Blue Angel

At the tender age of 9, Markus Wienstroer was was already a junior student at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule Düsseldorf for the instrument violin. Later, at the age of 12, he switched to the electric guitar. I believe that the violin conveyed Markus Wienstroer’s elegant way of playing the guitar, his accuracy, his perfect tone and also his breathtaking scales and melodies, which are sometimes reminding me of the sensational playing of the classic violinist Paganini. His art is something special.
At the age of 17, musicians and my musical buddies in the Rhineland were already talking about Markus Wienstroer the guitar player and so I heard about Markus for the first time, without ever having met him in person then.
In 2009, the joint studio work on the album “Reisen“ (travels) brought us together at the
recording session for The Knechtsand, for which Markus did all the arrangements and guitar
work. We were lovingly reviewed by the Rolling Stone magazine in Germany and given 3 stars. With the band Nighthawks Markus Wienstroer also played guitar on a number of albums and received the “German Jazz Prize“. At some point during this period, by luck, I attended one of John Abercrombie’s last concerts together with Markus and the Nighthawks band. I noticed Markus Wienstroer’s great joy, enthusiasm and passion for the virtuous play of John Abercrombie. Markus‘ great modesty initially made it difficult for me to grasp who he had already been playing with to this day.
There are many musicians, bands and styles lined up that would fill pages here, but a few should be mentioned: Marius Müller-Westernhagen (as a permanent band member over 10 years), a sideman to Ginger Baker, Randy Brecker + Das Pferd, a sideman to Mel Collins (saxophone, flute) in the German Harald Schmidt TV Saturday Night Live Show Band, led by keyboarder Helmut Zerlett. Markus soloed for Joe Cocker live on violin with the RTL AllStar Band conducted by Martin Ernst, he played violin and guitar on Lalo Schifrin’s Metamorphosis and Jazz Mass in Concert and for Klaus König, the German modern composer.
This album “Blue Angel“ a blues instilled piece of classic pop compositions would not have been possible without the collaboration of his brilliant son Jan-David Wienstroer on drums and his congenial brother Konstantin Wienstoer on bass. The music family Wienstroer is also immortalized here musically. Some old companions have also contributed here, to whom I would like to say a special thank you, who have worked with Markus Wienstroer over many years, Oliver Kels, the man with the perfect pitch, who also played keyboard on “Blue Angel“ and the outstanding sound engineer Gerald Neumann for mixing and mastering the album “Blue Angel“. I am extremely happy that our paths in life have crossed and that Markus is releasing this wonderful album on my Knechtsand label. Thank you for these wonderful music compositions for electric guitar.