Björn Lücker | 1967 | Hamburg | Germany

drummer, composer, jazz, experimental avant-garde, crossover

Björn Lücker is a drummer with a musical background that ranges from jazz to classic, experimental to improvised, right through to modern rock and crossover projects and lyric sets. His fusion of contemporary music with the drive and agility of jazz leads to a sound spectrum that transforms drums and cymbals into a melodic instrument, thus enabling him to team up with other musicians and explore new dimensions.
After having worked for many years as a drummer and timpanist in an orchestral and contemporary music environment, Björn Lücker studied jazz at the Hamburg Academy of Music and Theater in Hamburg under the direction of Daniel Humair, Tony Oxley, John Marshall, Ronnie Stephenson and Alex Riel. Workshops with Dieter Glawischnig, Anthony Braxton, Chuck Israels, Barry Guy, Vinko Globokar, Bob Mintzer, Wynton Marsalis and Maria Schneider put Björn in touch with the whole spectrum of jazz and improvised music.
As well as being involved in several projects both in Germany and abroad, Björn was one of the founders and co-leaders of the award-winning group "Triocolor” (with Jens Thomas on the piano and Stefan Weeke on bass). This in turn led to international recognition and the start of many trips, largely the result of invitations from the Goethe Institute, to Southeast Asia, West Africa (a musical meeting with the “divine drummer” Ghanaba), Central America, Turkey, the Balkans, Greece, the UK, France, the Benelux countries, Scandinavia, Poland and Russia, to name but a few. He worked with avantgarde musicians such as Wu Wei, Matthias Schubert, Heinz-Erich Gödecke, Ge Suk Yeo, Christophe Schweitzer, Silke Eberhard, Peter Niklas Wilson and Nils Wogram and with jazz greats like Walter Norris, Benny Bailey, Howard Johnson, Jimmy Woode, Simon Nabatov, Nils Wogram, Wolfgang Schlüter as well as the NDR (Northern German Broadcast) Bigband/ Dieter Glawischnig, the Bigband of Hessischer Rundfunk (German Public Radio of Hessen) and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester (Philharmonic Orchestra) Hamburg/ Ingo Metzmacher and appears on numerous CD productions.
Björn Lücker works as a freelance musician and teaches at the Hamburg Conservatory. His current musical activities involve the groups "The Most" (with Henrik Walsdorff and Jan Roder), “Trio Connex” (with Lutz Büchner and Phillip Steen), "Barks” (with Martin Pfleiderer and Jörg Hochapfel), “TheOrganics” (with Patrick Farrant and Markus Kuczewski), “Tonus Trio” (with Felix Behrendt and Daniel Stickan), “Nord Elektro” (with Klemens Kaatz and Guy Saldanha), “Stefan Maus Trio” (with Stefan Maus and Georgi Kiknadze) and “Eisenrot” (with Heinz-Erich Gödecke, Christophe Schweitzer, Philipp Steen, John Hughes and Dirk-Achim Dhonau). He also gives solo performances on the drums.
"Fortunately there are artists such as drummer Björn Lücker, who could be heard in three completely different formations and successfully bridged the gap between all of the different styles. Jazz music only really comes to life in almost dialectic approaches involving the voluptuous rattling of stereotypes while savoring the contrasts. Nothing is certain, everything is possible – and all that with pleasure of the best possible kind." “Björn Lücker first (played)...with verve and a mischievous urge for instant grooves and later (provided)...the climax...full-on determination..., but remained alert vis-à-vis the actions of his fellow musicians and was always ready to react with vigorous silence or violent outbreaks. They turned the stage into the setting for a musical ritual, an invocation of sound using state-of-the-art and archaic weapons....and Lücker launched his handicraft lesson in rhythm right at the start: Breakdowns, reassemblies, and then breakdowns again so that the musical grammar – something that other bands consider an unchallenged law - was suddenly very apparent in terms of its arbitrariness."
Stefan Hentz, "Die Welt"