Tastenarbeiter – Alexander von Schlippenbach

He is one of the founding fathers of European free jazz: for decades Alexander von Schlippenbach has gone his own way, playing the piano, composing and leading bands. The new film “Tastenarbeiter – Alexander von Schlippenbach” presents a highly personal portrait that shows individual failures but also new beginnings. It reconstructs how he came to be part of the now legendary “Free Music Production” (FMP) musicians’ collective, for whom free jazz meant liberation from the establishment, not just in musical terms, but also in a political sense.