Torsten de Winkel´s Global Rhythm Masters
Cosmopolitan music at its finest: blending jazz, pop, groove, and world music into a vibrant sonic mosaic full of energy, depth, and global spirit.
Live Reel
Videos
Line-Up
Touring Quartet 2026:
Roberto Rodriguez (CUB/USA) – Drums & Percussion
Marc Inti (BOL/GER) – Bass
Amit Mishra (IND) – Tabla & Konnakol *
Torsten de Winkel (GER/USA) – E-Guitar & Sitar
and special guests *
*(subject to availability)
The Band
Global grooves, fearless fusion – where worlds meet in sound.
For this special concert, exceptional guitarist Torsten de Winkel unites a first-class international ensemble whose musical roots stretch from Cuba to India.
Torsten de Winkel - Guitar virtuoso and visionary Torsten de Winkel, celebrated for his boundary‑breaking style and collaborations with legends like Pat Metheny.
The band’s collective résumé reads like a global who’s who – with references including Pat Metheny, Gloria Estefan, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Paquito D´Rivera, Joe Jackson, Michael McDonald, and India’s legendary Queen of Thumri, Vidhushi Girija Devi.
A powerhouse collective bridging continents through groove, virtuosity, and cross-cultural fire.
Expect an evening where cultures, rhythms, and soundscapes collide – alive with virtuosity, improvisation, and boundless inspiration.
Torsten de Winkel
Torsten de Winkel – German fusion alchemist, philosopher, experimentalist. From electric & acoustic guitar to sitar, keyboards & percussion, he bends genre and expectation with ferocious creativity.
Born in Frankfurt, schooled by life in La Paz, self-taught then Berklee summa cum laude.
He dropped his acclaimed debut album Mastertouch (1985) with names like Michael Brecker, Billy Cobham, Ernie Watts, Joachim Kühn & Hellmut Hattler.
He’s toured extensively and recorded with Pat Metheny (Secret Story Tour, This World), as well with Vital Information, Joe Zawinul, Ravi Coltrane, Matthew Garrison, Grandmaster Flash & many more.
He co-founded Tab Two, pushes boundaries in world/jazz/electronic fusion, and developed “Training Intuition” — a masterclass series & teaching method rooted in brain science & improvisation.
Organizer of global art + music Festival Bimbache openART on El Hierro, Canary Islands. Relentless, boundary-crushing, visionary.
The Musicians
Roberto J. Rodriguez Born in East Havana, Cuba, and raised in Miami, Drummer, percussionist and composer channels his rich cross-cultural heritage into groundbreaking music.
Blending jazz, Afro-Cuban rhythms, Eastern European Klezmer, and the Andaluz sounds of North Africa,
he effortlessly bridges genres with a signature style he calls “One World Music.”
He has performed and recorded with artists such as Gloria Estefan, Maurice El Medioni, Rufus Wainwright, Joe Jackson, John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Celia Cruz, Paquito D’Rivera, Julio Iglesias, Paul Simon, Ruben Blades, Larry Coryell, Dr. L. Subramaniam, and many more.
Amit Mishra, born on October 2, 1985, in Varanasi, India, is a distinguished tabla artist and a proud representative of the Banaras Gharana, carrying forward a 13-generation musical legacy.
He began his training in classical vocals under his grandfather, Pt. Narayan Das Mishra ji, before dedicating himself to the tabla under his father, Pt. Kishor Kumar Mishra ji. Guided and blessed by his legendary grandfather, Padmabhushan Pt. Samta Prasad Mishra ji, Amit later refined his artistry under Pt. Sharda Sahai ji, a direct descendant of Pt. Ram Sahai ji, the founder of the Banaras Gharana.
He has performed with many of India’s greatest classical artists, including Vidushi Girija Devi, Pt. Birju Maharaj, Smt. Sitara Devi, Vidushi Sonal Mansingh, Pt. Ajay Pohankar, and Pt. Channulal Mishra, among others.
