Roger Marcel Cicero Cziczeo
(born July 6 1970 in Berlin) is a German jazz musician and the son of the Romanian pianist Eugen Cicero.
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ROGER CICERO TICKETS
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Biography
He made his first appearance at the age of eleven supporting German singer Helen Vita. He appeared on television for the first time aged 16, alongside the RIAS-Tanzorchester, then under the direction of Horst Jankowski. Cicero joined the Hohner Conservatory in
Trossingen when he was 18, where he received coaching in piano, guitar and singing. Between 1989 and 1992, he appeared alongside the Horst Jankowski Trio, the Eugen Cicero Trio (his father’s group) as well as with the Bundesjugendjazzorchester (German Youth Jazz Orchestra), which was then directed by Peter Herbolzheimer. From 1991 to 1996 he studied jazz singing at the Amsterdam Academy of Arts (Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten) at
Hilversum. Since then, he has been a guest singer with the groups
Jazzkantine and Soulounge with whom he took part in the
Montreux Jazz Festival
. In 2003 he founded the Roger Cicero Quartet, as well as continuing to perform with his eleven-piece big band. His style is predominantly that of 1940s and 1950s
swing music, combined with German lyrics.
In 2006, Cicero was involved with the album
Good Morning Midnight
by jazz pianist Julia Hülsmann, and released his first solo album
Männersachen
in May of the same year. Working alongside thirteen composers (predominantly Matthias Haß and Frank Ramond), his music has an unusual composition. "Schieß mich doch zum Mond" is the German version of
Frank Sinatra’s classic "Fly Me to the Moon". The covered track "Zieh die Schuh aus" ("Take your shoes off"), which deals ironically with the battle of the sexes, reached number 71 in the German singles chart. The album
Männersachen
made it to number 3.
Cicero was Germany's participant for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in
Helsinki but finished only 19th in the rankings. With his song
Frauen regier'n die Welt (Women rule the world) he won the preliminary decision in a competition against
Monrose and
Heinz Rudolf Kunze. Although he won with
Frauen regier'n die Welt
it peaked at number 7 in the hit parade; it stayed in the Top 10 for one week and dropped out of the Top 30 after four weeks.
On
7 July,
2007 he performed at the
German leg of
Live Earth in
Hamburg.
On May 1, 2008 he became father to a son, Louis.
Cicero made his film debut in "Hilde" (2009) and received good notices for his performance as musician Ricci Blum. Directed by Kai Wessel, the film is a biography of the German singer and actress
Hildegard Knef, who is played by
Heike Makatsch.
His third studio album, "Artgerecht", was released on April 3, 2009. On March 20, 2009 the first single from the album, "Nicht Artgerecht", was released.
Discography
Albums
- 2003: The Essence Of A Live Event
(by Soulounge)
- 2004: Home
(by Soulounge)
- 2005: There I go
(by After Hours and Roger Cicero)
- 2006: Good Morning Midnight
(by Julia Hülsmann)
- 2006: Männersachen
(GER #3, AUT #58, SWI #96)
- 2007: Beziehungsweise
- 2009: Artgerecht
Singles
- 2006: Zieh die Schuh aus
(GER #71)
- 2006: So geil Berlin
- 2006: Ich atme ein
(GER #74)
- 2006: Murphys Gesetz
(Promo Single)
- 2007: Frauen regier'n die Welt
(GER #7, AUT #51, SWI #64)
- 2007: Guess who rules the world
(Online Single)
- 2007: Die Liste
- 2007: "Bin heute Abend bei dir" (Online Single)
- 2008: "Wovon träumst du nachts?" (Online Single)
- 2008: "Alle Möbel verrückt" live
- 2009: "Nicht Artgerecht"
- 2009: "Boutique"
DVDs
- 2007: Roger Cicero: Männersachen Live!
(Recorded on Feb. 18th, 2007 in Frankfurt/Main)
- 2008: Roger Cicero - Beziehungsweise Live
(Recorded on Feb. 13, 2008 in Berlin)