Hamburger Frank Gratkowski (1963) geldt als een boeiend verteller op altsax, klarinet en basklarinet, iemand wiens splijtende soli altijd goed zijn voor spannende luistermomenten. Immer leergierig, gezegend met een feilloze techniek en zeer precies in de uitvoering. Speelt met volle overgave en met een grote intensiteit. Kan zijn altsax en klarinet uitdagend heftig laten piepen en kraken, maar tovert er net zo makkelijk prachtige lyrische lijnen uit. Verrast door voorafgaand aan een optreden 'even' in te spelen met Bach-etudes. Zijn kwartet bestaat uit de crème de la crème van de geïmproviseerde muziek, met Wolter Wierbos, Dieter Manderscheid en Gerry Hemingway. De cd 'Kollaps' (2001, Red Toucan) biedt een fraaie staalkaart van hun kunnen. Pas na enige draaibeurten geeft dit album zijn geheimen prijs. Als sideman is hij evenzeer van waarde, onder meer in All Ears, het uitstekende project van Michiel Braam en Frans Vermeerssen. Verder speelde hij met uiteenlopende musici als Louis Sclavis, Kenny Wheeler, Tony Oxley, Michael Moore, Muhal Richard Abrams en Simon Nabatov en Mal Waldron.

10 september 2003

mijn Ding:
"My main project is my Quartet with Wolter Wierbos (tb), Dieter Manderscheid (b) and Gerry Hemingway (dr). We will tour again in Europe in May 2004 and I'm already working on it. Other things are my Duo with pianist Georg Graewe and a trio with Achim Kaufmann (p) and Wilbert de Joode (b).
In October and November I will be in North America for about 3 weeks, playing solo concerts and in collaboration with local musicians (a little tour on the West coast will be with Damon Smith (b) and Jerome Bryerton (dr) - two very talented young players).
I also will play some concerts with the 'Zeitkratzer Ensemble' a contemporary music ensemble, based in Berlin, which plays a lot of partly improvised music.
There are more things planed, but it's not clear if it will happen so far."

mijn Achtergrond:
"I remember that when I was a school kid I always had some kind of exotic taste, specially in music. Also I listened to music very seriously - sometimes more than 6 hours a day. I didn't do anything else when I listened. I think I was about 14 when I started listening to jazz too. By listening to the music over and over, I had the imagination that the players talked about their life and I felt a connection, I felt that I understood their deeper feelings.
When I was 15 I felt that I had to say something too and decided that I want to play the saxophone. I started delivering newspapers to get some money and got the rest from my parents on my 16th birthday for a cheap saxophone. Because I had no money for lessons I tried to play by myself for one year and then got some lessons in a music school, where I saw notated music for the first time. That's how it all started. And mainly I stayed self-taught. Played in school bands. The decision to become a professional musician I made because I wanted to spend my life in music and have more time to work on it.
The main study I've done and still do (as said above) is listening to music very closely. But I also studied a lot of contemporary classical scores (one of my main influence is Luciano Berio, who unfortunately died this year). Often I transcribed parts of the score and practised them on the saxophone, tried to sing it and learn it by heart. But there is a lot more. In the beginning it was jazz and later more and more other things."

mijn Instrument:
"I play a silver Selmer Super Balance Action alto sax from 1948 and also a Selmer clarinet and bass clarinet.
It takes a while to develop a relationship with an instrument. I play a new (old) alto sax since two years and it took me a long time to get used to it. It might take my whole life to get really used to it.
I have a relation with every instrument I'm playing but I don't know if it's special. The music comes out of my body first, and the instrument is a tool to give my voice a certain sound (kinda like a megaphone). I have a very close relation with my alto sax, because it's very hard to find an instrument like this these dates."

mijn Jazz:
"For me it's an attitude to life (Lebenseinstellung). A special, very open, personal and direct form of expressing yourself in music. It's also very spiritual.
Jazz gives me the most musical freedom to express myself in music. But to be honest, I don't think in musical categories anymore. Jazz is the basis where I come from. Now I'm just making music. Other people can give it a name if they want to."

mijn Inspiratie:
"Almost everything. In my music I try to express my view (Sichtweise) of life (or social aspects or the whole universe). Artists who provide inspiration for me are, for example, writers James Joyce and Friedrich Dürrematt, painter Gerhard Richter, classical composer Luciano Berio and too many jazz musicians to list here."

mijn Rek:
"It's hard to name one, because, again, there are so many and I can't think of any particular album. Some examples though. 'Sonny Meets Hawk': because Sonny Rollins seems to be freer than most 'free jazz' musicians. No limits at all. Also, Paul Bley plays just amazing on that record. Another one would be Coltrane's last live recording with an unbelievable Pharoah Sanders solo. 'Schoenberg Piano Works' by Glen Gould is definitely another one. Berio: 'Ritorno Degli Snovidenia' (conducted by Pierre Boulez). Some Stockhausen, Boulez, Lachenmann and of course James Brown's 'Funk Power'. But to he honest I don't have one, because I'm always looking for things I don't know, to learn more about music."

mijn Voorbeeld:
"There are so many that it's hard to name the biggest. In general, all artists who grip me, who believe in what they do and fight for it to make the human life a bit better (as an alternative to all the TV and media shit). "

mijn Drijfveer:
"To make good and personal music that's hopefully still interesting in 10 or 20 years."

mijn Hoogtepunt:
"I don't know, because I don't think about 'career'. Every time I start doing that I try to avoid it. I do what I want to do and what I can do with my resources. Playing on a big festival to me is not better or more interesting than playing in a club. Maybe it was the project I organized at the Moers festival. It was a double quartet with my original Quartet plus Herb Roberson (tp), Tobias Delius (ts, cl), Wilbert de Joode (b) and Michael Vatcher (dr). What a band!"

mijn Toekomst:
"I want to go on with my Quartet. In May 2004 there will be another European tour. A new cd will hopefully be out by then. I'm thinking of releasing some of the double quartet recordings we did in Moers, and hopefully I get the band together for a few more times. I also want to work more with Georg Graewe again and play more solo concerts in Europe.
That's all I can manage by myself at this moment, beside being involved in other projects."

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