A native of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Peter Eigenmann
was born in
December of 1952. He began playing guitar at the age of 14.
Predominantly self taught, he played in local Pop an Rock groups and
gradually
got increasingly more fascinated with Jazz. He performed with many different
swiss
musicians and a variety of different ensembles, toured Norway in 1979
and then
had the opportunity to work with trumpet player Ken Cervenka from Boston,
USA.
In 1980 he continued his studies in the US with the likes of Mick Goodrick,
Mark Soskin, Bela Lakatos. In addition, while there he had the opportunity
to play in
New York with musicians like Don Friedman (piano) and Sam Jones (bass).
Also
actively involved with Jazz Education, he has taught guitar and performance
at
the St. Gallen Jazz-School in Switzerland since 1982. In 1985 he formed
the
Peter Eigenmann Bigband and began to concentrate on this arranging talents
as well. The Big Band has recorded twoCD's (1989 and 1996).
For 9 years he was involved with a quintet featuring american trumpetist
Benny Bailey, with Peter Frei or Jesper Lundgaard (bass), Peter Schmidlin
(drums)
and Carlo Schöb (sax). This work was documented on two CD's: "Benny
Bailey
Quintet - Peruvian nights" (1989) and "Benny Bailey Quintet
- No Refill" (1994).
In addition he has worked with the following musicians: Klaus Weiss,
Tony Lakatos,
Woody Shaw, Reggie Johnson, Thomas Ovesen, Alan Praskin, Andy Scherrer,
Billy Brooks, Isla Eckinger, Fritz Pauer and others.
Since 1992 he's been leading his own quintet with US trumpet player
Tom Kirkpatrick,
and played, together with swiss bass player Hämi Hämmerli,
in a trio led by the
american trombonist Ed Neumeister. The trio recorded their first CD
in 1996
for TBC-Records, entitled ED NEUMEISTER feat. Peter Eigenmann and Hämi
Hämmerli: "The Mohican And the Great Spirit". A new recording
entitled
"Something Special" with his own trio was released in spring
2000, featuring
Isla Eckinger on bass and Peter Schmidlin on drums.
A new recording with his new Quartet is planned to be released in
spring 2004...........