Moon Base

Moon Base

    Official Biography (courtesy of Moon Base)

    The Heidelberg / Germany born keyboarder & songwriter Thomas Motter  discovered his love for music at the early age of   8 years old - leading to first songwriting and arranging  and his first band at 10 years old. Classically trained by 3d generation Liszt student Erwin Schmieder   he became state champion in Baden - Württemberg at the age of 13 , with various radio performances fallowing.

    First emotionally moved to tears by `old man river` through a performance of Showboat in a nearby theater , his love for Jazz   then was sparked  through the syncopated rhythm of ragtime - and also in the late 70s through fusion jazz & the magic of electronic keyboards (George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Crusaders, Weather Report, etc), when starting to play with bands first in the Heidelberg area.

    At the age of 15 he had his first performance  with an orchestra with the `warsaw concerto` by Richard Addinsell in Minneapolis, USA, where he attended school.

    Back in Heidelberg / Germany, the music that was being played in the US clubs on the military bases and the interaction with many american musicians, which were always in the Heidelberg Area, became very influential  for Thomas Motter, as Heidelberg is the European headquarter for the US troops in Europe.

    The infectious grooves of EWF, Gap Band, Dazz Band, Surface, Roger & Zapp and so many more bands were discovered & absorbed, when he sneaked into the many US clubs on the weekends.

    After various bands and university he started his own project in 1995 to record and perform musical ideas, which he had started working on, first called Judge T & the Jury, then re-named to: `t-mc`.

    Many collaborations followed and led to the recording and production of  the two albums `no return` and `nite angel`.

    Both albums were published in 2003.

    Collaborations include the LA born Sherlyn Whittiker, Sydney Youngblood,  Lori Williams,  the rhythm section on most songs was Ralf Gustke on drums and Alvin Mills on bass and the cuba born guitarist Dany Martinez, among many others.

    The music style ranges from contemporary R&B, soulful ballads to instrumental fusion oriented songs.

    The project was discovered on the Internet by Amro Salah , the initiator  of the 1st  Jazz Festival in Cairo and Thomas Motter  was invited to perform on the first edition of the festival in 2009 .

    As songwriting and collaborations continued -  the project name was changed to `Moon Base ` .

    `Thomas Motter´s  3d album : `Moon Base - high ` was published in Okt.  2012.

    The circle  of participating international  artists  and musicians is constantly growing , depending on the nature of a specific song idea.

    Collaborations and performances on Moon Base - high include Menoosha Susungi , Helen Taylor , Angie Brown , Karl Frierson on vocals and Bill Evans on saxophone .

    The rhythm section is mostly  Ralf Gustke on drums , Larry Kimpel & Francis Hylton on bass .

    Other collaborations on  Moon Base - high include songs with the former Soul2Soul singer Melissa Bell ,  Helena Paul &  LyricL .

    For Thomas Motter his beautiful journey to connect with people all around the world through music is a true blessing!

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