playing" in the purest sense of the word. What a joy to behold! And when, after receiving a long standing ovation, they returned to play "Autumn Leaves" together with Bobby McFerrin, the audience (and I) went almost crazy. It was too good to be true and from that moment on I knew that this was the kind of music I wanted to play. The tape also included performances by Bobby McFerrin, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Al Foster and Miles Davis, all from the same festival. I soaked it all up and watched the tape again and again. I even recorded the music to a cassette tape and listened to it at school. I got some very funny looks from my classmates when they heard Bobby McFerrin ecstatically improvising out of my earphones. Luckily there was quite a big, annual Jazz festival almost right in front of my doorstep, the "Leverkusener Jazztage", which I attended every year from then on.

A year or so later my piano teacher, who was a classical player, suggested that I start to learn modern piano with someone else. So after switching I finally founded my first Jazz group together with my new piano teacher. I kept playing, listening and studying more and more until the music pretty much dominated my teenage life.
At 16, when everything was all set for me to go to the United States for a schoolyear, I cancelled the whole thing at the last moment so as to be sure that I'd continue to get drumlessons and be able to practice. That year I practiced as never before and really emerged myself into the music.

It never ocurred to me to do anything else than be a musician after high school.

..to be continued sometime within this decade..

Thanks for reading!