Christoph Spendel is the prototype crossover jazz musician - who is equally at home with the Bebop tradition, crossover Fusion and European Classical Music. Brought up by his mother a classical piano instructor he received his first piano lessons at the age of five and later a firm grounding in formal music education at the Robert-Schumann-Institut in Düsseldorf, Germany. In his early teens C.S. listened to the music of Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis and began building a reputation in the German Jazz Scene. His professional career began as a member of the group \"Jazztrack\", touring all over Europe and performing at all major festivals. At the same time he started his solo projects with his own group and as a solo pianist. He played with major German jazz musicians, among them Albert Mangelsdorf, and Michael Sagmeister, and American musicians like Eddy Harris, Charlie Mariano, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Miroslav Vitous, Jim Pepper and Alphonze Mouzon invited C.S. to join their Bands while touring Europe.
Among his worldwide trips to Canada, Scandinavia, USA and other countries he also had a chance to perform in Israel with the local band \"Zaviot\" and with the project \"Tel Aviv Connection\". In the same year Swiss TV invited C.S. to a special show with the GRP All Stars featuring Lee Ritenour and Don Grusin and shortly after that he recorded his first CD for Blue Flame Rec., his jazz trio \"Back to Basics\".
In 1989 Michael Urbaniak invited C.S. to New York to participate in the project \"Milky Way\" along with Randy Brecker, Lenny White, Victor Bailay, Ray Gomez and Urszula Dudziak and this is how his American Dream began. Michael Urbaniak also produced Christoph's first US release simply called \"Spendel\" with Bill Evans, Steve Gadd, Jeremy Steig, Anthony Jackson and Steve Khan.
Shortly after that he became a member of \"Special EFX\", with which he was touring for almost two years in North and Central America. It was in that period that George Jinda the group's percussionist prodoced Christoph's CD \"Cool Steet\" which finally introdoced C.S. to the USA. Musicians like Bob Mintzer, Mark Ledford, Chieli Minucci, Oscar Castro Nevez, Gerald Veasley as well as the former Weather Report rhythm section including Omar Hakim, Victor Bailey and Mino Cinelu. Beside that he was also performing with Cuck Loab, Marion Meadows, Dave Samuels, Dave Valentin, the Fantasy Band, Nelson Rangell, Chieli Minucci and Noel Pointer.
Since 1994 C.S. commutes constantly between Europe and the USA doing live concerts, working in studios, teaching at Jazz clinics (among them the Music Academy in Frankfurt, Germany and the Junior Collage in St.Petersburg, Florida) and producing TV spots for American Stations like CNN, ABC and CBS.
His current CD for Blue Flame Rec. \"Flight 408\" is a new chapter of modern and smooth urban ambient jazzscapes in the spirit of contemporary hip hop rhythm and melodic song writing, featuring members of his current touring band \"The Christoph Spendel Electric Band\" and talented singer Lisa Shaw from London.
