Members
The Ruff Pack
THE RUFF PACK consists of 3 musicians who share the same passion for good music. The Band blends and mixes the improvisational and compositional complexity of Jazz and the rustic groove and frenetic energy of HipHop. This clash of cultures appears more prevalent in New York City, the home base of THE RUFF PACK.
Based on the classic jazz guitar trio, THE RUFF PACK takes instrumental HipHop to another level. Stephan Kondert and Matthias Löscher, both born and raised in Austria, collaborated in many different projects for more than 15 years. In Daru Jones ( Jack White, Talib Kweli, Black Milk, Slum Village, etc.) they found the perfect match for their open-minded visions.
The Band has released one Studio Album (“Introducing THE RUFF PACK”, 2010) and one Live DVD (THE RUFF PACK LIVE, 2012). They have been touring regularly on both sides of the Atlantic since 2009 and were featured at the “Blue Note Jazz Club, NYC”, “Catch A Fire Festival 2012″ (one of the main german HipHop Festivals), the “Red Bull Brandwagen Gehheimkonzerttour, feat. Aloe Blacc” (supportact in Vienna), “The Filmore” in San Francisco (opening for Living Colour), amongst countless other Jazz and HipHop Clubs.
Since the first show of TRP the enthusiastic respond of very different kind of audiences has been remarkable. This unique musical vision has made Jazz Club visitors listen with delight and made a very young HipHop Festival crowd listen to instrumental solos over HipHop Grooves with clapping on the beats “two” and “four”.
The album “With You” is the fourth release of THE RUFF PACK (released in February 2013). The music is a step further in the development of the unique fusion of instrumental HipHop and Jazz that TRP has created in past years. After the mixtape ‘#HipHoppersForCovers, Vol. 1 (EU Version)’ which featured rappers across Europe, TRP now presents “With You” and they are stronger on this album as a unit than ever before. The Packers composed, arranged, and produced every single note and recorded them live in the studio (check out the ‘Making of’ Videos).
The mutual vision of Daru, Steph and Matt created a whole new universe of sounds, grooves and textures. This album captures the listener like an epic movie – you won’t be able to quit listening until the end. This musical journey will take you to unexpected places that you never thought a HipHop/Jazz Instrumental band could take you. Elements of Rock, Synthesizer like sounds, raw Funk, and pure Soul are packed into the Trio’s original sound. Steph Kondert’s solid bass grooves and virtuous solos, Matt Pedals’ sound universe giving justice to his name and Daru Jones’ unique driving and legendary pocket make this new record magical.
THE RUFF PACK is looking forward to exploring these journeys WITH YOU.
Stephan Kondert
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The bassplayer and composer, Stephan Kondert, grew up in Salzburg and studied Jazzbass & Composition in Linz at the Anton Bruckner Privat University with Adelhard Roidinger & Christoph Cech. After graduation he was living in New York, sponsored by the Fulbright Scholarship. He was improving his musicianship at the William Paterson University with his teachers Steve LaSpina, Mulgrew Miller, Rich Derosa and Cecil Bridgewater. In this time period he started playing with Daru Jones, Nasheet Waits, Justin Brown and many other international artists.As a bandleader Stephan is working with his bigband called SK Invitational, which is combining Hip-Hop, Electro and Jazz. A lot of well known artists like TY, Blumentopf, Fiva, Phatkat, Buff1, Texta … recorded tracks and performed with this young bigband. His style of bassplaying can be heard in many different projects: Fiva, Lylit, Philipp Nykrin Trio, Mono&Nikitaman, Texta, Deli Rockers, …
:: Influences ::Charles Mingus, Reggie Washington,T. Monk, Sonny Thompson, … :: Endorse ::Amplifier: MarkBass |
Matthias Löscher
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Matthias Löscher works as a freelancing musician and composer and currently lives in Vienna, Austria.He studied Jazz Guitar at the ’Anton Bruckner University’ and graduated with honors in 2007. In 2008 Löscher received the J. William Fulbright Scholarship and permanently moved to New York City to attend the Jazz Guitar Master’s Program at Purchase College, to study with John Abercrombie. In 2010 Löscher received his Master of Arts degree with honors.
