About
Anti-discriminatory, non-violent, prejudice-free and non-judgemental music for the open-minded. Made with drums, percussion and often with electronics: off beats, open improv, odd melodies and raw sound-design.
I’m an Amsterdam based musician, composer & teacher and my love is adventurous electro-acoustic music. No covers, no remixes. I love mixing up my compositions with improvisation and merge it with disciplines like light-art, dance, theater, video-art and activism. The projects I (co)created are my Solo Project, enablerefresh, All Us Dada, Knalpot, Knalpot + Frank Wienk (Binkbeats), STUG and Gerri Jäger Double Duo, Brown vs. Brown and The Black Napkins. Also there’s these collaborations going on more irregular terms: Loudmatter (a/v), Rosa Ensemble, HALA and Ansage Ende.
I started to get drum-lessons when I was 9 years old; up in the Austrian mountains that was. After some local brass-band and grunge-rock teenage years I studied jazz and improvised music at the Conservatories of Innsbruck (AT) and later in Amsterdam (NL). There I graduated in 2006. Since then I have been performing in and outside the EU with many different groups and projects. I also teach drums to private students in Amsterdam (East).
I have performed with Eirikur Olaffsson (Mum, Sigur Ros), Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (The Thing), Colin Stetson (Bon Iver), Shahzad Ismaily (Secret Chiefs), Marc Ducret (Tim Berne), Fred Frith (Brian Eno), Ron Anderson (The Molecules), Manu Delago (Björk), Dave Rempis (Peter Brötzmann), Frank Möbus & Rudi Mahall (Der Rote Bereich), Achim Kaufmann, Graduale Nobili (Björk), Jozef Dumoulin (Lidlboj), Franz Hautzinger (Regenorchester), Martin Siewert (Trapist), Hilary Jeffery (Zeitkratzer), Mette Rasmussen (Trio Riot), Joachim Badenhorst (Carate Urio), Frans Petter Eldh (Jameszoo), Sofia Jernberg (Fire Orchestra), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle) and Amsterdam’s heavy-weights Wolter Wierbos, Han Bennink, Ab Baars, Michael Moore, Terrie Ex, Jasper Stadhouders and Kaja Draksler a.o. I have been touring throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Russia and Brazil and released music on Rat Records, Eat Concrete, Blowpipe Records, Red Note, PAO Records, HAK Records, Geweih Ritual, El Negocito, Kaiser Label, Cuneiform, Flop Records, Shhpuma and Clean Feed.
Thanks to my great drum teachers Michael Trawick, Darko Stanojkovski Grappone, Norbert Rabanser, Gerhard Jeltes, Victor Oskam, Marcel Serierse, Laurens Miedema, Lucas van Merwijk and Martijn Vink.
photo by Thijs Geritz
An expedition that reveals something new, exciting, fantastic around every corner. (SKUG Magazin)
Drummer Gerri Jäger plays in two of the most innovative dutch bands of the past 5 years, Rooie Waas and Knalpot. That makes him probably this moment’s most innovative musician based in the Netherlands. (Peter Bruyn)
There are not many drummers like Gerri Jäger: an unparalleled agile and tight drummer who is shaking his complex rhythms and patterns out his sleeve, concentrated but with ease. (Vera Vingerhoeds)
Gerri Jäger significantly played himself into the picture with his stumblin’ groove. (Slagwerkkrant)
Gerri sounds like a sound manipulator par excellence. Whether he uses a bell, a woodblock, a shaker or and iron chain he knows how to integrate it all into the sound picture in a fascinating way. (draaiomjeoren)
Through his focused, solid and inspiring playing Gerri is growing towards an important drummer. (Cees van de Ven)
Gerri plays so precise that you would suspect that as a child he got a metronome instead of bedtime stories. (Guy Peters)
These were personal highlights throughout the years:
2006
Outreach Festival (Schwaz, AT)
2007
De Affaire (Nijmegen, NL)
Jazzwerkstatt Festival (Landeck, AT)
2008
Ground One Festival (The Hague, NL)
ZXZW Festival (Tilburg, NL)
Sonata Islands Festival (Trento, IT)
Doek Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
European TryTone Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
2009
Moers Festival (Moers, D)
INI-art Festival (Saarbrücken, D)
ADE Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
EXIT Festival (Novi Sad, SER)
Lowlands Festival (Biddinghuizen, NL)
Akouphene Festival (Geneva, CH)
The Night of the Unexpected (Amsterdam, NL)
Zomer JazzFietstour Festival (Groningen, NL)
State X New Forms (The Hague, NL)
Plein Open (The Hague, NL)
RUMOR Festival (Utrecht, NL)
Incubate Festival (Tilburg, NL)
2010
12points! (Stavanger, NO)
North Sea Jazz Festival (Rotterdam, NL)
Satta Outside (Šventoji, LIT)
Le Guess Who Festival (Utrecht, NL)
SKIF Festival (St. Petersburg, RU)
The Night of the Unexpected (Amsterdam, NL)
