Delbruegge Band
Biography Delbruegge Band
Bernd Delbrügge
has already left manifold and distinctive traces in the music history of his hometown Cologne in his musical life, among others as founder and bandleader of the legendary "Soulcats". The Kölner Stadtanzeiger calls him "soul hat and multitasker"". But above all, we have him to thank for this formidable band. He brought it to life, gathered these great musicians around him and "wrote" the music for the band's debut album.
"As a teenager, I used to DJ soul music by James Brown and Ike & Tina Turner at school parties, but people would rather dance to 'Lady in Black' by Uriah Heep. That ended my fledgling DJ career, but laid the foundation for my future career as a musician."
Bernd Delbrügge dreamed his DJ dream in Minden, East Westphalia, the place of his birth and hopeful youth. After a few years of life in Berlin, he then fulfilled his dream of soul music as a saxophonist and founder of the "SOULCATS" in Cologne, his adopted home since 1983. And not only on the turntable, but live, in color and with 12 musicians on stage. The SOULCATS soon enjoyed a top reputation with the press and the public, they toured up and down the country and made it as a studio band of the "RTL Nachtshow" into almost every German living room.
His "charismatic stage appearance" (Süddeutsche Zeitung) put "Cologne's most famous saxophonist" (Express) in the service of such diverse artists as Nina Hagen, Dr. Feelgood, BAP, Bobby Byrd, Guildo Horn. Bernd Delbrügge also appeared as an author. Ullstein Verlag published his novel "The Show Must Go On" in 1999, and in the same year his CD "Music For Unknown Movies" was released on Westpark Music.
At the beginning of the 2000s his music became electronic. With the "floorJIVERS" Bernd Delbrügge has been arranging hand-played instruments and electronic loops and grooves into a congenial fusion of tradition and modernity since 2003. The band released three CDs, the debut album "e-STYLEZ" was "CD of the week" on WDR 5, outtakes can be found on numerous compilations at home and abroad.
In 2014, soul returned to his life. After a long break from the band, he reformed the "SOULCATS" together with "BAP" bassist Werner Kopal and has since then again a lot of fun with the big beats of this great and great band.
In the "DELBRUEGGE DUO" jazz and related styles from Duke Ellington to Tom Waits are on the program. His CD "SAXUAL FREEDOM best of 1995-2020" was released in Jan. 2021 on the Cologne label Westpark Music. There is a "SAXOPHON-LOUNGE" solo program, in addition Mr. Delbrügge photographs well and with pleasure.
With his currently most important project, the "DELBRUEGGE BAND", he has been playing music "somewhere between Duke Ellington, Tom Waits and Clärchens Ballhaus" since 2018. Here you can find influences from soul, jazz and boogaloo, often the band's music simply sounds like a great film score. "ANALOGUE SOULS" - the band's debut album - will be released in April 2022 on Westpark Music. It's no wonder that the "Kölner Stadtanzeiger" dubbed him "Soulhüne und Multitasker".
Gert Kapo
comes from an Albanian family of musicians and completed classical piano studies as a 16-year-old child prodigy. And like many other classical musicians, he also discovered the world of jazz for himself at some point. Today, Gert Kapo is a sought-after arranger, pianist and producer in the field of world music and jazz. Above all, however, he is a stylistically confident border crosser between these worlds and the very best pianist and organist this band could wish for.
Gero Gellert
has completed serious bass studies at the Musikhochschule Köln. Since 1995 he has been the permanent bass player of the Cajun and folk band "Le Clou". He works as an instrumental teacher and bass player for various national and international musical projects, but most of all he is the groovekeeper on bass for the Delbruegge Band and always has just the right sound for it.
Dirk Ferdinand
studied jazz percussion at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. But that didn't stop him from succeeding in the world of Rhenish cheerfulness with the "Orchestra of Love". Bernd Delbrügge decided to give him a second chance at a gossip-free life, completely without 3/4 Schunkler. So now he sits behind the drums of the Delbruegge Band and everyone is happy...
