The new Walter Lang Trio

The pianist Walter Lang founded in 1999 the Walter Lang Trio with Nic Thys on bass and Rick Hollander on drums. They released very succesful Cd's such as "Walter Lang Trio plays Charles Chaplin" (1999), "Across The Universe" (2002),  "Softly as in a morning Sunrise" (2005) "The Sound Of A Rainbow"(2005), that received the "Best Sounding CD Award"  by the japanese  "Swing Journal", as well as the recent CD "Romantische Straße"(2007) that got the Gold Disc Award  by "Swing Journal". They were touring all over the world, and are especially loved by the japanese jazz fans.

In 2008 the Walter Lang Trio regrouped: Thomas Markusson from Gothenburg/Sweden is playing bass now and Sebastian Merk from Berlin/Germany is the new drummer.

Walter Lang (p)

was born May 13th, 1961 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, a small city some 50 kilometers from Stuttgart, Germany. He grew up with the sound of accordion and piano being played around the house by both his father and grandfather.

He studied piano and composition at the Berklee School of Music in Boston finished his studies at the Amsterdam School of Arts.

In 1988 Walter had the fortune of becoming a founding member of the Rick Hollander Quartet, a group which has enjoyed countless tours of Europe, Japan and America. The group's 5 CD's all feature Walter's trademark piano playing. The Quartet won the 1st prize at the  "Europ' Jazz Contest" in Hoeilaart, Belgium in 1990.

Along with drummer Gerwin Eisenhauer and bassist Sven Faller he founded TRIO ELF in 2005. Their first CD "ELF" for ENJA RECORDS was a big success and the second CD will come out in the autumn of 2008.

His recent groups are, besides Trio ELF and the Walter Lang Trio, his quintet Walter Lang's Romance as well as his duo with master saxofonist Lee Konitz.

Walter Lang has also played with James Moody, Chico Freeman, Don Menza, Roy Hargrove, Jenny Evans, Dusko Goykovich, Lisa Wahlandt and many others.

Thomas Markusson (b)

Born 1978 in Sandviken, Sweden. He started playing  the doublebass at the age of 10.

In 1997 he began his studies wih Anders Jormin at the College of Music in Gothenburg.

For the last ten years he has worked and toured with a lot of Swedish and foreign musicians such as Rigmor Gustafsson, Nils Landgren,               Jonas Knutsson, Chris Cheek, Phil Wilson, Asgèir Jon Asgéirson and Anders Persson to name a few.

Over the years he has performed on a number of records with different jazz groups. He has also writtenmusic for the Swedish radio.

Sebastian Merk (dr)

was born in 1977 in Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

He has quickly made a name for himself throughout Germany as a drummer and a pianist.

While living in Frankfurt he was awarded a scholarship from the city of Frankfurt to attend workshops in New York City.

Sebastian's teachers were Keith Copeland and Jo Thönes at the Fransz-Lizt School of Music in Weimar. The he moved to study at the Hans Eisler Conservatory in the City of Berlin.

Sebastian has played with a long list of great players including Lee Konitz, Till Brönner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ack van Rooyen, Mark Murphy (on the latest Album "Love is what stays" on Verve), Kevin Spacey and Ernie Watts.