We talk to Nicole Johänntgen - German saxophonist, composer and educator, based in Switzerland.

Take us back to the beginning - what was your earliest relationship with music, and how did you find your way to the saxophone and to jazz?
I still had diapers on, so I must have been two or three years old. We had an acoustic piano in the living room. My older brother was already learning to play it, and I touched the keys and liked the sound. I couldn't reach them properly, but that's the first picture that comes to mind.

My father had founded an evergreen group, called the Joe Fuchs Band, and that was my first experience of live music. 

I started learning piano at six years old - it was a classical training, but I always loved to improvise. I didn't have any harmony lessons; I was just trying to invent some nice sounds.

 
When I was about 13, my brother called me over to watch a show on TV. There was a funky band on TV and a woman playing the saxophone. I said straight away: “I want to play that!”

I joined the youth big band, and from then on, I was attached to jazz.

What did you do next? 
It was suddenly clear that I wanted to play more jazz. I also started to play with my Dad's band and realised how much fun it could be.

I was thinking about studying jazz, but I wasn’t sure I had enough courage to go for it. A friend encouraged me to take the entry exam for the jazz programme at the Academy of Music in Mannheim, and I was offered a place. I studied in Mannheim for five years: jazz and the saxophone, and then composition and arrangement. These were my first steps into the serious jazz world. 

How did your early career develop? What were the defining moments?
I just played concerts - so many concerts! I also took part in a couple of jazz meetings, like IASJ, the International Association for Jazz of Schools and IAJE, the International Association for Jazz Education.

IAJE and IASJ were very important; they offered me platforms, but also opportunities to meet people from across the jazz world and play with international musicians. It was amazing. 

I also played with Swinging Europe’s European Jazz Orchestra, and toured across Europe. In 2003, I took part in the Sisters in Jazz programme in New York, and in 2005 I moved to Zurich. 

Alongside all this, I’d had my own band called Nicole Jo needs 2B funky since I was 17, with my brother Stefan and drummer Elmar Federkeil and bassist Christian Konrad from Saarland, our hometown close to the French border. We did lots of playing and produced many CDs.

You founded Selmabird Records and produce your own albums. What drove you to take that route, and what has it taught you?
I started my own label about ten years ago to release my own records. Whenever I met someone from the jazz business, they would ask me: Where will you release your album, your LP? I did release a few with different labels, but I’m constantly writing and producing music. So I decided to create my own label to avoid the question and to see what would happen.

Now it’s much easier to produce your own CD than it was ten years ago, and far more people are doing it. The promotion is one of the hardest parts now, as there are far fewer slots for cultural coverage in newspapers here in Switzerland. 

So it's pretty hard, and it’s also why I set up my own newsletter. It's an extra workload, but I love doing it. And you have control over how you put things out and where. If someone comes along and says they want to help me with booking or promotion, of course, I say yes. But in the meantime, doing it yourself keeps you creative; you have to keep finding new ways of doing things.

Have there been particular challenges for you as a woman artist?
I haven’t had many problems, maybe because I do everything for myself. But occasionally there have been experiences - with festival organisers or other musicians - that felt aggressive or harsh, where people didn’t seem aware of the impact of their words.

These experiences led me to have some coaching last year. I wanted to learn some new skills and to be more prepared for tricky situations so that I can respond in a way that helps me to navigate them, while staying true to myself. 

Now, if I’m in a situation like this, I might say: “I understand your frustration, but I don’t like communicating like this; I don’t feel good about it.” It’s important to acknowledge your feelings. But this approach takes courage and time to develop the skills and to build self-awareness.

You set up SOFIA thirteen years ago - Support Of Female Improvising Artists - inspired by the US Sisters in Jazz programme. Can you tell us about it, and what you noticed that female musicians most need?
I took part in Sisters in Jazz in 2002, which was a great experience, but the focus was on playing concerts and developing songs. SOFIA came from the recognition that you also need to learn the business side of being a musician.

It’s an intensive residential programme that runs for five days. There are workshops during the day covering self-management, booking, promotion, and accounting. In the evenings, we hold jam sessions or concerts - except Friday evening, which is free time, just to talk. That talking time is a big part of it.

The safe space is the most important thing we offer. When all the young women come together - in the breaks, eating together, sitting in the garden by the lake - you can see them give each other courage. And we invite interesting people from the business: bookers, promoters, club representatives, who share information about how to reach them, what a good booking email looks like, etc.

It's not designed to be a relaxed programme - it brings you to the edge of your strengths, and you realise what is possible for yourself and what is not. We bring in women from Switzerland and abroad, because from the beginning, my goal was to create a network - that's the most important thing we have as artists. 

After taking part in SOFIA, there are people who still work together as a group, visit each other, and play together. I now play with two SOFIA members in one of my bands.

What changes for female musicians who've come through SOFIA, and what still needs to change in the broader sector?
Out of every SOFIA edition, at least 60 to 70 per cent of the participants really start to build their life in music. You see them - they become more visible, more focused.

