Updated: March 25, 2026
Born: July 3, 1979
Fascinated by the Piccolos of the Basel carnival, Ben Zahler picked up the flute at the age of eight. Yet, before he could switch to the Piccolo, he dived down into the world of Jazz clubs and never looked back.
After attaining his “Master of Arts” at the Swiss Jazz School Bern with Andy Scherrer, Bert Joris and Günter Wehinger, he toured with his Band aloft (among others with Nadja Stoller and Stefan Rusconi) and recorded his first album We Do (TCB 26802). Other notable records include the Paul Klee record by the Swiss Jazz Orchestra directed by Jim McNeely.
In the past years, Ben Zahler has been an active member of the Basel Jazz Scene, performing with various bands and also supporting the scene by organizing jam sessions and concerts. In this time, he has performed with rising stars in the Swiss jazz scene such as Yumi Ito, but also with established artists like Hans Feigenwinter.
In 2015 he founded his new band Ben Zahler’s Songgoing, which has toured since Switzerland and Germany. The band plays with very few exceptions original compositions by Ben and the other band members. In November 2018, the band will publish its first album Quietly Cold (TCB 35902).
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Ben Zahler's Songgoing: Quietly Cold
by Chris Mosey
Swiss flautist Ben Zahler names his principal influences as Herbie Mann and Eric Dolphy. Having said that, he immediately backtracks. Mann was too commercial, Dolphy too experimental. Zahler positions himself somewhere between the two. He strives to avoid the “streamlined sluggishness" of Mann and similarly has no truck with way-out, overblowing excess a la Dolphy. In very Swiss fashion, he takes a neutral standpoint though--as the sleeve note to the album by Swiss journalist Steff Rohrbach, of ...
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