Born 1960 in Günzburg/Germany

Lives in Vienna since 1982

1986 first Band as leader – 'Sigi Finkel Powerstation'; produced 3 CD's with this group. Concerts a.o. at the festivals of Montreux & Leverkusen. Guests: Enrico Rava, John Abercrombie, Wolfgang Puschnig, Ed Schuller ...

1991-95 CAOMA (Concerts & CD production) – with Tomasz Stanko (later: Herb Robertson), Ed Schuller, Mike Richmond, Wolfgang Reisinger

As from 1997 „Sigi Finkel & African Heart“ with west-african musicians; by now 4 CD productions; Festivals and concerts in Germany, Suisse, England, Czech Republic, Morrocco, Turkey, Israel, Senegal, South-Afrika, Italy, Croata, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Tunesia, Holland .....

1999-02 Doop Troop – with Joseph Bowie & Kelvyn Bell (CD on Sony/Columbia)

2000: Austrian Jazzmusician of the year (Concerto magazine– readers poll)

As from 2002 Arabian Waltz feat. Oriental Dancer 'Dunia' (CD-production)

As from 2005 Duo with Mamadou Diabate (ORF CD „Folikelaw“); Concerts a.o. in Africa, Russia & Pakistan.

As from 2006 member in the spanish Flamenco Compania of Antonio Andrade (so far 3 tours) and in the "11concert Band" (celebrating the music of Charles Mingus)

As from 2007 Solo-program and Solo-CD production "scenes & places"

As from 2007 Cooperation with the German Afro-group Argile and the Vienna Rai Orchestra.

Further cooperations with various international musicians: Jarek Smietana (PL), Milan Swoboda (CZ), Tim Richards (GB), Christoph Spendel(D)... ...









After a Solo-tour in January in Germany and Austria Sigi played further concerts in spring with the 11concert Band, Argile and the Rai Orchestra.

African Heart played among others some concerts in Germany and Austria and performed at festivals in Carthago/Tunisia and in Cyprus. These concerts marked the end for this group, since Sigi decided to dissolve the band.

Sigi published in cooperation with Antonio Andrade Antonios new CD "Vaya con Dios". After extensive rehearsels in Spain the compania went on a 6 week European tour.



Sigi has been invited for the opening night of the festival Wellenklänge in July 2007 to create a performance entitled Black Music. In this concert traditional African music met an Austrian choir and brass ensemble - and the Breakdance Company Moving Shadows!

Sigi performed as guest in the band of brazilian singer/songwriter Celia Mara in the Vienna State Opera as part of the Vienna Jazz Festival in July 07.

Sigi starts to play with Argile (Afro-group from Germany) and the Vienna Rai Orchestra.

In September Sigi presented his Solo-CD "scenes & places", with he recorded by overdubbing his various saxophones, flutes and kalimbas.

Festival performances in 2007 among others Flamenco-Festival Würzburg, Wellenklänge Lunz/A, Inntöne/Raab (A), Afrofestivals Freundenstadt/D & Wien, Jazzfestival Fehring/A & Vsetin/CZ.



In spring 2006 Sigi started to work with Spanish Flamenco guitar player Antonio Andrade. (The past tour-dates are here)




In May the 11concert Band premiered. This group almost exclusively plays music by Charlie Mingus. The line-up features some of the finest Austrian Jazz musicians (a.o. Peter Herbert, Klaus Dickbauer, Martin Fuss, Lorenz Raab...)




In February/March 2005 Sigi & Mamadou Diabate performed again in Burkina Faso and presented their DUO CD there. Besides the concerts there were a lot of interesting things happening. See travel report (only in German). The Pakistani Newspaper "The Nation" published in November 2005 a huge article about Sigi and his music. You can download and read it here part 1 & part 2.

Within their tour in October 05 Sigi & Mamadou also performed in Russia. Besides a concert in Moscow they played in Ekaterinenburg and Chelyabinsk in front of an audience of 800-900 excited people.

 





Three new CD's were coming out:

Duo CD „Folikelaw“ with Mamadou Diabate

Duo CD „Distirted Skies“ with Christoph Spendel

African Heart CD „Sarango“





Arabian Waltz feat. Dunia produced an Audio & Video CD during winter, which was released on the "Homebase"-Label of Christian Kolonovits.

A four page long cover story was issued about Arabian Waltz in Austrians famous Music Magazine "Concerto".
The band celebrated the release of it's first album "White Caravane" with a 10-day promotion tour.


More about Arabian Waltz on the homepage www.arabianwaltz.com
During the spring & summer tour African Heart performed in London, Belgium, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, Morocco and Turkey. Joseph Bowie as guest of the band participated in some of the concerts.

Sigi and the Slovakian guitar player Matus Jakabcic have been invited to the Middle European Festival in Tel Aviv in the beginning of May.

In September Sigi and Mamadou Diabate recorded a LIVE CD in Joe Zawinuls recently opened Jazz Club "Birdland" in Vienna. The CD was produced by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF.


Sigi and Mamadou Diabate were invited to perform at the World Performing Arts Festival in Lahore/Pakistan. The Festival took place at the end of November 2004. They played two times in front of an enthusiastic audience of a few thousand people!

 

Sigi & Mamadou on the festival stage

Sigi and African Heart played a couple of concerts in Ougadougou and Bobo (Burkina Faso) in December 2002 and January 2003.


In the frame of the spring concert series 2003, African Heart also gave a concert at the RadioKulturhaus of the Austrian National Radio in Vienna.
This concert was broadcasted live by Ö1

For the sommer festival season African Heart has been invited to the Weltnacht Festival in Gütersloh-Germany, Lent-Festival in Slovenia and to the Tabarka Festival in Tunesia.



