About me

Biography

Prior to my Piano "career"

I was born in Celle, situated in northern Germany near Hannover. After my birth, my parents moved to Karlsruhe where I'm still living today.

My father forced me to play the piano as early as at the age of 7 and 8. When nothing came of this because I hated the piano back then, he sent me to a piano teacher when I was 9 ½.

I learned to play classical piano from her but with little engagement and interest in the whole thing. However, I soon had great success at various piano recitals and that I did like very much indeed. This is evident even today: I'm incredibly happy to perform! It's simply the best thing in the world when people clap their hands, dance or simply participate in my music in some way.

I had been touched, although subconsciously at first, by the first blues and boogie melodies as early as at age 10. My father had played a little blues improvisation on the piano when I was about 11 and I asked him immediately: "What song is that?" Of course, back then I didn't even know that it wasn't a song but just an improvisation. He said that it was a "Blues" but then I had forgotten even that.

It happened about six months later that I found the diskette which had really brought me to Boogie Woogie and the Blues.

How I got to Boogie Woogie and Blues

It is said that one shouldn't play Boogie Woogie and Blues from notes but only by ear. In my opinion this is difficult at the start. One has to start somewhere and without any knowledge of the blues scheme and boogie "licks" and "riffs" one would need, I think, much longer than to begin with notes and then develop something personal later.

At home I play on an electronic piano which can also play Midi recordings. This technology offers the advantage that when playing a Midi recording a small light is illuminated over the key which one has to press.

I had a diskette which contained a few demo songs for the piano. On one of these Midi recordings I happened to find the Solfeggietto of Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach. I listened to it and thought: "Wow, this sounds cool" because there was a jazz piece attached after the main number. At that time I didn't really know what jazz was, so I searched for jazz on YouTube because I liked it so much.

I stumbled on a Jazz/Blues number and continued to search for "Blues Piano" and found "Boogie Woogie & Blues (piano solo) #1". From there it was only a small step to Boogie Woogie and I couldn't quit listening to this music.

After a while I didn't want to only listen to Boogie, but I wanted to play it! So I googled for "Boogie Woogie Midi" and found "Erik Vastenburg's Boogie Woogie Corner" . From that I first downloaded "Colorado Boogie" unto a diskette and inserted it into my piano. Soon after I was able to play Colorado Boogie and had some successes performing it, for instance in my school. I learned "Pinetop's Boogie" the same way.

When I had enough of following Midis - it was time to buy myself a decent book of sheet music... I settled on "The Real Blues 'n Boogie Buch." This was the best book of sheet music that could have come under my curious fingers. From it I learned "Go Str 4 it", "Boogie Woogie Stomp" "Just a Blues" and many others. For the international Boogie Woogie Festival in Lugano I prepared myself with everything Axel Zwingenberger had to offer. :-). In addition to various CD's I also treated myself to the sheet music book "Boogie Woogie Piano Solo" which I can seriously recommend. From that I learned, among others, "Boogie Woogie Be With Me."

So this is how I arrived at Boogie Woogie, and couldn't get rid of it yet :-).

Today

I've played the piano since I was 9 years old, that is for just about 5 years now. I found Boogie Woogie when I was 11 and I'm playing it now since more than 2 years. In the beginning I had piano lessons from my piano teacher. I'm still getting those today. I learned the classics from her, but acquired Boogie and Blues on my own. I played the first Boogie and Blues pieces when I was 10, although without realizing it and with less enthusiasm than what I rapidly developed for them over time.

Interviews & Articles

WHITE HEAT - When the spring came to the suburb

Toni Palmroth, Arvid Hill and Luca Sestak, Skarpnäck April 10th 2010.

Great talent is not a musician, who can press the buttons and keys on his instrument and reproduce exactly what the composer has written. Great talent is someone who learns the original composition and then improvise, develop and interpret the work by means of love for the art. We got the opportunity to experience that in three amazing examples, south of Stockholm the first Saturday after Easter.

Three white kids - boogie woogie virtuosos - from Germany, the North of Uppland and a cottage between Borås and Ulricehamn, performed. They were Luca Sestak, Toni Palmroth and Arvid Hill. Luca and Arvid are 15 years old, Toni double up. During two sets they played stride, shuffle and boogie-woogie by eminent boogie composers like Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Otis Spann.

Luca Sestak is, like Palmroth, classically trained. Luca still takes several hours of piano lessons per week and perform with classical works. He was hooked up with boogie-woogie via the internet, and as soon as he comes home from school, he sits down at the piano to practice, improvise and compose. Already after the first tune I come to think of the multi-facetted and innovative James Booker, especially his Black Minute Waltz, and not surprisingly it turns out that Booker is Luca's favourite in the boogie genre. Within the classical music he prefers Frederic Chopin. Luca possesses a unique technical skill and through an ability for improvisation comparable to the very most experienced pianists, the music - without exceptions - becomes fresh and alive. Like as with Booker, Luca blends classical delicacy with more modern rhythms. He also performs two own compositions, which as well could have belonged to the standard repertoire of blues veterans.

Luca says his father is a bit disappointed about Lucas giving more time to boogie than to the classical tradition. That is hardly motivated. The music that Toni, Arvid and Luca bring about, has, of course, connections to contemporary popular music, but the historical legacy is the most obvious. Classical composers like Ravel and Chopin are fully present in the music. On the contrary, of U2 or gangsta rap are no signs to be seen. Historical brothel-, bar- and dance-music have now become classical. Toni, Arvid and Luca play Ammons and Lewis like Gould, Cliburn and Schedrin play Beethoven, Bach and Bizet.

This concert gave us a definitive answer that we have to reconsider regarding our conceptions and prejudices concerning Europe versus USA, and black versus white. The most emotional soul singer right now is Joss Stone, 23 years old and white, from Denver, England. The most promising blues musician right now is Joanne Shaw Taylor, also from England and of the same age as Stone, and the future of boogie-woogie piano relies on a white German kid, Luca Sestak, who hasn't yet left primary school. How about that!

Peter Nyström, translated by Birgitta Larsson

News

Oct 15th 2011 - Luca Sestak wins the "PINETOP AWARD" 2011
In the category "Discovery of the Year" the 16 year old wins the German Boogie Woogie Award. [...]

1st LAGO DI BRAIES BOOGIENIGHT
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December 15th 2010 - Blues im Schaf - New dates
"Blues im Schaf" in 2011.
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