Andreas Sobczyk - Just For You - at Metropol Vienna - September 2010

Andreas Sobczyk, along with pur-suing his passion for boogie, blues and traditional jazz, also studied classical piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Nuremberg (D) and in Charkov (UA) before settling four years ago in Vienna, the “Blues City“. At 18 years of age, he had already begun to receive invitations to perform at festivals, such as the Munich Tollwood Festival, Kempten Jazzfrühling, and many club concerts throughout south Germany. Since then, the young pianist with his unerring sense for authenticity has been playing his way upwards in the international boogie and blues scene. In addition to many club gigs in Austria and Germany last year, he had guest appearances at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Alte Oper Frankfurt/ Main, the Philharmonie Charkov, the Vienna Jazzfest, and a lot of Austrian festivals. As a result of frequent collabora-tion with the Original Storyville Jazzband in the Viennese “Jazzland“, Andreas Sobczyk is in-corporating music from the wild era of early New Orleans jazz more often into his blues and boogie programme. Aside from being influenced by the old masters of boogie piano Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis, his sound is especially inspired by the style of the old Kansas City pianists like Count Basie or Jay McShann. “...After just a couple of keystrokes, Sobczyk reveals himself as a skilful master of the old jazz style... his current recording feels like the effortless freestyle performance of a highly gifted pianist...“ (Woomy Schmidt 02/2010) “...the sound of Sobczyks album “like it is“ is a more swinging version of classic R & B, paired with flawless Boogie Woogie. The Andreas Sobczyk Quartet really has this style authentically, adeptly and imaginatively down pat, better than almost any other ensemble, and will certainly capture a wide following...“ (Klaus “Mojo“ Kilian - Bluesnews Magazin 03/2010)