The jazz bassist Stephan Kurmann was born in Basel in 1958 and has been a professional musician since 1978. He has accompanied greats such as Chet Baker, Wild Bill Davison, Mal Waldron, Harold Mabern, Sal Nistico, Philip Catherine, Hans Kennel, Adrian Mears, Alvin Queen, Sandy Patton Lee Konitz, Kirk Lightsey and Steve Grossman. Kurmann has toured Europe, Asia, the Americas, Australasia and Africa and recorded numerous albums. He began playing the electric bass in 1971 (teaching himself) and graduated from the Swiss Jazz School in Bern as a double-bass player in 1987. In that same year, he founded his highly acclaimed long-term band, the “Stephan Kurmann Strings”, with whom he has released five albums and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He has also played in numerous other bands as a sideman. Kurmann was furthermore a member of the basel sinfonietta, a symphonic orchestra founded in 1980 by young musicians with the intention of presenting new music and experimental works. 

Kurmann demonstrated considerable courage in 1994 by founding the “bird’s eye”, a jazz club in Basel.