Stuttgart – November 04, 2026 -- Electric bassist Wolfgang Schmid will receive the 2027 German Jazz Trophy, a lifetime achievement award worth €15,000, at a ceremony on June 30, 2027, at 19:00 in the SpardaWelt Eventcenter in Stuttgart.
The ceremony opens the Jazz Open Stuttgart 2027. Winners also receive a statue by Stuttgart sculptor Otto Hajek. The prize is presented by the Sparda-Bank Baden-Württemberg's Foundation for Art and Culture, the magazine neue musikzeitung and JazzZeitung.de.
The jury credits Schmid with establishing the electric bass in jazz
Martin Buch, a jury member and CEO of Sparda-Bank Baden-Württemberg, said Schmid established the electric bass over decades as a distinctive, virtuosic and stylistically boundless jazz instrument. As a musician, composer, producer and teacher, Schmid inspired generations of players and made German jazz visible far beyond the country's borders, Buch said.
Under the motto "A Life for Jazz," the trophy has honored musicians since 2001 who gave jazz new impulses and raised its standing.
Schmid has played on more than 400 albums
Schmid was born on November 11, 1948, in Stuttgart and now lives in Munich. He joined the Stuttgart Hymnus Boys' Choir in 1958 and started guitar lessons a year later. From 1962 to 1970 he was guitarist, singer and bandleader of the soul band The Dynamites. Between 1968 and 1972 he played bass for Dieter Seelow while working as a sound engineer at Jankowski Studios in Stuttgart.
He later became a central figure in Klaus Doldinger's jazz-rock group PASSPORT and in the German Jazz Masters with Wolfgang Dauner and Doldinger. He also toured with Billy Cobham, Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour. In the US and Germany, he has repeatedly been named "Bassplayer of the Year."
Schmid taught jazz and pop at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts until 2019 and was appointed professor in 2016. Since 2010 he has been musical director of the inclusive theater group Die Rapsoden. He has shaped more than 400 albums and numerous theater productions. He also initiated and led bands such as Wolfhound, Kick, Paradox and The Hang, and projects including Superdrumming, Manaus and Rap-Sody - Heimat und Fremde.
The foundation has backed Stuttgart jazz since 2006
The foundation has supported the BIX Jazzclub since its founding in 2006 and has partnered with Jazz Open Stuttgart since 2010. Buch said genres outside the commercial mainstream need room for creativity and artistic development.