Improvisation Outreach was recorded after the 2011 Outreach Music Festival in Schwaz, Austria by Franz Hackl - trumpet, Roland Heinz - guitar, Adam Holzman - piano, and Gene Pritsker - guitar. The quartet got together at the local MusicShule, set up microphones in a room and recorded 10 improvisations. Some of these improvisations started off with a suggestions, for example play only long tones, or focus on arpeggios, etc. A few emulate fugues, and the 10min 'End Imporv.' features each instrumentalist in a solo.
Each of these composers/performers brings a unique voice to this project and the combination of these four musicians creates a special and unusual sound world.

Tracks:
1. Noize & Beautiful
2. Arpeggios
3. Guitar duo
4. Long Tones
5. Trumpet and Piano Duo
6. Ostinato
7. Fugue Improv. #1
8. Pointillistic Improv.
9. Fugue Improv. #2
10. End Improv.


FRANZ HACKL was born in Tyrol, Austria and at the age of eleven he followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a trumpet soloist; he began to tour internationally. Growing up with traditional Austrian brass music as a soloist with the “Original Tiroler Kaiserjägermusik”, he soon became interested in playing Jazz. He is an alumnus of the Conservatory of the City of Vienna and received a M.S. degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Lew Soloff. He was commissioned to write original music for the “Year of the Mountains” launch event at the United Nations, Trialog @ Hangar 7 (Red Bull), the opening of the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, as well as composing for numerous other festivals and ensembles such as Tiroler Festspiele, Europ, Forum Alpbach, Klangspuren, Festival der Regionen and the Absolute Ensemble. He leads his own group: Franz Hackl’s IDO, A Quartet with Mino Cinelu on percussion, Matt Garrison on bass and Adam Holzman on keyboards. Franz is a Col Legno Artist, a leading record label in the contemporary music field. He is also co-leading the brass trio B3+ (with Dave Taylor on bass trombone and John Clark on French horn), which just released their debut CD on Col Legno. hacklmusic.com

At the age of 17 ROLAND HEINZ taught himself guitar and started playing his first gigs in local jazz bands, in 1981 he moved to Vienna. There he worked with his own trio and also toured in Italy, Germany and Switzerland. In 1986 he got the chance to play in a quintet with Pony Poindexter in Munich, after that joining a quartet with Barre Phillips, saxophonist Leszek Zadlo and drummer Billy Elgart, recording his first CD Heavy Mental(1991).
Later on he moved to New York to study with John Abercrombie and Attila Zoller at the Vermont Jazz Center(1995-1998).
He currently performs and records with musicians like Russ Lossing, Bill Elgart, Leszek Zadlo, Dave Taylor, Adam Holzmann, Radu Malfatti,
Scott Lee, Barre Phillips, Gunter Schneider, Jeff Hirshfield, Franz Hackl, Loren Stillman and many others. (festivals include eg.: Klangspuren
Schwaz, Outreach Schwaz, St. Johann,Vöcklabruck, Sibiu in Rumania, St.Gallen in Switzerland ...)


Keyboard player ADAM HOLZMAN was a member of the Miles Davis Band from 1985 to 1989. He performed with the trumpet legend in more than 200 concerts worldwide. He can be heard on the albums "Tutu," "Live Around the World,” “Rubber Band” and "The Complete Montreux" box set (all on Warner Bros.). In 1988 he became Miles's musical director. For his session and live performances, Adam was praised by the New York Times for his "innovative keyboard work," and by Keyboard magazine as "one of the most promising synth soloists."
Adam has also toured and recorded extensively with Grover Washington, Jr., Wayne Shorter, Chaka Khan, Steps Ahead, Wallace Roney, Michel Petrucciani and many others.
Adam currently tours and records with British rocker Steven Wilson. Adam is featured on Steven's acclaimed albums ”The Raven That Refused To Sing,” "Hand.Cannot.Erase,” “4 1/2” and “To The Bone,” as well as appearing in the full-length concert videos Get All You Deserve and Home Invasion: Live at Royal Albert Hall.
Adam has released 10 albums as both a solo artist and with his band, Adam Holzman & Brave New World. His most recent full band album of hard-edged jazz-rock is titled Truth Decay. Truth Decay has received great reviews and was selected as one of the top albums of 2018 by All About Jazz’s John Kelman. (The Deform Variations, a solo piano album recorded while on tour with Steven Wilson, was released in 2015.)
Adam has been nominated for 'best electric jazz keyboard player' several times by Keyboard Magazine. In 2007 he was awarded by the Jazz Journalists Association for his work co-producing (with Bob Belden) the Miles Davis box set "The Cellar Door Sessions" (Sony). Adam is now gaining attention in the rock world, placing high in the 'Best Keyboard Player' category in Classic Rock/Prog Magazine polls for the past several years.
Adam is also a part-time faculty member of the New School University Jazz & Contemporary Music department.

Composer GENE PRITSKER has written over eight hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. His compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles, that are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation, an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble. He also Co-Directs Composers Concordance. Gene's music is performed all over the world at internationally recognized festivals and by highly respected ensembles and performers.
He co-founded the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble with Kristjan Jarvi and has been a composer in residence and guitarist since its creation in 1993. He worked closely with jazz fusion legend Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, including 'Cloud Atlas', for which he wrote additional music and composed his ''Cloud Atlas Symphony’. He is also the lead orchestrator for such TV series as Babylon Berlin, Netflix's Sense8 and Messiah.
“My music is extremely eclectic, for me music has no bounds - I view the world of music as one big genre. My motto for my art is ending the segregation of sound vibration.”
Gene is also a guitarist/rapper/Di.J./ and producer and incorporates each of these musical attributes to create music that is “not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity.” - New York Newsday.
www.genepritsker.com