credentials

"Visitors were treated to an incredibly rousing musical jazz performance by Jan Luley & Brenda Boykin from New Orleans on Sunday. The guests were really carried away and danced exuberantly in the grounds. The concert was definitely one of the highlights of this year's summer."

(Taunus Nachrichten, 30.08.2023)

 

"...more pieces in which it is always clear to see why the press calls him the "wizard of the keys". With his style, he radiates a magic that captivates the entire audience."

(Passauer Neue Presse, 27.09.2022)

 

"The evening was also saved thanks to Luley's skills as an entertainer. [...] Luley whistles the melody to Summertime by George Gershwin, chasing across the keys at breathtaking speed [...]"

(Westfälisches Volksblatt, 16.08.2022)

 

"Here a subtle master of his craft played with joy, inventiveness and pianistic seduction, the audience went along with him, listening and enjoying time-honored New Orleans jazz."

(Neue Westfälische, 15.08.2022)

 

"He has a virtuoso command of the piano like no other and told the musical story of New Orleans, the melting pot of countless nations where cultures also mix musically, in the Kulturhaus Synagoge. He combines blues, European classical music, African and Caribbean rhythms and plays swing and rock'n'roll with equal ease. He also tells stories, sings and develops his own view of the city."

(nh24.de, 15.09.2019)

 

"Jan Luley is a jazz music all-rounder. The ideas just roll out of his fingers, the most adventurous rhythms from old New Orleans jazz are piled on top of each other, the blue notes are always placed in the right place, each cadence is provided with a different harmonization and the melodies are developed so sensually from small motifs that you never lose the common thread of the songs and yet are always surprised by new licks and sophisticated twists." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13.10.2018)

 

"On the piano there was a reunion with Jan Luley, an all-rounder who can refine the sound of any formation. Like a magician, he always reaches into his seemingly inexhaustible bag of tricks"

(Offenbacher Post 05.05.2018)

 

"Jan Luley is an incredibly versatile pianist [...]. Whatever he plays, it is always completely true to style and bears Luley's personal signature. His melodic inventiveness is enormous, his expression and sound are wonderfully relaxed."

(Oberhessische Presse, 21.02.2018)

 

"Jan Luley must be counted among the best in the country, a musician with lion's paws [...] A titan on the steel strings of the grand piano, but also a sensualist who presents his partner with such gently broken chords that you can feel that she sings "Kiss me once, kiss me twice" just for him."

(Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 03.12.2016)

 

"The keyboard man unfolded his manic traits when he fell for the boogie-woogie with his typical hammering, rolling accompaniment in his left hand"

(Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung, 05.07.2016)

 

"... you immediately sense that a brilliant keyboard artist is providing an evening in a class of its own."

(Amberger Zeitung, 18.05.2016)

 

"Jan Luley and Thomas L'Etienne delighted the audience with their declaration of love to the music of the Creoles and showed themselves to be true musical magicians."

(Oberhessische Presse, 26.06.2015)

 

"Dealing with jazz a hundred years ago [...] did not turn into a museum tour, but rather an exciting examination of the historical models. The instrumental qualities were decisive for the result. Luley masters all styles of playing on the piano, from powerful block chords to filigree runs and crazy tempi."

(Badische Neueste Nachrichten, 19.06.2015)

 

"Luley is a virtuoso on the keys, whose composition title "Hurricane" gives an idea of the speed of his runs. But Luley is also a calm narrator of the roots of jazz and he is a conscientious archivist who has understood that music and its styles do not survive on notes, but by being played and reinterpreted.

(Heidenheimer Zeitung, 25.11.2014)

 

"With the solo piece "Mettez idehro", Luley shone with incredible dexterity that had the audience on the edge of their seats."

(Gelnhäuser Neue Zeitung, 10.11.2014)

 

"While some pieces, sometimes freely interpreted, resembled the eruption of a volcano, there were also quiet, touching tones in between, reminiscent of the strong emotionality of fervently performed gospel songs."

(Amberger Zeitung, 17.09.2014)

​

"Creole Tears", Jan Luley's own composition, which he performed that evening, celebrated, yet unpathetically and professionally, a tremendous highlight of the evening, conveyed to an ambitious audience. The audience was amazed and applauded the outstanding musician, whose fine virtuosity, that exertion, nevertheless seemed natural and confident, controlled and devoid of any exhaustion.

(Passauer Neue Presse, 13.09.2014)

 

Now we have players who have gone beyond mere boogie to dig into New Orleans R&B styles, and Jan Luley is one of the best.

(Offbeat Magazine New Orleans, 2013)

 

"Crashing chords, thundering bass, the man in the cowboy hat unleashes a real power discharge. And he celebrates the ecstatic nature of this music with unleashed, swirling chords. Music by Jelly Roll Morton or James Booker passes by, Caribbean and Creole influences can be heard and a tendency towards tango melancholy. Luley's baritone sounds powerful and pleasantly roughened - a harmonious overall package."
(Reutlinger General-Anzeiger, 30.04.2012)

 

 "He skillfully uses his singing as the "third hand" of his piano playing. Added to this is his talent as a conferencer. Spiced up with anecdotes and punchlines, he moderates the pieces, and the audience learns a lot about the old jazz styles and their composers in an entertaining way."
(Jazzpodium, September 2010)

 

"... he demonstrated with an almost inexhaustible supply of rhythm combinations and nimble passages that he is one of the most virtuoso boogie pianists in a republic truly blessed with great boogie players. But those who followed his solo performance in its entirety were also offered a lesson in the history of jazz."
(FAZ, 28.06.2010)

 

"...jazz and gospel, blues and Caribbean-creole sounds, performed with masterful piano playing. When Jan Luley's fingers fly over the keys, his audience holds its breath - or enthusiastically taps its feet."
(Hersfelder Zeitung, 01.03.2010)

 

"... Jan Luley's riffs thundering into the piano with his left paw, the self-contained, architecturally wonderfully constructed solos, the whole exuberant playfulness."

