# Dirk Pieunka, a jazz musician with a lot of intuition: Videos, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/09/15/dirk-pieunka-a-jazz-musician-with-a-lot-of-intuition-videos-photos/
- Published: 2020-09-15T13:07:24+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**First Dirk Piezunka studied music for teaching, but then dared to study at the
conservatory. His good ears helped him with this. Today he is an internationally
renowned saxophonist.**

Dirk, you are a diesel. ”That is what a lecturer once said to Dirk Piezunka while
studying at the conservatory in Hilversum in the Netherlands. Piezunka still remembers
the entrance exam in 1996: Around 50 young jazz saxophonists had come to showcase
their skills. Shortly before Piezunka had his chance, another young musician had
come out of the exam – although he had played at a high level, he had failed. Piezunka
thought to himself: “Okay, it doesn’t matter what I’m playing: I can’t do that anyway.”
So he took it easy. During his exam, a professor sat down at the piano, picked up
some chord connections that Piezunka was supposed to improvise on. The changes in
harmony grew wilder, but the young saxophonist kept up – no wrong notes. In the 
end, he was one of three candidates who got a place at university.

“That was a six in the lottery,” says Piezunka today. The 50-year-old is now an 
internationally renowned musician who has been shaping the scene for 15 years with
the jam session “Jazz on Board” on the theater ship. Piezunka has recorded several
records, played with his quartet at various jazz festivals and performed with the
Bremen Philharmonic. He taught saxophone at the University of the Arts in Bremen,
and currently teaches at the Ecumenical High School in Bremen.

![Dirk Piezunka | Discography | Discogs](https://i0.wp.com/img.discogs.com/gtwNxLI14hkGBd4DvZgJY3cdl4Y%
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Dirk Piezunka’s career began early, with his grandfather’s house music evenings.
Piezunka received piano lessons, his father, who played the violin and tenor saxophone
himself, showed his son the first fingerings on the golden wind instrument. “Although
he had a classical education in which you mainly play from notes, my father was 
a very intuitive musician on the saxophone. He could hear a melody and play it right
away. ”The son wanted to be able to do that too, which is why he learned the saxophone
primarily by ear. In his youth Piezunka first played keyboard in bands, later studying
music and German to become a teacher. However, that was not enough practical music-
making for him, he applied in Hilversum. The other applicants were younger, played
well and had a lot of experience. What they didn’t have were Piezunka’s ears and
musical intuition.

Not only was studying a gift, it was also hard work. “As a jazz musician, it doesn’t
really matter if you have a certificate that says you’ve studied,” he says. “If 
you are not good, nobody will call you.” So Piezunka practiced: in the morning before
the university, then it went to theory class and the ensemble rehearsals, afterwards
it was practiced before he went to the jam session in the club. On the weekends 
he made his living with a cover band at parties. “I took the course very seriously.”
While the learning curve flattened out for his fellow students, Piezunka kept going
up – just like a diesel.

Piezunka was fascinated by the jam sessions in the Netherlands, so he organized 
them himself in Bremen. For two years he had a session in Murphys Corner in New 
Town, then the neighbors complained. Piezunka finds this absurd: “People move to
the city to live close to life and then complain about live music.” The solution
to the problem was the theater ship, it still holds today – or at least until Corona.“
Jazz is like improvisational theater or a musical conversation: when you have good
people, something develops out of it spontaneously.” He found good musicians on 
the theater ship, playing with Lutz Krajenski, Jost Nickel, Dusko Goykovich and 
many other jazz heavyweights.

The love for music has always been unbroken, says Piezunka. But what is it that 
fascinates the 50-year-old about jazz? “I like good melodies, beautiful harmonies
and timbres as well as interesting rhythms.” He is not an expert on pop music, these
days it mostly comes from the computer and always uses the same chord changes. Jazz,
on the other hand, is handmade and goes one step further. Jazz is the music that
gives him goose bumps. “I remember hearing ‘Nearness of You’ from Michael Brecker
for the first time. I was driving in the car and had to pull over. The music was
so nice that I couldn’t go any further.”

Piezunka shows what handmade music means on the record Moments, on which he plays
with Joe Dinkelbach on the Hammond organ and Ralf Jackowski on the drums. The recording
was made without a computer: no cuts, no post-processing, everything was recorded
analogue on tape. By way of comparison: there are often several hundred cuts in 
string quartet recordings. Another project that Piezunka cares about is Continuum.
The ensemble, in which his brother Jens also plays bass, plays sacred music or folk
songs that they have arranged themselves in a jazzed-up manner. Quiet music that
works a lot with sound surfaces and landed on the best list of the German Record
Critics’ list.

Jazz means a lot to Piezunka, but not everything. The jazz trumpeter Dusko Goykovich
once said to him that he had to get out of Bremen and into the big cities, but Piezunka
didn’t want to sacrifice everything for music. He lives in Lilienthal with his wife
and two young sons. She is a singer, the little ones are already trying out music.
He is impressed by his almost two-year-old son: “Milo can hardly speak a word, but
sings children’s songs up and down – and really well.”

Piezunka also has other interests, like cycling. That’s why he has his velomobile,
a recumbent bike with a streamlined body. He is also a passionate sailor. It is 
his wish to sail the Silverrudder, a Danish regatta, one day. “My colleagues often
look at me crookedly when I turn down a gig in order to go on vacation by boat.”
He takes the saxophone with him every now and then when he travels, which led to
unexpected realizations: “Seals love jazz,” says Piezunka. You are not alone in 
this.

![Dirk Piezunka](https://i0.wp.com/www.weser-kurier.de/cms_media/module_img/4163/
2081857_1_articledetailpremium_573cde06d4896.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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