Christian Lederer passed away on July 4th, 2018.
His story in his own words:
I started out as a self-taught guitarist at the age of 14. My father, who used to be a guitarist, gave me his old guitar and showed me the first chord fingerings.
I GOT RHYTHM!
Since then, my main interest has been the rhythm guitar as it was played in countless German bands and bar trios. I learned rhythm guitar by listening to records and working through many books. I was also interested in swing and big band rhythm guitar. The mysterious art of playing any rhythm on the guitar is being forgotten more and more every day. Uli Hoffmeier from the Palastorchester offered several workshops for swing and big band guitar, which I successfully completed.
The most important experience for me is playing in a big band. Since 1992 I have played rhythm guitar in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Big Band, which plays every Sunday and Tuesday during the summer months at Musik im Park from May to September. And since 2005 I've also been the rhythm guitarist in the ICKing Big Band, under the direction of Manfred Ranak. Here, too, I play almost exclusively straight rhythm guitar.
Influences
That was a big influence on my playing - as far as learning what timing really meant, or learning melodies. I learned some melodic chord progressions, all from the big band era, of course. That had a big effect on my repertoire - and everything I play still tends to go in that direction.
Among the fading rhythm guitar artists, my greatest role model is Count Basie's longtime guitarist Freddie Green. Probably no one appreciates Freddie's artistry more than I do. Rhythmic chord playing is an essential part of the music that is in no way subordinate to the soloist. One of my musical highlights was performing with Uli Hoffmeier in New York during the Classic American Guitar Show for Stefan Sonntag ...
In addition to my own groups, the Zugspitz Trio and The Unpluggeds, I enjoy playing rhythm guitar in many formations such as the Kathreiners and big bands.
My special thanks go to Stefan Sonntag. Through his art of building acoustic jazz guitars, I got my J18 Augusta Non-Cutaway and with the sound of this guitar I can achieve that certain tone of a rhythm jazz guitar that every jazz and rhythm guitarist dreams of, whether in a trio or in a big band, whether purely acoustic or amplified.