Attila Zoller
Attila Cornelius Zoller ( born June 13, 1927 in Visegrád, Hungary, † January 25, 1998 in Townshend, Vermont) was a Hungarian jazz musicians.
Life and work
First learned Zoller violin, double bass and flugelhorn playing, before he finally turned to the guitar. His live career began in the jazz clubs of Budapest after the end of World War II. He left Hungary in 1948 shortly before the closing of the Iron Curtain with the aim Vienna. After interaction with the pianist and accordionist Vera Auer ( until 1954 ) and toured with Joe Zawinul he came to the Federal Republic of Germany, where he first worked with Dave Amram, Albert Mangelsdorff and Jutta Hipp, later with Hans Koller and Oscar Pettiford. In 1959 he moved to the United States of America, where he visited the Lenox School of Jazz in collaboration with Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. There came incher contact with freer jazz.
In the combos of Benny Goodman, Chico Hamilton, Stan Getz and Herbie Mann played Zoller, before he founded his own group with Don Friedman, Dave Pike, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Lee Konitz. In addition, were recorded with Klaus Doldinger. Since 1965, Zoller increasingly devoted himself to the free jazz, not without taking on other currents of the later years. Always swung with a folk - Hungarian influence. In addition, Zoller made a name with film scores for film adaptations of The Bread of Those Early Years ( Heinrich Böll ) and of cat and mouse ( Gunter Grass ), and with a Jazz & Poetry Project by Joachim Ernst Berendt ( with Emil Mangelsdorff, Peter Trunk and Klaus Weiss ) and the reciter Gert Westphal. 1979 and 1980 he played a three plates with duet recordings with Jimmy Raney, Zoller model on the guitar.
In the Vermont Jazz Center, which he founded in 1972 learned among other things, Pat Metheny his craft. Zoller also developed a pickup for the electric guitar for the brand Shadow and guitars in collaboration with the brands Framus and Hofner. The former has an Attila Zoller signature guitar model called Framus AZ in the program, which was also played by Zoller himself.
Zoller's last appearance was on January 6, 1998. Three weeks later, he died of colon cancer.
Awards
- Downbeat poll as a guitarist - " talent deserving resist recognition", in 1964 and 1973
- German Film Award for the music to The Bread of Those Early Years
- Achievement in Jazz Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts, 1995 ( for his contributions in jazz education)