Juri Küfner
Juri Küfner plays percussion on Susie Saxophone, Saxify, Open Up, Angeldelic, Throwback, The Harder We Fight (The Sweeter The Love).
"From early age on he was fascinated by drums, rhythm and music. After 5 years of drum lessons he focussed more and more on percussion and started to play in funk, jazz and world music bands. He graduated in latin american percussion at Rotterdams Conservatorium, and started to get involved with theater and dance productions, also flamenco, african and classical music." (Freely translated from his website.)
We met in 1994 at the famous jazz workshop Erlangen. We became friends and when I moved to his hometown Nuremberg in 1995 to study at the Conservatory, he asked me to join acid jazz band Psilocybe. In 1996 I moved to Holland and I had to quit the band.
While the band became succesful we still stayed in touch because we both played in BuJazzO, the German national youth bigband. Juri moved to Rotterdam to study percussion in Rotterdam and sometimes we ran into each other but I was into jazz and he into latin, theater and dance performances.. Still, he gave me a ride when performing with BuJazzO. Twice I was stuck with him in a music shop on the way back to Holland.. He only wanted to stop by and buy one shaker but ended up shopping all kinds of percussion instruments. I think he has got percussion sounds for literally everything, I guess that’s why he’s so wanted in theatre productions.
In Wedgeview Studio with Jamal Thomas (drums), Juri Küfner, Wout de Kruif (engineer).
A few years passed and he finally moved to Amsterdam. We started playing together more often again, with dj’s and a few times with my band.
Besides performing he’s also teaching and giving workshops.
He’s one of the friendliest and most patient musicians I know. He's the team player you want on board, whether it's a band, a long production or a project for just once.
An anekdote: He had to drive with a person I knew quite well, but was new to him. I was a bit worried about their ride because that person can act strange.. I asked Juri: “So I told you before, the guy is crazy, how did it go, how was the ride?” He replied: “Some people don’t know that they are crazy and then you have to deal with it.. At least this person knows by himself that he’s crazy, that helps!”.
To put something in perspective like that.. means that one is very wise.
I am glad Juri plays on Saxify, an album which stands for connecting all kinds of people with each other. I hope to stay connected with him for a long time!
Check out his website for more info!
Here are 2 different videos of us in action:
on 20/07/2017