Christian über CLOUD SOUNDS
1. Ein Soloalbum mit vielen Gästen –wie entstand diese Aufnahmen? Was war die Idee dahinter?
Die Idee hinter dem Album CLOUD SOUNDS war für mich, auf Spurensuche in Sachen Songwriting zu gehen, die Essenz großartiger Lieder zu ergründen und für mich neu zu interpretieren. Die Essenz ist hierbei immer der Ausdruck, das Gefühl, das ein Song vermittelt. Ich habe eigenständige Covers entwickelt zwischen Beatles und Nick Cave, außerdem eigene Songs geschrieben für meine Lieblingssängerinnen Nora Becker, Sam Leigh Brown, Inga Lühning sowie Albert N’Sanda. Mit von der Partie sind wunderbare Musiker und langjährige Weggefährten aus der Kölner Jazzszene, wie der Leadposaunist der WDR-Big Band Ludwig Nuss. Außerdem gibt es ein Wiederhören mit der HI HORNZ -Bläser Section vom gleichnamigen letzten Album. Ich bin sehr froh und stolz über den großartigen Input aller Beteiligten und der Bereitschaft, aus diesen Stücken ein ganz besonderes Album entstehen zu lassen.
2. Was ist Dein Lieblingssong und warum?
Playing With The Clouds ist selbst geschrieben und getextet. In der Geschichte hinter dem Song geht es zwar einerseits um Gefühle wie Abschied, Sehnsucht, Verlassen-Sein. Dennoch hat das Lied gleichzeitig Leichtigkeit. Positivität und Melancholie, seelenvoll interpretiert von der Hamburger Jazz-und Soulsängerin Nora Becker. Und ich mag sehr die stimmungsvolle Umsetzung dieses Themas im spacigen Video, das Karsten Löwe, Frontman der Jazzkantine mit vielen Talenten zusammengestellt hat.
Interview with Christian Winninghoff:
We have such a wide range of emotional states
http://jazzbluesnews.com December 12, 2022
JazzBluesNews.com: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off? When did you realize that this was a passion you could make a living out of?
Christian Winninghoff: – I grew up in Osnabrück, that’s a City in Western Germany with approx. 200.000 citizens. There were some great blues bands playing in my hometown and I knew everyone of them. We also had a weekly blues jam session in a tiny little bar named ‘The Pink Piano’. So I played my first improvised solos on the trumpet in the Pink Piano, and the older blues musicians were very encouraging to me.
JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?
CHW: – Miles Davis’ sound on the trumpet touched me deeply when I was 17. So, in my early years as a trumpet player I was just trying to copy the warmth and strength of it. Later on, I was being influenced by other trumpet players. The great names on the one side and the guys from the Cologne jazz scene on the other. I loved the sound of the flugelhorn played by my teachers Ack van Rooyen and Markus Stockhausen. Both of them sound very elegant and pure in their own way.
JBN: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?
CHW: – As a trumpet player the first thing you have to keep (if you have ever found it), is to have a feeling like singing through the horn, to keep the air moving steadily into it, to make it sound as easy as possible and not work against your body. The rest, I mean, training the jazz skills, this is just fun to work on.
JBN: – Have you changed through the years? Any changes or overall evolution? And if so why?
CHW: – Looking back on my solo albums releases and lots of work as a sideman in other musician’s projects I can state that I was always very interested how my improvisations would connect to different musical styles: Straight Ahead (‘La Vie’), Contemporary (‘Color Music’), Funky (‘The Hi Hornz Project’ and the pop-focused actual album CLOUD SOUNDS. So the evolution is not just my personal development on the trumpet as an improvisor. It’s also about composing, arranging and producing.
JBN: – How do you prepare for your recordings and performances to help you maintain both spiritual and musical stamina?
CHW: – Well, the band had just two days to record the 14 tunes for the CLOUD SOUNDS album. Good preparation was essential for the success of this. So, I did a lot of pre-productions on my little computer to get an idea in which direction the music could evolve.
JBN: – What do you love most about your new album 2022: Cloud Sounds, how it was formed?
CHW: – I like the vocal pieces very much, especially ‘Playing With The Clouds’ performed by Nora Becker from Hamburg. For the first time in my life, I wrote some of the songs on my own and it was a thrilling adventure how the sounded sung by some of the greatest jazz singers on the scene.