Willi Langer

Born in 1960, Willi Langer begins to teach himself electric bass in 1976. Shortly thereafter he starts up the legendary jazz-rock band Zenit, with which he plays numerous domestic and international concerts in the following years (including supporting acts for Stanley Clarke and Level 42) and produces 3 LPs. At the same time he is asked to join the band Bluespumpm in the early 80s. In 1984, still entirely self-taught and musically illiterate, Willi decides to learn to read music. He begins to study (with Prof. Hansen) in the jazz department of the Vienna Conservatory and graduates with a diploma in jazz bass. In the mid-80s he joins the most important Austrian jazz-rock and fusion bands Ostinato, Harri Stojka Express and Incognito. In 1987 Willi plays a 4-month European tour of the Webber musical Song & Dance, which introduces him to the world of theater. In the same year he becomes a member of the Orchestra of the United Stages of Vienna, where he is active for a total of 7 years (Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Freudiana, The Rocky Horror Show, Elisabeth, Dance of the Vampires, Hair...). In addition, Willi plays dozens of productions over the years in other theaters (State Theater of Linz, City Theater of Klagenfurt, Akzent Theater, Schauspielhaus) as well as various summer festivals (Amstetten, Stockerau, Klagenfurt). He gets established in the rock and pop scene in 1989 by joining the band of rock singer Wilfried. (Collaborations with Boris Bukowski, Stefanie Werger, Waterloo, Alexander Goebel, Bilgeri, Sandra Pires, Rainhard Fendrich, Wolfgang Ambros and Georg Danzer follow...) The world premiere of a contemporary classical work brings him to the Great Hall of the Musikverein for two concerts and a CD production with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Sch¦nberg Chorus. Already at home in various segments of the Austrian music scene, Willi is able to count himself among the truly steadily employed live and studio musicians of the country in the late 80s. At the beginning of the 90s, the follow-up project Count Basic evolves out of the funk band Ruff n Tuff around mastermind Peter Legat. As bassist for Count Basic, Willi presents himself increasingly to the international public (tours across Europe, CD-sales in the USA and Japan...). International engagements with Gloria Gaynor and The Supremes follow, as well as studio productions abroad. In 1993 he joins the faculty of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where Willi currently teaches bass in the Institute for Popular Music. In 1994 he produces, together with Gerald Gratzer, his first solo album, Colours of the Octopus. Rich work years follow, with innumerable live gigs, studio sessions, theater productions, t.v. shows and galas...domestic and international (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, England, Russia, Dubai, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic...). His second solo album, The Course of Life (co-produced with Rens Newland and Dieter Kolbeck) appears in 2002. 2006, 30 years after founding the band Zenit, Willi Langer, Hannes Treiber and Wesley Plass produce the new album Zenit-the sound of now.

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