In the July, Sigi presented his new formations"Arabian Waltz" und "A*SK" - The Austrian-Slovakian Electric Connection -at various broadcasts in Austria and other countries.

At the beginning of November Sigi played with Polish guitarist
Jarek Smietana, American bass player Ed Schuller and Polish drummer Adam Czerwinski a one-week tour in Austria, Poland and Czech Republic.




During his stay in Dakar/Senegal in November Sigi worked together with Czech and Senegalese musicians on a new program which was presented at two concerts, one of them in Goethe-Institut Dakar. Czech TV has broadcasted a documentary about the project and the stay in Dakar.




Through the year 2002, Sigi has been very active with African Heart. Besides touring Germany, Switzerland and Austria in March the band was busy with playing at various festivals and open air concerts in June and July throughout Europe.

In the fall the new CD "Spirits of Rhythm" has been released (with special guests Joseph Bowie, mastermind of Defunkt & Soriba Kouyaté). Following that the band went on a five week promotion tour.



For the 5 continents event of this year's Voestival in Linz, Sigi was cooperating and co-arranging for the African block together with Christian Kolonovits.

Further projects in this year:
In April the Austrian Radio ORF/Jazzredaktion organized a concert evening entitled "Bratislava meets Vienna". Sigi has been invited to set up a project with Austrian and Slovakian musicians. The band A*SK - The Austrian Slovakian Electric Connection was born.

The Trio Arabian Waltz toured Italy successfully.

The Czech TV produced a 20 minute report about Vienna as City of Jazz. Sigi was invited to be the presenter of this portrait. The report has been broadcasted on the 13th of October.

Sigis composition "Whaatam" for string orchester and saxophon was played for the first time.


In April and May Sigi toured with African Heart in Zimbabwe and South Africa for 3 weeks (amongst many concerts, participation at the Harare International Festival of the Arts and Chimanimani Arts Festival).

In May he performed as guest-soloist in Milan Svoboda's Contraband for a concert at the Prague Spring Festival.



In the Summer various Festival performances e.g. at Afro-Festival-Osnabrueck, Musikfestival-Waidhofen, Jazz across the border-Berlin, Worldmusic Festival-Stuttgart, ...

In the fall Sigi played festivals in Eastern Europe with Milan Svoboda and Jarek Smietana.


In February Sigi toured Senegal for the second time with "African Heart".

In April, tour with Tim Richards -Soundscape- in Germany, Great Britain, France, CD - Festival performance at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival-UK and at the Eurojazzfestival Rabat-Morocco in October.

In September and October release of the new CD "African Echoes" with African Heart. Tour in Germany, Austria, Greece & Turkey.

In November tour with DOOP TROOP, amongst other concerts, Salzburg Jazz Fall and Ingolstadt Jazzdays.



In April 1999 Sigi Finkel " Tim Richards -Soundscapes- toured England to promote their new album "Shibop", which was released by Future Music Rec. A portrait of this group was published in AVANT (Engl. music magazine).



Sigi Finkel & African Heart played in Czech Republic (Jazz Festival Hradec Kralove), Germany (Birthday Party Radio MultiKulti/Berlin), Israel (Jerusalem Jazz Festival), Senegal (St. Louis Jazz Festival), Kap Verde (meeting with the group Simentera), Croatia (Krk Jazz Festival), Italy, Slovakia (Bratislava Jazz Days) and Austria (Wiesen Sunsplash).

DOOP TROOP released the first CD "Don't tell me" on SONY/Columbia and toured Poland (Slupsk Jazz Festival), Germany, Austria and Italy.


The CD "Heart Beat", a collaboration of Sigi Finkel & African Heart was published. The group played about 50 concerts in the German speaking countries.




Finkel created DOOP TROOP - a group based on electric Jazz, Rap, Funk and HipHop. The group features Joseph Bowie and Kelvyn Bell. In November the group played its first tour.




For the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF, Sigi recorded the CD "Dervish Dances" together with Tim Richards.

In December his composition "Satoon" was performed by the "Österreichische Kammersymphoniker" - a great success.


Sigi toured England, USA, Germany and Austria. He was invited to several international festivals. In 1997 he played a concert in the Knitting Factory.

Sigi started to work with the English piano player Tim Richards and has been touring the UK regularly since.


John Abercrombie, Enrico Rava, Wolfgang Reisinger, Ed Schuller & Sigi Finkel recorded the takes for "Sweet Sue" as "Sigi Finkel's Special Station" .





Sigi was highly praised for his work at the festival "Wien modern" where he performed Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Requiem für einen jungen Dichter". In the same year Caoma released the CD "Caoma".


Sigi founded "Caoma" with Tomasz Stanko , Ed Schuller and Billy Elgart (since 1993 with Herb Robertson, Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger as new members).




The second CD "Voyeur, Voyeur" was recorded - this time with Enrico Rava and Wolfgang Reisinger as guest-soloists.


Sigi Finkel's Powerstation was invited to play at the Jazz-Festivals in Montreux and Leverkusen. In the same year the band toured several European countries.


With guest-soloist Wolfgang Puschnig the group recorded the album "Nil".


Sigi left Austria for a trip to India, where he lived for several months.
After his return to Vienna he founded the band "Powerstation".




He moved to Vienna, Austria, where he lives now.


Born on the 13th of October in Günzburg-Germany.
Sigi Finkel studied classical clarinet and was taught by the solo-clarinetist of the Ulm Symphony Orchestra. Later he had private lessons on the saxophone with Bobby Stern in Munich.