Holger Jetter

Violin

Holger grew up in Munich, Germany and began playing the violin at the age of 6. Once he was ready for a full size instrument his father gave him his own violin.

“The most vivid memory I have from my childhood is listening to Bach in a headstand against the wall…”

During the first America tour with the Modern String Quartet he bought a Zeta five string electric violin as his interest for Jazz and Rock deepend. On his second America tour he ordered a custom made 6 string violin from the violin specialist John Jordan.

“It took some getting used to playing 6 strings…”

This violin opened new horizons. Supported by a large bass amplifier he started to tweak his sound, omitted the highest string in order to reach down into the bass range. These alterations allowed if not called for more rocking sounds and his band work reflected his strive for grooving intensity. Nevertheless, the sound limitations stayed obvious and Holger decided to buy an electric double-bass.

“Playing bass evokes a totally different mindset…”

Guitar and other instruments

Guitar has been Holger’s focus of interest in early puberty. In conservatory he chose classical guitar as secondary instrument. It came to its full bloom when he began arranging and recording for clients in his project studio. He founded Sunshine Music Studio with his companion Tina in 1999. From that time onwards many students approached him to also  teach guitar and music theory.

“There is a great plus in an instrument being light and movable. Guitar is a fabulous instrument for many reasons but for understanding harmony it is not as accessible as a piano…”

Bass

The latest adventure of Holger began in early 2016 with the addition of an electric double bass. is the His approach towards music theory, ear training and instrument practice changed one more time dramatically, with the focus being all on the harmonic progression, groove and body awareness. His teaching methods also gained a whole dimension through the very physical reality of playing bass.

“Looking back I can see that before I started playing the bass I heard only half of the music. It is like sailing the oceans for 50 years before entering a submarine for the first time…”

Matt Littlewood Trio (Matt, Sreenath, Holger) (from 2016 onwards)

The work with Matt Littlewood on Piano, Sreenath Sreenivasan on drums and Holger Jetter on Bass concentrates on re-harmonisations of Jazz standards and own compositions, Reflecting the characters of the players this is a more quiet project than earlier ones.

Matt Littlewood Trio featuring Maarten Visser

Matt Littlewood Trio featuring Sid Jacobs

Jettersons (2010)

Jazz in Berlin is presently very striving and attracts a lot of great international players. Berlin based sound engineer Wolf Blazejczak introduced Holger to some greats musicians of the scene so he could form a band and record a beautiful CD. The line-up showed Michael Cliffton – drums, Marque Lowenthal – piano, Robin Draganic – bass.

Holger also collaborated with Michael Cliffton live in Berlin in various other line-ups.

Flying Cats (2010)

Flying Cats has been among the most energetic jazz bands Holger founded. Featuring  Sangoma Everett on drums and Mishko M’Ba on Bass, Holger arranged original tunes to bring out the specific quality and amazing strive this band had to offer. Three matured strong characters, three different approaches exploding into dense rocking performances….

Indo-German Jazz exchange  – Holger Jetter & Barbara Jungfer project (2009)

The two German musicians Holger & Barbara conceptualized their India tour in June 2008 in Munich and started to work on compositions right away. They invited two Indian jazz musicians to exchange knowledge and to explore the Indian jazz scene together. The band featuring Holger Jetter – violin, Barbara Jungfer – guitar, Keith Peters – bass, Jeoraj George – drums completed a 12-events tour through India in 2009 organized by the Jazzwave India Initiative.

OTO3 (2008 onwards)

India’s highly regarded saxophonist and composer Maarten Visser worked with Holger sporadically since 2008. The extremely experimental and sound oriented trio OTO3, toured India and Holland between 2011 and 2014. It featured Marteen Visser on soprano and baritone saxophone, Robert van Hulzen on drums and Holger Jetter on Jordan 6-string violin.

Steve Rudolph & Holger Jetter Myanmar (2007)

Performance with electric 6 string violin) and pianist Steve Rudolph at the Bagan Hotel, Bagan, Myanmar (Burma) – compostion “The Last Lulaby” by Steve Rudolph – the backdrop is a view through the window of a Buddhist Temple.

