Flipping from avant-garde classical experiments to sprawling bebop jams to bombastic show tunes, Theo Bleckmann's unique musical adventures have included creating operas, writing film scores and making alien noises for Steven Speilberg's movie 'Men in Black', together making him one of the most idiosyncratic musician/composers on the New York jazz scene.
Growing up with his adopted family in Dortmund, Germany he sang in children's choirs and was a talented figure skater, before studying folk guitar and classical piano and becoming obsessed with the American musicals he saw on television. He later listened to contemporary European composers like Stockhausen, Bulez and Hinter and was introduced to jazz revolutionaries like John Coltrane and Miles Davis. He started performing professionally at the age of 19, making his way to New York in 1989 where he was mentored by scat singer Sheila Jordan and released his early albums 'Theo & Kirk', 'Looking Glass River' and 'No Boat', before working as a sideman for jazz drummer John Hollenbeck and vocalist for composer Meredith Monk in the 2000s.
With his longstanding musical companion, pianist Fumio Yasudo, he paid tribute to Sin City cabaret on 'Las Vegas Rhapsody: The Night They Invented Champagne' in 2006 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for 'Schumann's Favoured Bar Songs' in 2009. Sometimes lost in sonic dissonance and chaos, at other times revelling in flamboyant theatre, Bleckmann also re-imagined the work of German composer Bertolt Brecht on 'Berlin: Songs of Love, War and Peace', covered Kate Bush songs on 'Hello Earth!' and collaborated with leftfield electro artist Laurie Anderson, minimalist visionary Philip Glass and jazz saxophonist John Zorn.
His wide-range of eccentric vocal techniques also remains one of his main calling cards and he displayed them alongside guitarist Ben Monder, pianist Shai Maestro and bassist Chris Tordini on the compelling, ambient swell 'Elegy', his first album for the legendary ECM Records label in 2017.
