Martin Pyrker

Martin Pyrker Biography

Born on August 27th,1954 in Vienna, discovered his love for the piano and thereby for the blues in 1971, when he was 17 years young and already playing the drums for 4 years. A blues program on the radio, an acquaintance with the pianists Vince Weber, Hans-Georg Möller and Axel Zwingenberger from Hamburg, who caused at that time the boogie woogie fever in Germany, and the meeting with the Viennese “blues guru” Hans Maitner, protagonist of the legendary radio program “Living Blues” fascinated Martin Pyrker of a kind of music that has meanwhile become 100 years old: the classical piano-blues and boogie-woogie. Pyrker’s legendary concerts in the 1970s with Zwingenberger, Weber and Möller and, originated from this, the first piano-boogie woogie record in Austria (“Boogie Woogie Session 76” / EMI) were the beginning of a growing enthusiasm for this kind of music in Austria and Germany and influenced further generations of young pianists. Solo and together with many other well-known artists at home and abroad, Martin gave a lot of concerts in jazz clubs, blues bars and at blues and boogie festivals, where he also shared the piano with long gone legends of the blues: Blind John Davis, Roosevelt Sykes, Memphis Slims, Champion Jack Dupree, just to mention a few of them. Since the legendary boogie woogie festival of Cologne (WDR 1974) and Vienna (concert hall 1976) the renaissance of boogie woogie could not be stopped anymore, unnumerous tours through Europe and USA followed (as "Stars of Boogie Woogie" and others). More than 1500 performances and concerts at home and abroad have left their mark on Pyrkers career since then. Also a lot of records were produced, out from a repertoire of more than 100 own compositions and the most important blues and boogie woogie standards, solo and together with international stars of the blues, recorded in Vienna, Wels, Paris and Fort Worth. Since 1999 he is accompanied frequently by his daughter Sabine on the drums, who attained in the meanwhile absolute professional experience and motivates her father anew at each of their performances in a refreshing way. Martin Pyrker today is the most known authentic blues and boogie pianist in Austria and his CDs are well known in USA too, the origin country of this kind of music. Discography: "Boogie Woogie Session '76" (H.G.Möller, M.Pyrker, A.Zwingenberger) "It's Whoopie" (M.Pyrker, Jo-Ann Kelly,voc. / 1978) "Return To Blues" (M.Pyrker / 1980) "Les Nuits Jazz&Boogie Piano" (various artists; Festival du Paris, 1990) "Great Boogie Woogie News" (Muschalle, Pyrker, Grasser, Gugolz / 1995) "Martin Pyrker&His Blues Friends from USA" (Fort Worth Live Recordings/2001) "Drum The Boogie !" (Martin u.Sabine Pyrker (dm) / 2002) "A Father's Dream" (Martin u.Sabine Pyrker (dm) / 2007) "Boogie Woogie Storm" - Martin Pyrker plays Chamber Blues (featuring Gine Heiger (voc), Michal Hudec (b), Sabine Pyrker (dm) / 2009) "Jubilee Joy" - Best of... 40 years on stage! (+ 3 bonustracks! / 2012) DVD: "A Father's Dream" (Martin u.Sabine Pyrker (dm), 3 duets with Axel Zwingenberger / 2004)