INFOBOX
Genre(s): Jazz/Improvised MusicFrom: Upper Austria, Vienna, Austria
Contact: max.nagl@chello.at
Website: www.maxnagl.at/
BIOGRAPHY
For three decades, Max Nagl has been an innovative and influential member of the Vienna music scene. His work as a saxophonist, bandleader, and composer combines a wide array of musical genres into a unique, instantly recognizable style.
He studied piano at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz and saxophone at the Vienna Conservatory; when four-track tape recorders became widely available, he began recording himself (and anything else that caught his ear), while gradually liberating himself from strictly notated music.
In 1990 he spent several months in New York City, living in the East Village and performing (as well as occasionally working construction and painting apartments). Two years later he returned, this time performing his piece Wumm! Zack! at New York’s P.S. 122 for two weeks. In 1999 he headlined the Saalfelden Jazz Festival, an engagement which led to recordings for the renowned avant-garde record label HatHut. In 2008, the Max Nagl Trio was invited by Robert Wyatt to perform Wyatt’s music at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival; the trio is still active and has since recorded 3 CDs. He also leads the Max Nagl Ensemble, a larger group that performs annually at Porgy & Bess in Vienna and has also released 3 albums to date.
He lives and works in Vienna, where he continues to actively perform, record, compose and teach. He is married to the violinist Anne Harvey-Nagl, with whom he has two children.
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