Amadis Dunkel Music

Welcome to A Mighty Good Thing!

AMADIS DUNKEL

Trombonist, Composer, Producer

Amadis Dunkel is and award-winning performer, recording artist and producer based in New York City.  

Swiss jazz trombonist Amadis Nicolas Dunkel was born in Cadiz, Spain, but grew up in Switzerland and Italy. In 1994, Dunkel moved to Washington, DC, where he studied trombone (Jazz Studies) with Calvin Jones and Judith Korey at the University of the District Of Columbia. After returning to Europe, Dunkel released his first album as a leader in 2004 and started  touring in the Middle East. In 2005 he founded the Syrian Swiss Jazz Orchestra and co-founded the original “Jazz Lives in Syria” festival. Besides his steady performance schedule, Dunkel began working more extensively as a composer and arranger for film and TV. His work in this area includes the soundtrack for the 2009 animation feature “The Jasmine Birds” (Golden Prize, Cairo, 2010, and the Silver Prize in Rotterdam, Holland), music for the feature film “Jameela,” a Jordanian production that speaks out against honor killings, and numerous television productions such as the 2011 production in association with BlueDar, “Malsoun.” In 2011 Dunkel relocated to New York, where he pursued a Masters Degree (in Jazz Performance) at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College under the tutelage of Luis Bonilla, David Berkman, Antonio Hart, and Michael Mossman. He graduated in 2013 and received the prestigious “Jimmy Heath” Award.

Over the past two decades Dunkel has been performing and recording in the US, in Europe, in the Middle East, in Africa, and in Asia. In New York he has been working with some of the very best musicians on the international stage today, manny of them Grammy-winners and -nominees: Vincent Herring (Asia tour), Luis Bonilla (three European tours, Montreux Jazz Festival), Antonio Hart, Ivan Renta, Frank Greene, Michael Mossman, Andy McKee, Vince Cherico, Bob Franceschini, Sam Burtis, Tarek Yamani, Allyn Johnson, Corcoran Holt, Kathryn Farmer, Ed Palermo and many more. He also works as lead trombonist with a number of New York based big bands and as a leader with “The Endorphins” (with Hyuna Park, Peter Traunmüller, Satoru Ohashi) and “A Mighty Good Thing” (with Luis Bonilla, Andy McKee). He has performed in over a dozen music videos with the young singer Robyn Adele Anderson who has found an audience of tens of millions through new avenues of music distribution (youtube, band camp). In Europe and the Middle East, Dunkel has worked with legends such as Ziad Rahbani, Thomas Hornig, Oussama Al Rahbani, Thomas Moeckel, Joost Kesselaar, Domenic Landolf, Vahagn Hayrapetyan and Hiba Tawaji. In the past Dunkel has also worked with some outstanding legends who have left us: Charles Davis (Kenny Dorham Quintet), Butch Warren (Thelonious Monk Quartet, house bassist for Blue Note Records in the 60’s), Calvin Jones (original Ray Charles Big Band), Lawrence Wheatley, and Korean jazz legend Sungjo Jung.

Besides his appearances at large and prestigious venues in New York City, such as Gotham Hall, Cooper Union’s Great Hall, the Bowery Ballroom, and the Colden Center, Dunkel also regularly performs at smaller jazz venues, such as Jazz at Kitano’s, The Iridium, The Zinc Bar, Cornelia Street Cafe, The Metropolitan Room, The Cutting Room, The Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium, Terrazza 7, Swing 54, and The Shapeshifter Lab etc. Dunkel has been performing at the annual gala of the Josephine Foundation at the Crest Hollow Country Club since 2012. He has also performed at some of New York’s most renown houses of worship: Grace Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn and St. Peter’s Lutheran Church on Lexington Avenue.

International festival appearances include:

“Montreux Jazz Festival” in Switzerland; “Cairo Jazz Festival” in Egypt; “Zagreb Jazz Festival” and “Grožnjan Festival” in Croatia; “Jazz Lives!” and “Music On The Road” in Syria; “Beirut Jazz Festival” and “Byblos International Festival” in Lebanon; “Xi Hu Blooms Festival” in Hangzhou, and the “Shanghai Jazz Festival” in China, and the “Jarasum Jazz Festival” in South-Korea.

Selected recordings include:

Amadis Dunkel Octet/Sextet (Jazz Lives!)

Luis Bonilla/Amadis Dunkel: A Mighty Good Thing 

Sungjo Jung Big Band in New York (Cj E&M)

Vincent Herring: Brooklyn Sessions

Roberto Blanco Swinging New York (Connector)

Wael AlKak Neshama

The Red Birds

Afro Peruvian New Trends Orquestra (blue spiral)

Suhee Choi: Superbly Sunny League

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-mighty-good-thing/id948456206

https://soundcloud.com/amadis-dunkel

https://www.facebook.com/AmadisDunkelMusic

http://www.the-endorphins.com

BUY THE ALBUM!

 A Mighty Good Thing with Luis Bonilla and  Amadis Dunkel, trombone; Hyuna Park, piano; Andy McKee, bass; Austin Walker drums.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-mighty-good-thing/id948456206

Read the new review of  A MIGHTY GOOD THING at http://www.jazzbob.com/content/newsletters/07_16014257.pdf

 

“NEW & RECOMMENDED CDS

Amadis Dunkel: A Mighty Good Thing (self-released): Swiss-born, New York-native Amadis Dunkel’s debut album is very well titled, indeed. Joined in a two-trombone front line by the very accomplished Luis Bonilla, Dunkel presents five solid original compositions plus his engaging arrangement of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma” and a clever reworking of Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” by Bonilla that spotlights the brilliant pianist from Korea, Hyuna Park.”

 

“Unusual, powerful, and utterly captivating” is what the Swiss newspaper Die Volksstimme calls the sound of A Mighty Good Thing with the two trombones of Luis Bonilla and Amadis Dunkel in the frontline and “outstanding” the playing of South Korean pianist Hyuna Park at the occasion of there last stop of their European tour this summer.

 

iTunes review:

Love this album
by Champy9

Just got through listening to this album. One of the most enjoyable new jazz recordings I’ve heard in awhile. The two trombone frontline immediately makes one think of a salsa setting, but goes far beyond that, transitioning smoothly between latin (“Daddies Got Mambo”), straight ahead bop (“Silver Lining”), blues (“Blue Tooth”) and many other influences. It achieves what many trombone recordings don’t: you forget that you’re listening to trombones, you’re just listening to good music. There’s a really nice communication between the players, they sound like they’re having fun. My personal favorite was “Jersey Politics” (hopefully no one got their legs broken during the recording), a funked-up number featuring hot solos, harmonies and counterpoint between the two frontmen and pumping electric bass. I found myself bopping my head big time while I listened to it. Great writing and playing, very rewarding listening. I look forward to hearing these songs a lot.

 

A Mighty Good Thing. Luis Bonilla, Amadis Dunkel, trombone; Hyuna Park, piano; Andy McKee, bass; Austin Walker drums.

For additional information please send email to amightygoodthing@mac.com or call 2022800443.