Löscher was awarded the ’Salzburger Jahresstipendium für Musik in 2011’. The committee mentioned the unique ‘Matthias Löscher Sound’ as one of several reasons for their choice: “his sophisticated, matured sound has been so perfected, one can indeed speak of a distinctive style. Löscher has his own distinctive form of musical expression, regardless of whether he is moving within Jazz, Hip-hop or Pop realms.” As a bandleader, Löscher has released two albums (“Vox”-ATS Records, 2007, “Thoughts&Ideas”-SWR Records, 2009) and has successfully toured with his band ML4. Another main artistic focus has been on his recent album release “Duo”(SWR Records 2011), a collaboration between the singer Lylit and himself. The album was released in November 2011 and has garnered rave reviews from print media, television media and fans alike. Along with other independent projects, Löscher is a regular member of S.K. Invitational, Millions of Dreads, the Werner Zangerle Quartet and has collaborated with David Murray, Justin Brown, Hamid Drake, Lylit, Neue Oper Wien, Felix Mitterer, Rogerio Bocatto, French Hip-hop/Soul Band Jetlazz, Blumentopf, TEXTA and many others. :: Influences ::Music in general: |
Daru Jones
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Daru has gained knowledge and experience while working the soul/hip-hop scene. Taking a page from the legendary James Brown, Daru is known as one of the hardest working beat maker/drummer in the industry. This incredible drummer and producer currently resides in Brooklyn, New York City has experimented with the art of encompassing live drum loops, jazzy samples and a soulful passion into all his beats.
He has played with numerous artist, including Slum Village, Black Milk, Ski Beatz & The Sensei’s and Jon B. As a producer, Daru has worked with Kissey Asplund, Muhsinah, Reggie B, AB, Rena, Eagle Nebula and many others. Currently drumming and touring with Jack White (formerly of The White Stripes), Talib Kweli, and Austrian Jazz-Hip-Hop trio The Ruff Pack which he’s a member of this band. Daru has gained fans all over the states as well as Europe and more! As a producer, Daru has created & remixed music for acts such as Kissey Asplund, Muhsinah, Reggie B, AB, Rena, Eagle Nebula and others. Daru has gained international respect for his live and studio performances. His production company Rusic Records has released a string of projects featuring many known and undiscovered artists, he continues to push his musical style of Soul-Hop, a mesh between Hip-Hop and Soul. :: Influences ::Drum Influences : Dana Davis, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steward Copland, Steve Smith, Peter Eskine, Bernard Perdie, Virgil Donati, Dave Weckl, Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Gene Krupa, Omar Hakim, Bill Maxwell, Micheal Lee, Terry Givens Producer Influences : DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Dre, Marly Marl, Jay Dee (J.Dilla), Kay Gee, Rza, Da Beatminerz, Eric B, Eric Sermon, The Bomb Squad, Bill Maxwell, Micheal Brooks :: Endorse ::Drums, Pedals & Hardware = DW |
Recent Blog Articles
Greetings from the road! We’ve been back on tour for a bunch of days now and are very happy to announce the physical release of our brand new Album “With You”! You can PURCHASE it here. As for the Tour, it’s going very well! We had three performances so far, all of them open air. [...]
Ladies & Gentlemen, we are proud to announce our “With You” Tour dates for February 2013! We will have our first appearances in Belgium and the Netherlands. Our new Album has been digitally released on February 1st (get it HERE). Now, the hard copies will be available on February 15th. You can order your copy [...]
Ladies & Gentlemen, we are very pleased to announce that our new Album “With You” is digitally released today!! You can purchase it on ITunes, the hard copies will be available on February 15th, 2013. We put a WHOLE LOT OF LOVE in this Album and are really, really proud of it! Big ups to [...]
Ladies & Gentlemen, today is the day! Our single “With You” is herewith released!! Here’s the official music video, directed and edited by Julian Weidenthaler, aka JYD Get the single on ITunes! peace, TRP
TRP in Paris Peace everyone, so we’ve had our first show in Paris yesterday at L’Etage. Wow, it was awesome!! The respond of the audience was incredible! Also, Big ups to your french fam Jetlazz, who killed it in their set! So, we will have two more events lined up in Paris: January 24th: Full [...]
