Jazz legend Rudi Wilfer died – salzburg.ORF.at
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The Salzburg music scene mourns the loss of jazz legend Rudi Wilfer. The pianist, who had lived in St. Michael im Lungau since 1970, died on Friday after a serious illness at the age of 87 in the Schwarzach hospital (Pongau). Wilfer has played with numerous jazz greats.
Born in Salzburg in 1936, Rudi Wilfer spent his youth and formative years as a musician in Vienna. He moved there with his family when he was two years old. After the Second World War he got to know and love jazz there through contact with US soldiers. In 1959 Wilfer began his career as a jazz pianist.
He played with greats like Fatty George, Lionel Hampton, Joe Zawinul and Friedrich Gulda. Wilfer even performed once with jazz icon Ella Fitzgerald in the early 1960s. That was a highlight of his life, said Rudi Wilfer in an interview in 2019.
Performed with world star Ella Fitzgerald
“Of course it’s very encouraging for a young jazz musician when a world star accepts you. Ella was in Vienna at the time because she was on a world tour – and where does a ‘jazzer’ go? – of course in a jazz club. That was ‘Fatty’s Saloon’ in Vienna back then. And all the American world starts said at the time: We’ve never seen a bar like this in our entire life.”
Lived in St.Michael since 1970
Rudi Wilfer has been living in St. Michael (Lungau) since 1970 and goes on international tours from there. His New Year’s concerts in Mauterndorf were a fixed point and cultural highlight in the Lungau for years.
Rudi Wilfer’s last performance including CD recording was in 2021 at the Bruckner Days in St. Florian (Upper Austria). His death on Friday after a short, serious illness came as a surprise to the family. The grief in the music scene is great: A “life rich in facets of an exceptional Lungau artist has come to an end”, writes Fritz Messner from the “Querschlägern” about Rudi Wilfer.
