Theodor Franz Jörgensmann, professionally known as Theo Jörgensmann, born on September 29, 1948, in Bottrop, Germany, is a clarinetist and jazz musician. Jörgensmann began playing the clarinet at age 18 after working as a chemical technician and taking private lessons from a music teacher at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. His early career included performances with the Contact Trio and the jazz-rock group Out. In 1976, he organized his first quartet, which performed at the European Broadcasting Union in Hilversum in 1977. Throughout the 1980s, Jörgensmann moderated jazz radio shows for WDR and collaborated with various artists, including John Fischer's European Interface and Willem van Manen's Contraband. He also founded the Neue Organisation Musik (NOM) in Essen in 1988. Notable albums include In Time (1977), Live at Birdland Gelsenkirchen (1978), and You Better Fly Away (1980). Jörgensmann's work spans interdisciplinary collaborations with filmmakers, poets, and visual artists, as well as theatrical performances. Theo Jörgensmann died at his home in Brüel on October 6, 2025, at the age of 77.
