FLORIAN EGLI
Florian Egli (*1982) is a Zurich based saxophonist, bassist and producer. He is active as a freelance musician in various bands and projects in the jazz and pop field.
Egli grew up in a music-loving family. At the age of 17 he discovered jazz, educated himself in it autodidactically and was admitted to the Zurich University of the Arts in 2004. He studied with Christoph Grab and Reto Suhner, and while still a student won a sponsorship award from the Friedl Wald Foundation in 2006.
In 2007 he became a member of the newly founded Lucerne Jazz Orchestra (2007-2017), which helped shape the big band scene in Switzerland and Europe with some 120 concerts and seven studio productions. The LJO helped him gain great routine as a big band player - also on instruments such as piccolo, flute and clarinet. He has been performing regularly as a substitute with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra and the Zurich Jazz Orchestra.
In 2007 he founded the band Weird Beard. The group with Dave Gisler (guitar), Martina Berther (bass) and Rico Baumann (drums) played numerous tours and concerts, among others at the Langnau Jazz Nights, the European Jazz Meeting (Jazzahead!) and the Zurich City Summer. Their three studio productions received attention from the European jazz press. Weird Beard remains Egli's most important project as a leader and composer. It combines his childhood pop music background with a passion for jazz.
Other projects as a bandleader include The Murder of Amus Ames (2008-2014) with drummer Andreas Wettstein and bassist Claude Meier, and the Egli-Santana Group (2014-2016) with Brazilian-Portuguese trumpeter Gileno Santana, with whom he won the 2015 BeJazz TransNational competition.
As a sideman, he was and is also involved in a wide variety of projects. These include, among many others, guitarist Theo Kapilidis' Neoplatonic Trio, tours with blues pop musician Philipp Fankhauser (2016-2018) or a Threepenny Opera production at the Schauspielhaus Zurich.
In 2015, he launched a monthly concert series with Raphael Walser (bass) and Jonas Ruther (drums) called The Jazz Trio invites, committed to jazz standards from the Great American Songbook. The trio invites guest musicians from all over Switzerland - and in turn has already been invited to the Willisau Jazz Festival itself. In 2017, the group expanded with Lukas Thoeni (trumpet) and Philipp Eden (piano) to form the quintet JENNY.
For several years, Egli has also devoted himself intensively to playing the bass - today he describes his electric bass as just as important as the saxophone. For the indie pop band URSINA, he has been on the road for the first time as a bass player since 2018, in addition to helping with arrangements and compositions.
Since 2020, he has been releasing music as a producer and multi-instrumentalist under the name Michael Benedikt.
Florian Egli has so far played on over twenty album productions released by labels such as Intakt Records, UNIT, Radicalis or Enja. In addition to his activities as a musician, he is also involved in the Zurich jazz scene on a voluntary basis. He has been a board member of the JazzBaragge association since 2011, served on the board of the Moods association for several years, and launched the Jazztripp newsletter in 2018 together with Raphael Walser. The monthly concert calendar lists all jazz events played in the Zurich area by Zurich musicians* and thus provides an overview of the diverse scene in the region.
Egli grew up in a music-loving family. At the age of 17 he discovered jazz, educated himself in it autodidactically and was admitted to the Zurich University of the Arts in 2004. He studied with Christoph Grab and Reto Suhner, and while still a student won a sponsorship award from the Friedl Wald Foundation in 2006.
In 2007 he became a member of the newly founded Lucerne Jazz Orchestra (2007-2017), which helped shape the big band scene in Switzerland and Europe with some 120 concerts and seven studio productions. The LJO helped him gain great routine as a big band player - also on instruments such as piccolo, flute and clarinet. He has been performing regularly as a substitute with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra and the Zurich Jazz Orchestra.
In 2007 he founded the band Weird Beard. The group with Dave Gisler (guitar), Martina Berther (bass) and Rico Baumann (drums) played numerous tours and concerts, among others at the Langnau Jazz Nights, the European Jazz Meeting (Jazzahead!) and the Zurich City Summer. Their three studio productions received attention from the European jazz press. Weird Beard remains Egli's most important project as a leader and composer. It combines his childhood pop music background with a passion for jazz.
Other projects as a bandleader include The Murder of Amus Ames (2008-2014) with drummer Andreas Wettstein and bassist Claude Meier, and the Egli-Santana Group (2014-2016) with Brazilian-Portuguese trumpeter Gileno Santana, with whom he won the 2015 BeJazz TransNational competition.
As a sideman, he was and is also involved in a wide variety of projects. These include, among many others, guitarist Theo Kapilidis' Neoplatonic Trio, tours with blues pop musician Philipp Fankhauser (2016-2018) or a Threepenny Opera production at the Schauspielhaus Zurich.
In 2015, he launched a monthly concert series with Raphael Walser (bass) and Jonas Ruther (drums) called The Jazz Trio invites, committed to jazz standards from the Great American Songbook. The trio invites guest musicians from all over Switzerland - and in turn has already been invited to the Willisau Jazz Festival itself. In 2017, the group expanded with Lukas Thoeni (trumpet) and Philipp Eden (piano) to form the quintet JENNY.
For several years, Egli has also devoted himself intensively to playing the bass - today he describes his electric bass as just as important as the saxophone. For the indie pop band URSINA, he has been on the road for the first time as a bass player since 2018, in addition to helping with arrangements and compositions.
Since 2020, he has been releasing music as a producer and multi-instrumentalist under the name Michael Benedikt.
Florian Egli has so far played on over twenty album productions released by labels such as Intakt Records, UNIT, Radicalis or Enja. In addition to his activities as a musician, he is also involved in the Zurich jazz scene on a voluntary basis. He has been a board member of the JazzBaragge association since 2011, served on the board of the Moods association for several years, and launched the Jazztripp newsletter in 2018 together with Raphael Walser. The monthly concert calendar lists all jazz events played in the Zurich area by Zurich musicians* and thus provides an overview of the diverse scene in the region.