Zomer JazzFietstour Festival (Groningen, NL)
Musiques Innovatrices Festival (St. Etienne, FR)
International Film Festival Rotterdam (Rotterdam, NL)
Noorderslag (Groningen, NL)
2011
Eurosonic (Groningen, NL)
Freemote (Utrecht, NL)
Soundnoise Festival (Dornbirn, AT)
Jazz sur’l herbe (Gent, B)
5 Days Off Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
NuMusic (Stavanger, NO)
Affaire (Nijmegen, NL)
CCSP Jazz Festival (Sao Paulo, BRA)
La Fabrika Jazz (Sao Paulo, BRA)
Oddstream (Nijmegen, NL)
What’s Next (Brussels, B)
INI-art (Sarreguemuines, FR)
Experience(s) (Lyon, FR)
Jam de la Crème (The Hague, NL)
Shoot Me (The Hague, NL)
Tweetakt (Utrecht, NL)
2012
Rewire Festival (The Hague, NL)
ARCO Festival (Madrid, E)
ADE Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
Elevate Festival (Graz, AT)
Match & Fuse Festival (Oslo, NO)
Akouphene Festival (Geneva, CH)
Copenhagen Jazzfestival (DK)
2013
International Film Festival Rotterdam (Rotterdam, NL)
The Night Of The Unexpected Festival (Moscow, RU)
North Sea Jazz Festival (Rotterdam, NL)
Manu Delago Collaborations Festival (London, UK)
2014
Doek Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
Jazz Cerkno (Cerkno, SLO)
North Sea Jazz Festival (Rotterdam, NL)
Jazz in ‘t Park Festival (Gent, B)
Lowlands Festival (Biddinghuizen, NL)
Unlimited Festival 2014 (Wels, AT)
Le Guess Who Festival (Utrecht, NL)
State X New Forms (The Hague, NL)
Zomer JazzFietstour Festival (Groningen, NL)
The Rest Is Noise Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
2015
Jazz in ‘t Park Festival (Gent, B)
Zomer JazzFietstour Festival (Groningen, NL)
November Music Festival 2015 (Den Bosch, NL)
Krakow Jazz Autumn 2015 (Krakow, PL)
Alternativa Festival 2015 (Prague, CZ)
ADM Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
2016
Banlieues Bleues Festival (Montreuil/Paris, F)
Rewire Festival (The Hague, NL)
FAQ Festival (Den Bosch, NL)
Jazz Day Festival (Lyon, F)
Incubate Festival (Tilburg, NL)
Poetry International Festival (Rotterdam, NL)
October Meeting (Amsterdam, NL)
Stranger Than Paranoia (Tilburg, NL)
2017
Ottawa Jazz Festival (CAN)
Toronto Jazz Festival (CAN)
Vancouver Jazz Festival (CAN)
Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival (Montreal, CAN)
The Present is Present Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
Contemporary Arts Festival (Szekesfehervar, HU)
Hoerthoert Festival (Vienna, AT)
INI-art Festival (Saarbrücken, D)
Satta (Klaipeda, LIT)
2018
North Sea Jazz Festival (Rotterdam, NL)
Jazz no parque Festival (Porto, PT)
Houtnacht Festival (Haarlem, NL)
Citadelic Summer Festival (Gent, B)
Complexity Fest (Haarlem, NL)
Modern Body Festival (The Hague, NL)
2019
Rumor Festival (Utrecht, NL)
FAQ Festival (Den Bosch, NL)
Injazz Festival (Rotterdam, NL)
ZomerJazzFietsTour Festival (Groningen, NL)
North Sea Around Town (Rotterdam, NL)
Playdate Festival (Bergen, NO)
Front Row Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
2020
Rauwkostfestival (Den Bosch, NL)
Inclusion of the excluded, Paradiso (Amsterdam, NL)
Knalpot + Frank Wienk (Binkbeats), Bimhuis (Amsterdam, NL)
Treibhaus (Innsbruck, AT)
Flint (Amersfoort, NL)
2021
Amsterdam Dance Event (NL)
O-Festival (Rotterdam, NL)
2022
Limmitationes Festival (Eberau, AT)
Primisi (Alida Dors) Theater Tour (NL)
RAUWFEST (Rotterdam, NL)
Space is the Place Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
2023
Bimhuis (Amsterdam, NL)
Perifest (Deventer, NL)
Primisi (Alida Dors) Theater Tour (NL)
Vrooom Festival (Rotterdam, NL)
Space is the Place Summer Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
2024
Eurosonic Noorderslag (Groningen, NL)
Freakshow Festival (Würzburg, DE)
SITP X Cinetol Summer Festival (Amsterdam, NL)
An Interplanetary Night, Bimhuis (Amsterdam, NL)
Grants + Funds:
2009 The Black Napkins Young Vips Tour (Performing Arts Fund NL)
2010 composing for KNALPOT (Performing Arts Fund NL)
2014 composing for Klang Knalpot Maximal Music Project (Performing Arts Fund NL)
2014 composing, research & development (Performing Arts Fund NL)
2017 composing, research & development (Performing Arts Fund NL)
2020 Inclusion of the Excluded, Paradiso Amsterdam (Mondriaan Fund)
2020 composing, research & development (Performing Arts Fund NL)
2022 research & development for Enablerefresh (Creative Industries Fund NL)
Residencies:
2010 Moers Festival (D)
2012 STEIM Amsterdam (NL)
2014 Saraswati Studio (PL)
2015 PAF, Saint-Erme-Outre-et-Ramecourt, Frankrijk (FR) 2017 WORM Rotterdam (NL)
2017 STEIM Amsterdam (NL)
2017 Carte Blanche Bimhuis (NL)
2019 BEK Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (NO)
2019 STEIM Amsterdam (NL)
2024 Dock Zuid Tilburg (NL)