(FAZ, 13.03.2010)

 

"Piano playing in perfection, fast and rousing and virtuoso. In addition, singing and words, just as charmingly connecting as enlightening."
(Hinterländer Anzeiger, 12.10.2009)

 

"The rhythmic elemental force of Luley's playing and the dramatic tremolos swept the audience away."
(Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung, 24.07.2008)

 

"The charming, good-humored pianist Jan Luley lets it groove and riff breathlessly. He juggles his way into the melody as light as a feather again and again, with carefree concentration, smilingly generating colorful marches, smoothly reviving the spirit of New Orleans."
(Heidenheimer Neue Presse, June 2008)

 

"[...] Jan Luley [...] in particular formed the congenial framework for Reimer von Essen's deep blues with his ludicrously diverse, formally incredibly well thought-out improvisations."

(FAZ, 31.01.2008)

 

"...the pianist presented the godfathers of jazz with dexterity and sophisticated interpretations."

(Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung, 18.07.2007)

 

"Jan Luley [...] is not a keyboard bureaucrat, but a boogie-woogie tiger."

(Mannheimer Morgen, 30.09.2006)

 

"[...] and of course the top-class Jan Luley, who once again revealed his star on several occasions, for a rousing groove that sounds more colorful and authentic than ever."

(Fränkische Nachrichten, 30.09.2005)

 

"... the listener knows after a few bars: Even the white pianist has the blues."

(Oberhessische Presse, 22.01.2005)

 

"[...] accompanied by Jan Luley on the piano, who played bar piano, boogie, classic blues and gospel with a somnambulistic confidence and amazed the audience with his virtuoso and seemingly effortless solos."  

(Generalanzeiger Bonn, 25.10.2004)

 

"Pianist Jan Luley was the audience's favorite."

(Neue Rottweiler Zeitung, 27.05.2004)

 

"The rolling basses on the left and the playful melodic figures on the right, the Creole rhythm and the sparkling tempo, provoked storms of applause."

(Jazzpodium, January 2004)

 

"A highlight was probably the solo piece by pianist Jan Luley. [...] Almost stealthily, he incorporated modern harmonies and made use of the timbres of newer jazz styles. The calmness with which he played, his unerring timing and his technical skills, which set no limits to the expression of his ideas, were impressive."

(NGZ, 21.11.03)

 

"The solos by the young Jan Luley on the piano were also among the highlights. With his very personal warm sound, with his amazing touch, with his clusters and the way he individualized them, he demanded ovations again and again." (DIE RHEINPFALZ, 28.07.2003)

"Angela Brown and Jan Luley at the Rizz - Two masters met each other

(Münstersche Zeitung Rheine, 11.05.2002)

 

"Jan Luley's piano performance was worth its own review. What should one admire more, his dexterity, his creative power or his musical humor?"

(Grafschafter Nachrichten, 02.05.2001)

 

"Jan Luley demonstrates skillful boogie-woogie playing on the Steinway grand piano in an endlessly rolling solo; sometimes it seems as if the pianist has found the long way back to Bach before he sets wild rock accents again."

(Beobachter, 09.10.2000)

 

"Luley [...] an incredibly secure, brilliant technician, stylistically fair in all saddles, and at the same time here with a gripping energy, a power and breathtaking precision at work..."

(Tauber-Zeitung, 04.10.2000)

 

"Le pianiste Jan Luley, qui a derrière une brilliante carrière de soliste et a accompagné des chanteuse de blues."

(Le journal (Metz/F), 02.10.2000)

 

"Jan Luley on the piano, who [...] skillfully built a musical bridge from the classical Russian piano school to the groovy southern jazz on the piano keys.

(Waldecker Zeitung, 16.09.2000)

 

"Star guest Jan Harrington and pianist Luley acclaimed."

(Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 10.12.1998)

 

"Jan Luley proved with equally powerful and virtuoso playing that he is undoubtedly one of the top five German blues and boogie pianists."

(Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 24.03.1998)

 

"For someone who has dedicated himself to modern jazz, Luley has a fantastic blues feeling."

(Süddeutsche Zeitung, 16.09.1996)

 

"Luley is a true 'piano tickler', as if he fits into the roughest gangster dive [...] reaching into the keyboard with shirt-sleeved warmth. With almost Lisztian virtuosity, Luley seems to be a wizard of the keys."

(Schwäbische Zeitung, 29.04.1996)

 

"...announced as an accompanist, Luley gradually turned out to be a congenial co-star..." 

(Heilbronner Stimme, 12.02.1996)

 

"With Jan Luley from Bochum, a star pianist had sat down at the piano who must have absorbed the jazz feeling with his mother's milk." (Rotenburger Kreiszeitung, 21.05.1994)