Lutz Eikelmann
... was born April 7, 1967, in Hagen, Germany. At the age of four he started listening to the records of Bill Hailey and Lonnie Donegan. During his childhood he found other favourite artists, too, like Johnny Cash, Trini Lopez, Johnny Duncan etc. He got piano-lessons by his Grandma Elisabeth Schimpff (1914-1991), a professional music teacher. In 1982 he formed his first Skiffle Group, the "Westside City Washboard Kings". Lonnie Donegan´s recordings inspired Lutz to study Jazz & Blues and to develope his ambitions of becoming a professional musician.
During summer 1989 he visited the birthplace of Jazz where he lived at Barry Martyn´s appartement on St. Peter Street and studied New Orleans drummers like Bob French, Frank Oxley, Barry Martyn and others. In New Orleans he jammed with Chris Burke & Wendell Eugene. After his return from the Crescent City he turned professional. His first professional band were "Reiner Oeding & The Dixie Slickers" (1990-1993) before Lutz left them to form his own Group, the popular Jazzband "Lutzemann´s Jatzkapelle" in summer 1993. This band still exists and celebrates the 15th anniversary this year. His main instruments are sousaphone, double bass & drums. He works as musician, bandleader, arranger, songwriter, producer & promoter, too. Occasionally he plays with Bastian & Benny Korn a Skiffle programme called "Remembering Lonnie Donegan".
Since 1996 Lutz has worked with lots of international Jazz Greats like Olivier Franc (1996-1998), Ray Smith (1997-2002), William Garnett (1997), Olivia Detante (1997&1998), Terry Lightfoot (1998&1999), Peter"Banjo"Meyer (1998&1999), Max Collie (1999), Sonny Morris (1999&2000), Ian Wheeler (2000&2003) etc.; he recorded with most of them. He also did lots of Skiffle recordings with Dickie Bishop (2000&2003), Paul Leegan & Warren James (2003) & Tony Donegan (2003).