What I see more broadly is that more and more young women are coming into the jazz world and looking for their place. That's exciting. But at the same time, the media space for jazz keeps shrinking. We need that visibility - audiences need to know concerts are happening. Journalists aren't choosing to ignore jazz; there simply isn't space anymore, and that is a real structural problem.

I also want to say something about pace. The word career comes from the  Spanish “correr” to run. I don’t want to run. Instead, I like the German word “berufung”, which means that the passion calls you. I see many younger freelancers - women and men - who work too intensely or take everything too seriously. 

Jazz teaches us that no two days are the same, and to improvise. We have only one body. We have our health, and we have to take care. You can control the pace when you manage yourself - if you know the next six months are tough with lots of travelling, you can consciously do a little less before and after if money allows. 

You've built a significant social media following. How did that evolve, and what have you learned about what actually works?
I love sharing small saxophone skills on video - showing how something works, really close up. One of the secrets is keeping it natural. I tape my mobile phone to the wall with gaffer tape and I don't edit, because I don't have time. Or sometimes my child's nanny holds the phone. That's it.

I had a video go viral, where I was sitting on the grass playing - a tuba player friend Jon Hansen from the US shot it in 30 seconds. There were no production values, it was just a moment in nature. I think that's why it spread; it was authentic.

My advice is to find your own language, your own special thing. Who are you? What inspires you? Know your audience, and don't confuse your personal network with your professional one. For me, it’s meant that people get in touch about lessons or the saxophone workshops I run a few times a year in the mountains.

I don’t want to spend my life on social media,  so I check for maybe five minutes a day - time is too precious, especially now I have a child. For me personally, the world is too loud. 

You work internationally and have performed in the US, Asia and New Zealand. What has this international perspective offered you as an artist?
First of all, if you go abroad you are in totally new surroundings, you meet new people, you're out of your comfort zone, and you can only benefit from that.

Personally, it’s given me much more courage. I grew up in a village with chickens around me, and then I’m in the US and Malaysia, seeing these different cultures close up and people living in completely different circumstances.

Musically, I’ve always benefited when I play with musicians abroad - in Indonesia, for example, with traditional musicians. One of the reasons I love jazz is that it opens so many doors and friendships. So I’ve gained courage, I've gained networks, I’ve gained technique-wise, and an openness to different styles of jazz.

Looking at the international landscape, jazz is very colourful; it’s constantly growing, and it never stays still. Through social media, we can see what's happening everywhere now, and the scene feels super creative and full of little networks. Sometimes I wish those networks were bigger, that more people were coming together across borders to exchange and meet as humans. Jazz offers us a big possibility for that. I'm excited about the developments that lie ahead.

What advice would you give young people wanting to embark on a life in jazz?
We all want to play music until our eighties and nineties, right? That’s a lovely picture. So let’s be patient. That’s the first thing. And also pin up on your wall a piece of paper that says: ‘I love music.’ Then, whenever the business side of things is frustrating, you are reminded to come back to your love of music. 

As well as teaching, I do some mentoring with younger musicians, which I love. I encourage them to take a 360- degree view of what a jazz life looks like in a human being. 

So we look at booking, at promotion, at accounting. But we also look at the physical side of life, like sport and exercise. We look at hobbies. But first of all, I meet the person, and we start talking and thinking about what they want their musical life to look like. 

I’d love to combine the teaching and mentoring in a single package, offering the musical skills but adding in the business skills and whole-person development.

What advice do you wish you’d been given when you were starting out?
Take it slowly, step by step. Be patient. And listen more to your inner voice. If you feel like it's not the right groove, change it. Trust yourself more. You know what you actually want. And you will find your way in jazz.

What excites you about what's next for you artistically?
I've realised I love playing elegiac melodies - long lines in the upper register, with rhythm behind them. I want to go deeper into that. And I've started to do more solo playing, finding the space I take by myself. 

I played with an Icelandic musician recently, who played a very beautiful, very soft sound on the saxophone. I want to bring a similar solo quality - that softness - into the band context. 

I'm also preparing to start my doctoral thesis. It will be about how jazz can support us in daily life -  in communication, in thinking, in responding. What can we actually learn from jazz as a practice for living? I'll be studying in Poland, living in Switzerland, and the thesis will be in English. That feels like the next big thing.

And this summer I'm taking two months at home with my family-  sleeping every night in the same bed, practising solo saxophone, exploring new techniques. I'm really looking forward to it. 

Which female or non-binary artists in improvised music are you most excited about right now?
Maria Schneider - I find her consistently great. Canadian saxophonist Christine Jensen, who successfully combines a jazz career with family life. And her trumpeter sister, Ingrid Jensen.

I also really like the LA-based saxophonist, Nicole McCabe. And Ada Rovatti, an Italian saxophonist, living in the US. Also, Manon Müllener, jazz pianist, and a previous SOFIA participant, who I now play with. She’s currently very active, performing as far as Cuba.

www.nicolejohaenntgen.com

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Photo credits:
1-3: Daniel Bernet, 4:Nils Mehr