Günter Sommer
Günter "Baby" Sommer (born 25 August 1943) is a German jazz drummer.
Günter Sommer
Harald Krichel · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Günter Sommer
- Born
- 25 August 1943
- Birthplace
- Dresden, Germany
- Occupation
- Musician
- Nationality
- Germany and German Democratic Republic.
- Fields
- jazz.
- Education
- Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber.
- Honours
- Art Prize of the district town Radebeul, art award of the City of Dresden, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic.
- Languages
- German.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q317224 · wikipedia · Günter Sommer
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Biography
Biography
Günter Sommer studied at Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber. Julia Kadel is recorded as having studied under Günter Sommer. The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are jazz. Residence is recorded at Radebeul. Employment is recorded with Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Günter Sommer • Alias — Günter "Baby" Sommer • Born — 25 August 1943 • Birthplace — Dresden, Germany • Genre — Avant-garde jazz, Free jazz, Free improvisation • Occupation — Musician • Instrument — Drums • Years Active — 1960s–present • Label — Intakt Records, FMP, Moers Music, ILK Music, Euphorium Records, JazzHausMusik, Splasc(h) • Illustration — Günter Sommer in Aarhus, Denmark 2010
Documentary record
Günter Sommer appears in the authority records of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek as a musician, jazz musician, composer, university teacher and actor (born 25 August 1943). The birth of Günter Sommer is recorded on 25 August 1943 in Dresden.
Career
Career
Sommer was born in Dresden on 25 August 1943. His first instrument was the trumpet, which he studied at school. He started playing the drums aged 15 or 16. He studied music at Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. A solo percussion album, Hormusik, was released by FMP in 1979. In the same year, FMP also released a trio album recorded with Peter Kowald and Wadada Leo Smith. He has worked with Smith intermittently throughout his career. During the 1980s he also worked with Peter Brötzmann, Irene Schweizer, Cecil Taylor, and with the writer Gunter Grass. In the early 1990s he began leading a trio with Didier Levallet, then with Theo Jörgensmann, and joined in 1995 for 13 years as drums professor the faculty at Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber. His usual nickname Baby is due to a comparison, homage to the multifaceted US drummer Baby Dodds.
Documentary record
Places of activity recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: Berlin, Dresden and Radebeul.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Radebeul.
Residences
Dresden.
Birth place
Discography
• Gruppe Synopsis with Synopsis (Amiga, 1974) • Hormusik (FMP, 1979) • Touch the Earth with Wadada Leo Smith (FMP, 1980) • Dedication with Hans-Günther Wauer (FMP, 1982) • Hormusik Zwei (Nato, 1983) • If You Want the Kernels You Have to Break the Shells with Peter Kowald (FMP, 1983) • Pica Pica with Peter Brotzmann and Albert Mangelsdorff (FMP, 1984) • Percussion Summit with John Purcell, Urszula Dudziak (Moers Music, 1984) • Verschrankte Konstruktion with Hans-Günther Wauer (Amiga, 1986) • Live at Taktlos with Irène Schweizer and Maggie Nicols (Intakt, 1986) • Irène Schweizer & Günter Sommer (Intakt, 1988) • The Storming of the Winter Palace with Irene Schweizer (Intakt, 1988) • Reserve with Peter Brotzmann (FMP, 1989) • In East Berlin with Cecil Taylor (FMP, 1989) • Riobec with Cecil Taylor (FMP, 1989) • Cordes Sur Ciel with Didier Levallet (European Music/Sud-Ouest, 1990) • Camino Fatal with Ekkehard Jost (Fish Music, 1990) • Cappuccini Klang with Peter Kowald (Splasc(h), 1992) • Sachsische Schatulle: Hormusik III (Intakt, 1993) • Merseburger Begegnung with Hans-Günther Wauer (Kip, 1994) • BIB with Sylvain Kassap, Didier Levallet (FMP, 2002) • Wokonda with Achim Jaroschek (Konnex, 2003) • Between Heaven and Earth with Conny Bauer and Peter Kowald (Intakt, 2003) • Hic Sunt Leones with Frank Paul Schubert (Jazz Haus, 2007) • Delphinius & Lyra with Raymond MacDonald (Clean Feed, 2007) • Wisdom in Time with Wadada Leo Smith (Intakt, 2007) • Abbara with Rafik Schami (Intakt, 2008) • Peitzer Grand Mit Vieren (Jazzwerkstatt, 2009) • Live in Jerusalem (Kadima Collective, 2009) • Songs for Kommeno (Intakt, 2012) • Jesper Lovdal Gunter Sommer (ILK Music, 2012) • Dry Swing & Tandem Spaces with Oliver Schwerdt (Euphorium, 2013) • Three Seasons (HGBS, 2014) • Sources with Johannes Enders (Moderntunemusic, 2016) • Fundstuecke with Gabriele Hasler (Laika, 2016) • Le Piccole Cose (Intuition, 2017) • Baby's Party (Intakt, 2018) • Grande Casino with EUPHORIUM_freakestra (Euphorium, 2018) • One For My Baby And One More For The Bass with Barry Guy and Oliver Schwerdt (Euphorium, 2020) • Karawane with The Lucaciu 3 (Intakt, 2022)
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Günter Sommer, revision 1339616181 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Noglik, Bert. Sommer, Günter ("Baby"). Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. 2003. 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J420600.
- 2.Collar, Matt. Günter Sommer. AllMusic.
- 3.see Discogs
References
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 21 August 2026.
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