Urs Leimgruber
Urs Leimgruber (1 January 1952 in Lucerne) is a Swiss saxophonist. He lived in Paris from 1988 to 2005. Then he came back to his home town, Lucerne.
Urs Leimgruber
Schorle · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Urs Leimgruber
- Born
- 1952
- Birthplace
- Lucerne, Switzerland
- Occupation
- Saxophonist
- Nationality
- Switzerland
- Fields
- jazz · free improvisation · nu jazz · bard song · pop music
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Documentary summary
Urs Leimgruber (1 January 1952 in Lucerne) is a Swiss saxophonist. He lived in Paris from 1988 to 2005. Then he came back to his home town, Lucerne.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1565763 · wikipedia · Urs Leimgruber
In this article
Biography
Biography
His fields of activity are improvisation, jazz and 20th-century classical music.

Urs Leimgruber mit Quartet Noir am 23.4.2006 im Schloß Weikersheim
Schorle
Urs Leimgruber mit Rger Turner als Duo Pancake im Club W71, Weikersheim.
Schorle
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Urs Leimgruber • Born — 1952 • Birthplace — Lucerne, Switzerland • Occupation — Saxophonist • Style — Jazz, Free improvisation
Works
Works
Leimgruber founded in 1972 the Lucerne-based rock-jazz quartet OM, with guitarist Christy Doran, drummer Fredy Studer, and double bassist Bobby Burri. the band toured Switzerland and Germany for almost a decade performing their "electric jazz-free music." He then played with Reflexionen, a quartet featuring Don Friedman, Burri, and Joël Allouche, while also playing in a duo with John Wolf Brennan until 1989. He also formed the quartet Noir with Joëlle Léandre on double bass, pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Fritz Hauser. His collaboration with Fritz Hauser as a duo is publicly documented in two audio recordings from the 1990s. In the 2010s Leimgruber revived this musical-instrumental configuration in jazz, that traces its origins to John Coltrane and Rashied Ali in the second half of the 20th century, paring with Roger Turner and Alex Huber. The improvisation quartet also showcases Leimgruber playing alongside leading figures of the fourth generation of contemporary improvised music such as, Oliver Schwerdt, Alexander Schubert and Christian Lillinger. Leimgruber also has a long and intensive collaboration in a trio with Barre Philips and Jacques Demierre.
Identity
Identity
Urs Leimgruber is recorded with the occupation instrumentalist. Recorded with the occupation music arranger. Recorded with the occupation jazz musician. Recorded with the occupation saxophonist. Classed in the genre free improvisation. Recorded with the occupation composer. Recorded with the occupation singer. Classed in the genre bard song. Classed in the genre pop music. Classed in the genre nu jazz. Recorded as saxophonist, composer, music arranger, instrumentalist and singer.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1952
Urs Leimgruber was born on 1 January 1952.
Discography
With Steve Lacy • Mountain Hymn (1986) • An Chara (1987) • Statement of an antirider (1988) • Polyphyllum (1989) • M.A.P. (1990) • Ungleich (1990) • Itinerary (hat ART, 1991) • Goletter (1992) • L'énigmatique (1992) • DUHU (1994) • Lines (1994) • No try no fail (1997) • Xylem (1999) • Nach der Stimme - Ein Konzertanter Dialog (2000) • Blue Log: Ten Pieces for Saxophone (2000) • Wing vane (2001) • Out of sound (2002) • The Difference Between a Fish (2002) • Orbit 2: Voyaging Antipodes (2006) • Solo - 13 Pieces for Saxophone (2007) • Albeit (2007) • Lausanne (2009) • HIN (2010) • Chicago solo (2010) • Montreuil (2012) • The Pancake Tour (2012) • Empiricism in the West (2013) • 1↦3⊨2:⇔1 (2015) • Pale White Shout (2016) • The Spirit Guide (2016) • Broken Silence (2018) • Elastic (2021) • It Forgets About the Snow (2021) • Now and Always (2024) • In the Endless Wind (2024) • Room 423 (2026)
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1565763: Urs Leimgruber
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Urs Leimgruber”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
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 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,438 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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