Jo Beyer

Jo Beyer (*1991) is a German drummer and composer, who has reached and delighted a wide audience across the globe with his unique energetic style of playing drums, composing and collaborating with different musicians. 

As child he started playing the piano and switched to drums later on, which he studied at Hochschule Osnabrück (Germany) as well as Royal Academy of Music Arhus (Denmark). With the experimental trio Malstrom and his own quartet JO he works primarily as bandleader. During international touring Jo Beyer was invited to renowned festivals such as Int. Jazzwoche Burghausen (Germany), Elbjazz (Germany), Jazzfest Bonn (Germany), Oslo Jazzfestival (Norway), OCT Jazz Festival Shenzhen (China), B-Jazz Festival (Belgium), Krokus Jazz Festiwal (Poland), World Youth Jazz Festival (Malaysia), Getxo Jazzfestival (Spain), Jazzfestival Avignon (France) etc.

He composes music for his own band JO which he founded in 2015. It has recently released its second album which adopts a range of music parameters. These combine his unique drum playing and expressive musicality. The result is a communicative interpretation combined with uncompromising fun with his own catchy compositions.

Since Jo Beyer started playing drums and got in contact with jazz music he has worked a lot with the extreme dynamic range of playing highly energetic music. He has also researched and created experimental sounds on the drums. He enjoys entering into offensive and open musical dialogue with musicians, who share the same ideas about improvisation and making music, which is concrete and catchy.

The experimental quality of Jo Beyer’s music coupled with his signature emotive expression, has led jazz-award juries to recognize him as being disruptive and innovative in the contemporary scene. They have supported his musical ideas by awarding him a number of renowned international newcomer jazz prizes. In the last few years he has toured in about 15 European and Asian countries as well as participating regularly in radio- and television productions. In addition to his work as band leader he plays in a range of different bands and projects as sideman, and has recorded many CDs.