Urs Leimgruber

Swiss-born multi-reedist Urs Leimgruber has maintained a steady presence across Europe’s intersecting worlds of new music, jazz, and free improvisation for decades. His background includes rigorous study in both classical and jazz traditions, and his earliest prominent role came in the 1970s as a founding member of the electric free-improvising quartet Om alongside drummer Fredy Studer, guitarist Christy Doran, and bassist Bobby Burri. He subsequently relocated to New York with Burri, where the pair established the Refelexionen Quartet; despite the group’s primary base in the United States, its most distinguished recordings were captured live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1987.

Leimgruber moves fluidly among the domains of free jazz, contemporary composition, and spontaneous improvisation. A sustained creative partnership with percussionist Fritz Hauser has encompassed unaccompanied duo explorations as well as larger configurations featuring pianist Irène Schweizer and saxophonist Steve Lacy. The collaborations between Leimgruber and Hauser that have proven most compelling are the two trios that also include bassist Joëlle Léandre and a separate trio featuring pianist Marilyn Crispell.

Beyond these ongoing projects, Leimgruber has contributed as a guest soloist to albums by Louis Sclavis, Hans Koch, Pauline Oliveros, Tim Berne, Joe McPhee, and Trilok Gurtu. He has additionally released several unaccompanied saxophone recordings whose technical and expressive innovations have drawn comparison to Anthony Braxton’s groundbreaking solo work of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Since 1988 Leimgruber has made his home in Paris, from which he coordinates an international schedule of performances. During the 1990s and 2000s he led the LSM Trio with bassist François Moutin and pianist Patrick Scheyder and took part in realizations of scores by composers Maria De Alvear, Mani Planzer, and Edu Haubensak. His concert activity spans Western Europe, the United States, South America, and Canada on an almost continuous basis, yet he still maintains a teaching practice that includes theory instruction and improvisation workshops at universities worldwide.