Jonathan Sell is a bass player who is active in a wide range of styles, including Jazz, Rock and Blues as well as Arabic Maqam and Indian Raga. Because the world of music is just too diverse and rich, he does not want to limit himself to one specific style of music. As a result, he changes styles frequently and creates a global musical aesthetic out of their entirety. Jonathan has been drawn to the Bass and its power and warmth from very early on. He prefers a rich, wooden sound on the double bass, while his electric bass is very much influenced by his love for the 60s Fender Precision Bass.
Jonathan`s idea of his role as a bassist, as a connector and supporter, goes beyond its musical meaning: His transcultural projects have worked together for many years and value friendship and creating an artistic vision together above all else. The intensive connection to other musicians and regular trips to their home countries have made those once foreign cultures part of Jonathan`s identity.
In his global musical vision the special characteristics of all musical cultures are taken seriously. The unique musical trademarks of the Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Indian music tradition, like microtonality, richness of individual interpretation and rhythm diversity, and those of the western musical tradition, like polyphony, counterpoint and jazz improvisation, fuse into a new entity.
There have already been incredible opportunities for Jonathan to accomplish this vision: for example at the Royal Opera House / Muskat, at Festival International de Hammamet / Tunis, at International Music Centre Ashram / Varanasi and at Nationaltheater Mannheim / Musiksalon Welt, where his group Haz‘art Trio was Artist in Residency in 2019.
In July 2017 Jonathan finished his master studies of jazz-double-bass and electric bass with Prof. Thomas Stabenow and Prof. Dave King in Mannheim with distinction. He is a member of the Oriental Music Academy Mannheim, where he commits himself to cultural exchange through music. Since 2015 he is also teaching “Transcultural Bass” at the Oriental Music Academy Mannheim. He is creating and organising artistic projects and works as an event manager. At the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg, he is working as a lecturer for composition, bandcoaching in the world-music-department.
