Michel Pilz (born October 28, 1945,

Bad Neustadt Bad Neustadt an der Saale, officially Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale and often simply called Bad Neustadt, is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the Rhön-Grabfeld district in Lower Franconia. It is situated on the rivers Fränki ...

) is a German

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

clarinetist. Pilz was a student in clarinet at the Luxembourg Conservatory in the mid-1960s, then joined

Manfred Schoof Manfred Schoof (born 6 April 1936) is a German jazz trumpeter. Career Schoof was born in Magdeburg, Germany, and studied music in Kassel and Cologne, where one of his teachers of the big band leader Kurt Edelhagen. Schoof performed on Edelhagen' ...

's ensemble in 1968, an association he would maintain into the 1980s. He also performed with the German All Stars in the 1970s and with the

Globe Unity Orchestra The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble. Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by Alexander von Schlippenbach from the Berlin Jazz Festival. It had its debut at the Berliner Philharmonie on 3 November combini ...

, led by

Alex Schlippenbach Alexander von Schlippenbach (born 7 April 1938) is a German jazz pianist and composer. He came to prominence in the 1960s playing free jazz in a trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens, and as a member of the Globe Unity Orchest ...

. He founded his own ensemble in 1972, playing with, among others,

Peter Kowald Peter Kowald (21 April 1944 – 21 September 2002) was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist. Career A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with many European ...

Paul Lovens Paul Lovens (born 6 June 1949) is a German musician. He plays drums, percussion, singing saw, and cymbals. He has performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. He was born in Aachen, Germany. In the early ...

Buschi Niebergall Buschi Niebergall (July 18, 1938 – January 9, 1990) was a German free jazz musician. His given name was Hans-Helmut, and late in life, his friends called him Johannes. Born in the city of Marburg into a family of academics (his father was ...

, and

Itaru Oki was a Japanese jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist. Oki was born in Kobe. He began studying koto as a child, under instruction from his mother, who was a professional kotoist. He took up trumpet from 1955 and played in high school bands, then enr ...

References

*Wolfram Knauer, "Michel Pilz". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd edn. 1945 births Living people German jazz clarinetists 21st-century clarinetists Globe Unity Orchestra members Clarinet Contrast members {{Germany-musician-stub