“The complete drummer…sensitive and colourful…combining form and freedom” read the citation when Jens Düppe won the WDR Jazz Prize for improvisation in 2018. Jazzzeitung describes him as “one of the most innovative representatives of improvised music.” Born in Schwäbisch Gmünd in Southern Germany and now based in Cologne, Düppe was recruited personally in 2003 by German jazz trombone legend Albert Mangelsdorff. In 2021, Düppe’s quartet – with trumpeter Frederik Köster, pianist Lars Duppler and bassist Christian Ramond – released “The Beat” (Neuklang), described by one German commentator as “highly musical in every second, full of the joy of playing, and atmospherically very intense.”

Frederik Köster (tpt), Lars Duppler (p), Christian Ramond (b), Jens Düppe (dr, voc)