Heiner Franz is one of Germany‘s most renowned Jazz guitarist. He has been working as a professional Jazz musician since 1980. Not only was he playing in many bands but he was also booked for radio and TV productions and as a tutor masterclasses at universities and on many international Jazz guitar festivals.
Over the years as a guitarist he has got the chance to work with such big names of the internationeal jazz guitar scene as: Louis Stewart, Doug Raney and many others. Furthermore he is running the Jazz guitar label Jardis which specializes on jazz guitar records exclusively.
2006 he was rewarded by Andreas Polte, operator of the German internet Jazz guitar forum with the Archtop Germany Award for his merits for the Jazz guitar in Germany.
Stefan Sonntag's contact with Heiner Franz goes back to 1994, when the very first Sonntag J16H was completed. In that year, Heiner Franz gave a workshop in Augsburg together with the exceptional Irish guitarist Louis Stewart, where Heiner Franz and Stefan Sonntag met. In a way, Heiner Franz is a symbolic figure for Stefan Sonntag for the entry of Sonntag Gitarrenbau into the jazz scene.
Stefan Sonntag was also invited by Heiner Franz several times to his Jazz Days in Spiesen-Elversberg and over the years a regular contact developed, which culminated in the order of two Sonntag archtops in 2007.
Heiner Franz had a J16H “Heiner Franz Signature” model built by Sonntag Gitarrenbau (pictures) and a J18X Augusta Non-Cutaway.
