Bruno Spoerri
This man was never a good boy– ever! Something inside him seems to hinder him from taking the path of least resistance, stirring his instincts to try things that others never would. And yet, when it comes to dealing with people, he has nothing of a stubborn troublemaker; quite the opposite: Bruno Spoerri is the friendliest and most affectionate person anyone could imagine. Children sometimes work like that. They manage to reconcile all the contradictory things; a playful child always knows precisely what he or she wants, is inquisitive, has imagination, and does not need any help from the grown-ups.
That’s the kind of child Bruno Spoerri is, although eighty-eight years old, he’s still curious to try some-thing new. Of course, musically speaking, because music sits in Bruno Spoerri’s genes- his mother was a professional musician. But he didn’t really start playing music until a school band was in need of a saxophonist. Spoerri started practicing and in no time at all, he was a member. Jazz became important, and the level became higher. So high, in fact, that at the Zurich Amateur Festival in 1954, at nineteen, he collected the prize for the best saxophonist. Despite this, he began to study psychology. At the same time, though, his musical career began to take off. He played with George Gruntz in Basle, in the “Modern Jazz Group” in Freiburg, Germany, and the Zurich Metronome Quintet. He founded a big band, and stud-ied music theory and arranging.
After graduating, he took a job as a psychologist, got married, and started continuing his education as a psychoanalyst.
Now, this is how it could have continued: A well-earning psychologist and family man with jazz music as a hobby. Only Bruno Spoerri doesn’t really work like that. Back in 1964, an agency was looking for someone who could write music for an advertising spot. They hired Bruno Spoerri. He dropped out of his education, resigned from his psychologist job and became a commercial film musician. The soundscape of his soundtracks grew richer, electronics began to interest, and Bruno Spoerri started working with his first synthesizers. He established his own studio and started producing pop music and film soundtracks. During these hectic times, jazz saxophonist Bruno Spoerri has always been active, Bruno Spoerri was an electronic musician from the beginning, but he has always remained a musician.
Needless to say, the list of what has been created in his seventy years of musical career is boundless: dozens of compositions mostly written for ensembles at the interface of acoustic and electronic music, whereby the improvisatory was ever part of it, electronics must be subordinated to the thinking musician. Some forty film soundtracks were added over the years, as well as soundtracks for countless short films and over 500 commercials, for which he was not only involved as a musician, but also as a producer. Bruno Spoerri wrote theater and radio play music, created interactive electronic installations, and above all this: He played thousands of concerts with artists and musicians all around the world, not only jazz musicians, but also rappers, folk musicians, classical and pop musicians.
And since Bruno Spoerri is an intrepid experimenter, but also a meticulous archivist and historian, he documented his career – and jazz in Switzerland in general – virtually without gaps, a good prerequisite for his book “Jazz in der Schweiz – Geschichte und Geschichten” (Jazz in Switzerland – History and Stories) and also for a second music-historical work “Musik aus dem Nichts – Die Geschichte der elektroakustischen Musik in der Schweiz” (Music from Nothing – The History of Electroacoustic Music in Switzerland).
Nowadays, Bruno Spoerri has stepped back. However, to stop working on his art would not be like him; he can be found in his studio almost daily, practicing, fiddling with new concepts, rethinking his music. And for the time being, it will remain that way…
