Wolf-Ruprecht "Rupi" Schwarzburger

The musical focus of the session musician is Jazz, Funk, Blues, R&B and Pop Rock. He works in various bands, as well as a freelancer in recording session, live concerts and tours.

Born in 1956 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, he grew up in a family of musicians. Making music has always been part of his everyday life. From the violin he changed to the double bass and later to the Fender bass.

From the end of the 70's after extensive studies everything went very fast:
at Streetmark he met Wolfgang Riechmann, who immediately booked him into his live band. Christof Spendel invited him to his Latin Circus, Jack Robichaud hired him for his Rock'n Roll band The Cigarettes.

At that time there was still a lot of work in the studios: commercials, film scores and record productions were still recorded by musicians "by hand". Rupi recorded bass tracks for various producers, bands and artists. Jennifer Rush, Terence Trent d'Arby and Bläck Föös might still be known to some.

In the 80's there were band projects like the legendary Eddie McGrogan Band from Münster or the Lost Gringos of the Düsseldorf avant-garde label ATATAK.

He also worked as a producer, composer and arranger on numerous record projects, on commercial and film scores for various large advertising agencies as well as for Rudas Studios in Düsseldorf.

From 1990 onwards, Rupi played with Ergün Aktoprak and his band SES. He gave the Turkish oriented world music a heavy funk groove.

In addition, he played with some major acts like God's Favorite Dog, Fresh Family, Weather Girls, Richard Page (Mr Mister, Pages) etc and with artists like Gregory Gaynair's Cape Coast Syndicate, Christina Lux, Muzaffer Gürenç, John C. Marshall, Blumio or Tyree Glenn Jr. to name a few, on countless recordings, tours and concerts.

Along the way, he offered work in popular musical shows such as Starlight Express, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph, Rocky Horror Show, Saturday Night Fever, etc.

In 1999 he recorded his highly acclaimed solo debut "The Sun". It was released in 2000 by monoeins Records.

In 2001 Tony Brown made the popular remix "Die Sonne@T.H.O.R.Music" for Unique Records.

In 2002 he became a member of the Dortmund street hip hop project KONTRA, led by Jochen Schrumpf, with concert and workshop tours throughout Europe.

From 2012 he played double bass for several years in the Turkish Chamber Orchestra under the direction of composer and pianist Betin Güneş at various concerts and classical music festivals.

From 2016 he was featured with various artists including Markus Wienstroer's U60, Ergün Aktoprak's Tan, Axel Heilhecker's Blues Turn Red.

In 2019, the reissue of the album "The Sun" was released on JazzSick Records / Membran. The release party took place on 01.10.2019 at KIT Kunst im Tunnel Düsseldorf.

In 2021 the first live album "Das Konzert Album" was released on JazzSick Records.

2022 Rupi released his concept album "Immer Spass auf den Backen" on JazzSick Records / Membran. In the 8 instrumental songs he processed the memories of his youth in Gelsenkirchen. It carries the subtitle "I like to think of my time in the Ruhr".