3 Raags (2003-2010)

Settling down in rural South India in 1991 with just a violin and a bunch of kids would have been a big enough step but not giving up on being a jazz musician was surely a challenge. Holger’s  path promoting the Jazz was slow and tedious. It is hard to keep up seriousness practice when the environment doesn’t nurture the artist. This long stretch of musical solitude ended when Mishko M’Ba’s arrived in Pondicherry in 2004. A new classic jazz trio formed and Holger could finally go places again. Three Raags with Holger on violin, Mishko on Bass and Suresh Bascara on drums developed their own style, combining Jazz with rock elements infiltrated with Indian traditional elements. Apart from performing original material they had a chemistry that allowed for totally free improvised playing without the results being too hard on the audience. Ever fresh, energetic and full of surprises…

Modern String Quartet (1984-1990)

Holger’s strong affinity to improvised music led him to form the „Modern String Quartet“ in 1984. Fresh sounding string arrangements and many original compositions contributed to the wide professional success of the ensemble. In the following six years of collaboration involving more than 1000 concerts and two CD productions, Holger Jetter toured several times with well known artists such as Konstantin Wecker, Joan Baez and Mercedes Sosa with the MSQ.

The CDs “Elephants and Strings” and  “Jazz für Streichquartett”  are both available with “Mood records” and “2001”.

The original line-up saw Jörg Widmoser – violin,  Holger Jetter – violin, Andreas Höricht – viola and Jost Hecker – cello.

During this period Holger intensified his activities as composer and produced music for audio books and for small movies. After the first America tour he left the Modern String Quartet and went to Kolkatta, India, to study some Hindustani music with Ustad Imrat Khan.

 

Kulisse des Berges by Noah Birth  (2016)

Darin and Gebenn, two inspired and inspiring guests to Auroville produced a full album in just a few days. A nice experience for us all.

From Sincerity to Peace by Chandra   (2016)

Prodigal Chandra from Auroville, India, studied bansuri with Hari Prasad Chaurasia. Holger recorded this beautiful collection of ragas as a fund-raising project for her further university studies.

Heavens Through Music (2015)

Andrew Gerard from Pondicherry composed R&B and gospel tunes to popular Psalms. We also produced a gospel choir DVD in karaoke style to sing along.

KOPRIVA – A COVER (2013)

This song is an interpretation/cover of a Bosnian and Herzegovinian song called Kopriva by the wonderful artist Al Dino. Holger Jetter arranged the cover and played the violin, he is also featured in the music video.

Appel Joy Chowdhury (2013)

A follow up to Joy’s very successful Album “Hymns and songs in Sanskrit”. It is a detailed orchestral arrangement and a beautiful spiritual research based on Mother’s Mantra.

Caveman in a suit (2012)

Mystic Zealight is a band and music production house based in Bangalore, India. The producer and front man, Girish Rao started the project in 2010 with his vocals and guitar.

The debut album “Caveman in Suit” was released in 2012. It contains a rich array of musical textures, grooves and smooth sounds ranging from psychedelic/progressive rock to ambient guitar leads.

This much I know (2004)

Popular American Shadow puppeteer Daniel Barash came snowing in one day to “quickly” record a marriage song for a friend. They got along well and he recorded his first album in Holger’s studio.

Hymns and Songs in Sanskrit by Joy (2001)

Whatever she sings, Joy Chowdhury sings from ‘within’: the sacred words are an out welling of an inner poise and experience, permeating all with a sense of otherness, taking us beyond meaning into regions of primal sound and essence.

Beyond Asleep & Awake (1996-1997)

This project started out as a musical written for the Auroville children’s choir. It was staged 1995 with great success. This led to the production of a double CD with a beautiful booklet by artist Emanuele Scanciani.

Holger Jetter is classically trained in violin and guitar (Mozarteum Salzburg, Austria). As co-founder of the “Modern String Quartet” he has performed over 1000 concerts in 6 years while at the same time performing with renowned musicians, such as Mercedes Sosa, Joan Baez, Charlie Mariano and Konstantin Wecker. Since more than 25 years he works as musician, composer, arranger, producer and music educator in Auroville. During the past fifteen years he has mainly focused on contemporary improvised music and has been touring in India, Europe and the United States. Holger has been teaching a large variety of skills to young enthusiastic music students. At present he is setting up a Music Academy for higher music studies in Auroville, which aims at opening its gates to dedicated student in 2018.