Salsa, Jazz & Balkan Suite
October 15, 2003
The bassist and composer Branko Arnšek.
When Branko Arnšek is in Moscow or St. Petersburg, the people recognize him on the street
And pick up the paper and pencil to get an autogram. But also in many other parts of the world the renowned jazz bassist and "salsa king" is known and sought after.
Arnšek, who came to Slovenian Celje as an immigrant child of the first generation, came to the new country. "My father had a dance ensemble, I had a tape and could memorize all the hits," says Arnšek, laughing. He was tormented by various piano lessons, but the radio operator did not jump over. "But at the age of 15 I found the jazz and I remembered the piano again." Unfortunately - or fortunately? - the wait list for piano lessons in the music school was much too long. There were free places on the bass. Bingo!
Nevertheless, Branko Arnšek tried to be a solid painter once as a glass painter. "But I quickly realized that music was what I really wanted to do." After studying at the University of Bern, the high-society of jazz music, Arnšek began a stressful period: jobbing as a musician, studying and more Balancing between family and vocation.
Almost aside, the versatile autodidact learned perfectly Spanish, walked the former Yugoslavia on foot ("to find out where I come from") and founded the first Salsa ensemble in and around Stuttgart more than 20 years ago. Wawanxo called it, and the Cuban rhythms quickly snapped the people from the seats. "In the Locanda restaurant, people danced on the tables and in front of the restaurant and blocked the car park," recalls Arnšek, one of the first performances. With the CD The White Diamonds with its modern jazz ensemble, which includes musicians like Vladimir Bolschakoff, the first real jazz success soon joined the salsa.
Since these early years, there is nothing musical about Branko Arnsek that has not been successful. He takes music projects with international artists such as the Tabla musician Udaj Mazumdar, plays in the Sinti Jazz Band Zigeli Winter Quintet, makes sessions with Plattenpapst Jöak and performs among other things with the Serbian pianist Rade Soric and the Croatian saxophonist Drazen Drenski.
His first love, the jazz, is always faithful to Branko Arnšek: "For today's music, jazz is the best common denominator of all musical genres and the best theory I have ever seen." Stuttgart's fame was won by the jazz tearoom, Arnsek , Supported by cross-playing star chef Vincent Klink with some musicians. In an unconventional atmosphere - for example in a piano shop - the jazzmen meet with their audience to a spontaneous jazz festival in small. "We go to the stage without knowing what we are going to play," Arnšek describes the experimental nature of such projects. It is about the experiment, in order to make freedom music as art. "
In order to be able to support young artists of all musical, experimental and cultural backgrounds, he also founded the Musician Network. And true to the motto: "Music is art, but in the second instance it can also be developed as a commercial thing", he has his own record company: 59music - the number 59 for Arnšek's birth year.
The passionate bassist and composer never seems to lack new projects and ideas. He currently writes a Balkan Suite for orchestra and teaches at the Stuttgart Music School. And if you listen to him, as he talks enthusiastically about Siberian overtones, Japanese gongs, and Arabian natural music, one understands why he had to become a musician.
Branko Arnšek also recently married - and, as it should be, his wife is also a musician. And not just any, but the Cuban singer, Yaqueline Castellano, the "Great Lady of the Son". In her home country, Yaqueline has long been a star and has also competed the hit parades in Miami, San Francisco and New York with the title Como me ha insultado. For some CDs legends like the recently deceased Compay Segundo made the accompanying music. Under the band name Tokame Branko Arnšek and they work on a common CD.
It would be nice to work for a decade, but Branko Arnšek would not be a full-blooded musician if he did not have a wish for the time: "Play an Arab ensemble bass - that's it!"
Nina Blazon, Intercultur Stuttgart, 10/2003
MUSICIAN - COMPOSER - PRODUCER - TEACHER
BRANKO ARNSEK
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