Opherdicke. For 16 years, Jörg Hegemann has been a fixture in the county’s world music series, welcoming a guest performer each year.
This Thursday, it was Swiss jazz and boogie pianist Chris Conz who took the spotlight. His cheerful "Grüezi!" was immediately echoed by the audience. For the musician from Uster on Lake Greifensee in the Canton of Zurich, this was already his second performance in this series.
Starting slowly, with heavy pedal use and in the style of salon music, he began his set. The "St. Louis Blues" by W. C. Handy, a jazz standard and evergreen, transformed under his fingers into a boogie style. References such as "Jingle Bells" and his tremolo finale were met with great applause. Music from the 1930s, like "On the Sunny Side of the Street" by Jimmy McHugh, featured dramatic flourishes. Small rhythmic shifts repeatedly encouraged the audience to clap along. A special highlight of the 39-year-old’s performance was his “heel percussion,” which made the podium shake. "The Boogie Rocks," with its lively motifs and repetitions, drew enthusiastic cheers.
Albert Ammons, one of the African-American pianists who popularized boogie-woogie, was represented in the set. Pete Johnson, both a drummer and a late-blooming pianist, composed the blues "Just for You," which Conz played with light and jazzy embellishments. Mead Lux Lewis’ "Honky Tonk Train Blues," a boogie inspired by operatic coloratura, also featured, as did Fats Waller’s "Viper’s Drag," which shifted theatrically between leisurely minor chords and fast-paced, lively major keys, before descending into bittersweet chaos. "In the Backroom" by Ray Bryant electrified the audience, while James Booker’s version of "Tico-Tico," steeped in New Orleans style, brought waves of excitement.
As his final number, Conz offered a playful "Goodbye Boogie" with "Sentimental Journey," his fingers leaping across the keys, spinning out new ideas, and drawing cheers with percussive claps and slides into a grand finale. As an encore, he gifted the audience a blues number featuring the delicate sound of bells.
Jörg Hegemann, the pianist from Rüdinghausen, a district of Witten near the Dortmund city border, performed a set of works and adaptations by Albert Ammons, along with some of his own compositions, effortlessly delivering every note with a relaxed wrist. Recently, he has gained recognition as a "Boogie-Woogie Influencer" through his YouTube channel. His friendship with the neighbor’s cat inspired the light-footed "Struttin’ Cat." His program also included references to older music, such as Ammons’ boogie arrangement of J. A. Butterfield’s "When You and I Were Young, Maggie," and "Swanee River."
As is tradition with Hegemann, there was a “third half.” He and Conz sat together at the grand piano, beginning with a slow boogie. Like a piccolo flute, Conz played an upper melody over Hegemann’s flowing bass rhythm. The two alternated effortlessly, each taking turns at the keys, earning applause and cheers from the audience. Standing ovations and encore calls brought the evening to a close with a blues piece by Hegemann, featuring Conz playing a glockenspiel in the highest octaves.
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