John Wolf Brennan

John Wolf Brennan (born 13 February 1954) is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based in Weggis, Switzerland.

Brennan was born in Dublin, his family moved to Switzerland when he was seven years old. He took piano lessons from age eleven, but played bass guitar in a rock band in 1970 before returning to keyboards in 1974 to play in a jazz-rock group. In 1977 he founded the free jazz group Freemprovisations, which featured Peter Schärli among its members; he formed Impetus in 1979. He studied at the University of Fribourg (late 1970s), Swiss Jazz School in Berne (1975–79), the conservatory in Lucerne (1979–84), and the Academy of Church and School Music (1985–87). His brother Peter Wolf was a singer, played saxophone, flute, oboe and founded in 1977 in Weggis, Lucerne, possibly the most successful progressive rock bands to come from Switzerland Flame Dream (1977–1986).

From 1980 to 1984 Brennan played in the Mohrenkopf Afro-jazz band, and worked in Impetus and Triumbajo with Ushma Agnes Baumeler and Barni Palm in 1980–82. Between 1982 and 1989 he worked extensively with Urs Leimgruber, and in the 1980s also worked with Corin Curschellas and Christy Doran. In 1988, he worked in New York City for six months, then founded the drumless quartet Pago Libre the following year. Early in the 1990s he worked with Lindsay Cooper, Daniele Patumi and Tscho Theissing in several ensembles and established the SinFONietta ensemble in 1991. In 1993, he worked with American drummer Alex Cline in the quintet Shooting Stars & Traffic Lights. In 1994, Russian hornist Arkady Shilkloper joined Pago Libre, resulting in a string of albums, from "Pago Libre" (1996, re-released 2002) to "Stepping Out" (2006), "platzDADA!" (2008) and "Fake Folk" (2009). In 1997 he lived in London and worked with Julie Tippetts, Evan Parker and Chris Cutler in a sextet called HeXtet, which set poems by Seamus Heaney, Edgar Allan Poe, Theo Dorgan e.a. to music. In 1999 he toured in Finland with Ivo Perelman, and worked with Gianluigi Trovesi, Gianni Coscia and Daniele Patumi in the quartet "Euradici".

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