55 Fifty Five

55 Fifty Five was a twelve-piece blues-rock band from Berlin, which songwriter, keyboard player and bandleader Andreas Hommelsheim initially just put together for a birthday surprise in 2008. After the rousing concert at Kulturbrauerei in Berlin in front of 500 invited guests, the band decided to stay together and release the recording on CD and DVD. “Live In Berlin” was released in 2010 and was promoted among others with a concert as supporting act for Kool And The Gang at Tempodrom in the same year. The band also shared the stage with jazz legend and Grammy award winner Dave Samuels before the band members parted ways in 2012.

55 Fifty Five played a mixture of blues, rock, soul and jazz, with catchy melodies and choruses. Most of the songs were composed by Andreas Hommelsheim, who, as musical director of the German version of countless famous film productions, received, among others, the Golden Record for “The Lion King”.

The band members were: Henrik “Ille” Ilgner (voc), Andreas Hommelsheim (bl, keys), Torsten “Todd” Wagner (g), Simon Pauli (bass), Lutz Halfter (dr), Corie Townsend (backing vox) Therese Pitt (backing vox), Tina Hänsch (backing vox), Gerald Meier (tb), Frank “Fratsch” Fritsch (as, ts, bars), David “Skip” Reinhard (tr), Jarek Jeziorowski (ts)