Marc-Inti Maennel Saavedra, a bassist with German-Bolivian roots, has established himself as a sought-after figure on the international music scene, celebrated for his creative curiosity and remarkable versatility on the instrument.
His diverse collaborations — spanning Fleetwood Mac guitarist Rick Vito, Indian slide guitar virtuoso Dr. Prakash Sontakke, renowned south indian percussionist Karthik Mani & the Karnataka College of Percussion, American singer-songwriter Legend Stephen Bishop, David Crosby collaborator Marcus Eaton, and L.A. soulman Jeffrey Young — highlight a musician fluent in many worlds, seamlessly blending styles with skill and soul.
Special Guests
Hindol Deb (IND) is an Indian sitarist, composer, and educator deeply rooted in the Hindustani classical music tradition. He began learning sitar at the age of five from his father, Sri Panchanan Sardar, and continued advanced training under eminent teachers including Pandit Santosh Bannerji of the Rampur gharana and Pandit Deepak Chowdhury of the Maihar gharana. His playing is noted for its technical finesse, mature musicality, and faithful exploration of ragas.
Hindol has also pursued cross-genre musical exploration, completing a Master’s in Jazz Improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Köln (Germany), which has helped shape his work in fusion projects blending Indian classical music with jazz, contemporary Western classical, Nordic folk, and other world music styles.
He has worked with some notable artists and musicians like Marina Abramovic, Renaud Garcia Fons, Markus Stockhausen, George Xilouris, Sebastian Gramss, Christina Fuchs, Nina and Mattias Perez among others.
Karthik Mani (IND) is a noted Indian world percussionist and drummer, known for blending South Indian classical rhythms with jazz, fusion, and global music styles. He performs on a wide range of percussion instruments — including mridangam, ghatam, congas, cajon, and drum kit — and has appeared at major festivals worldwide, collaborating with both Indian and international artists like, Stewart CopeLand, Dr L Subramaniam, U Sreenivas, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Shashank Subrahmanyam, Ranjit Barot, Dhaffer Yousuf, Mokhtar Samba, Nils Wogram, B.C. Manjunath .
Legendary musical parents:
- TAS Mani – His father is a renowned percussionist and the founder of The Karnataka College of Percussion, a respected institution for teaching Carnatic rhythm and world percussion.
- R.A. Ramamani – His mother is a groundbreaking Carnatic vocalist who has performed across the world and is known for pioneering Indo-Jazz fusion, blending South Indian classical music with jazz sensibilities.
These influences gave Karthik a deep foundation in classical rhythm from childhood, learning both vocal music from his mother and mridangam from his father before branching into global percussion and drum kit performance.
The Message
The Masterclass
Disenchanted with the scale-based approach that dominates much of jazz and improvisation pedagogy, Torsten de Winkel set out to rethink how musicians learn. After graduating summa cum laude from the prestigious Berklee College of Music and collaborations with an astonishingly broad range of Grammy Award winners including Pat Metheny and Joe Zawinul, he developed an alternative framework he calls “Training Intuition.”
Rooted in findings from neuroscience, learning psychology and plain common sense, de Winkel's approach shifts the focus from the almost endless number of possible note combinations to the astonishingly simple elements of melodic and rhythmic motifs, allowing for a quick cultivation of instinct, perception, and creative reflex.
De Winkel has been invited to present this revolutionary approach at institutions around the globe, including the Hamburg Musikhochschule, the University of Northern Iowa, the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, and the International School in Seoul.
Masterclass I
*TRAINING INTUITION* - A MORE EFFECTIVE APPROACH TO IMPROVISATION
- Rudiments for motif development
- Triad based melody concepts
- Rhythmic definition and simplification
Masterclass II
*SECRETS OF INTERACTION WITH THE RHYTHM SECTION*
- The language of communication
- Tools for instant arranging
- How to improve any Jam Session
Do you want to know more?
Lets Get In Contact!
For all artist booking and collaboration requests, please be specific and provide all details.