European Jazz Masters Of The Past # 3 – Herbert Joos

Jazz in Germany has a fractured history, with a strong start in the ‘Golden Twenties’, especially in Berlin, which after WW I was the biggest metropole in Europe with over 4 million inhabitants. Once the ban on US music was lifted after the war, jazz records were imported from the early 1920’s and around 1924 local labels like Polydor, DG and Brunswick started to record German jazz musicians. When earlier groups, like the Original Piccadilly Four, had mostly copied US music and not improvised, the new breed of artists was already a few steps ahead. The Weintraub Syncopators, under pianist and drummer Stefan Weintraub, was one of the most famous groups of the time, appearing in the movie ‘The Blue Angel’ and in various theatre productions of director Max Reinhardt. Another top act of the time was the vocal quintet (plus piano) Comedian Harmonists, who, among other songs, sang standards in German translations. In Berlin many theatres, hotels, dance halls and clubs offered entertainment – giving musicians a lot of opportunities to perform or learn – from the visiting US musicians like Paul Whiteman, Sam Wooding, Alex Hyde and others. But soon right-wing political parties would scream loud against the ‘Americanization’ of German culture.

“The history of jazz in Germany began relatively late compared to other European countries. In the 1930’s and 1940’s jazz was ostracised, suppressed and in some cases subject to criminal prosecution” writes Hans-Jürgen Linke and he is right: immediately after their election the Nazi Party banned the performance of jazz and many musicians, especially those with a Jewish background, left the country, including Weintraub and the Comedian Harmonists, as well as Alfred Löw and Frank Wolff, who would, once in the US, found the now legendary Blue Note label. The import of US jazz recordings however continued until 1941, when the United States joined the war. Jazz only happened in private … and under risk of severe punishment.

“The swing youth in Nazi Germany were teenagers whose love for jazz and affinity for British and American pop culture stood in stark contrast to German nationalism, uniformity and military regulation. The Swing kids hence raised many red flags with Nazi authorities, most shockingly, they tended to welcome Jewish teenagers into their midst. Their rebellion was in the forms of visual clues, their dress and behaviour, but not so much in subversive political action”. (Tanja B. Spitzer) From around 1940 onwards the Nazis went after the swing kids and many were arrested, brutally interrogated, their hair cut short and all jazz records destroyed. Very few were sent home, the rest to the front lines or to a one of concentration camps.

In March 1940 Herbert Joos was born in Karlsruhe, in a time of war and destruction. He grew up in a rebuilding world, looking, after the WW II ended, for a new beginning. Relatively short after the end of the war, the first jazz clubs opened again in Germany – first in Frankfurt, then in Berlin. There were as well US army clubs which offered live jazz, but more in a traditional form. Some of the first musicians coming up were bandleader Maz Greger, Kurt Edelhagen and drummers Freddie Brocksieper and Horst Lippmann. The first jazz festival happened in Frankfurt in 1953 and in the 50’s Joachim Ernst Berendt published his first jazz books and moderated radio shows and so became, as well as a producer for the MPS label, a driving force in West German Jazz, a role that radio host and writer Reginald Rudolf played in the East until his arrest in 1957. US musicians started to tour West Germany again and brought a more modern version of jazz with it, which artists like Jutta Hipp, Albert Mangelsdorff, Rolf Kühn, Helmut Zacharias and in Germany living Austrians Hans Koller, Vera Auer and Hungarian Atilla Zoller, started to perform as well.

Germany was divided by the four allies of the war, US, Britain, France and Russia. When Russia established in their zone the German Democratic Republic in 1949, jazz was seen as decadent music and jazz fans and musicians persecuted once again. And after the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, all contact between musicians in the West and East of the country was lost and two very different developments of jazz in the now two German states followed.

Herbert Joos self-portrait for Jazzpodium 2015

When the wall was built Herbert Joos was 21 years old and studied bass at the Music College in Karlsruhe and trumpet by self-study, but later decided to take a private teacher for this instrument and following this added the flugelhorn, baritone horn, mellophone and alphorn to his means of expression. He started to perform in local bands around that time as well, first of all the Modern Jazz Quintet Karlsruhe, which featured as well pianist Helmut Zimmer, saxist Wilfried Eichhorn, bass player Claus Bühler and drummer Rudi Theilmann. They recorded two albums together, ‘Trees’ (1969) and ‘Position 2000’ (1970) for which Herbert Joos as well designed the cover art and for the later wrote all compositions. These first recordings by Joos were re-issued in 2020 as a Box set together with the two albums by another group Herbert Joos was part of – Fourmenonly, which had more or less the same line-up except for bass player Bühler and performed Joos’ compositions. They recorded two adventurous jazz albums in 1972 and 1974 that gave Herbert Joos the first kind of recognition in the German jazz scene. What made Joos so different to other trumpet and flugelhorn players, was his smooth and ‘airy’ sound. The warmness of this sound and the transmitted emotions made him one of the most recognisable trumpet voices in Europe. In the early 1970’s he moved to Stuttgart, where he would spend the rest of his life – working as a musician and illustrator for books, calendars, album covers and magazines. He always worked after the motto: “first comes what I like to do, independent of whether it is ‘In’ or ‘Out’ at the moment. Only then comes making money”.

Meanwhile in West Germany Albert Mangelsdorff had become one of the most individual and uncompromising jazz artists, with his unique way of playing the trombone by singing into the instrument at the time of playing it and so creating overtones. This can be heard especially on his solo recordings on MPS records and later on Moods. Other important artists in Germany in that period include Gunter Hampel, Wolfgang Dauner and Manfred Schoof, whose ‘Voices’ album is seen as the first German free jazz recording. In the Free Jazz area there were as well The Globe Unity Orchestra, founded by pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, plus Peter Brötzman, Peter Kowald and Paul Lovens, to name just a few from a very active, interesting and lasting scene. Some of these were as well involved in the founding of the FMP (Free Music Production) label in 1968, so creating themselves an outlet for their music. Around the same time bassist Manfred Eicher started his ECM (Edition Of Contemporary Music) label and Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber enja, which stands for European New Jazz.  And in the East of the divided country the hostility towards jazz slowly faded for different reasons and by 1964 even some radio programs began to add jazz to their broadcast schedule. Jazz/Rock was the most popular jazz genre in the 1970’s and in both countries important groups led the pack – saxophonist Klaus Doldinger with his group Passport and Spectrum, the group featuring guitarist Volker Kriegel, bass player Eberhard Weber and keyboarder Rainer Brüninghaus, in the West and SOK, with pianist Ulrich Gumpert and drummer Günter Sommer, in the East.

Within this stylistic openness in the jazz scene, Herbert Joos started to record his first album under his own name in 1973 for a release in the following year, ‘The Philosophy Of The Flugelhorn’, whose 13-minute title track is a step into nature and its beauty. The album, on which Joos plays with overdubs all instruments – fluegelhorn, bass, bass recorder, bamboo flute, mellophone, trumpet, alto horn, vibes – is today as valid musically as it was 50 years ago and worth checking out. This was followed in 1977 by his second album ‘Daybreak- The Dark side Of Twilight’, featuring the strings of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, Wolgang Czelusta on bass and trombone and Thomas Schwarz on oboe. This album confirms what Thomas Fitterling wrote in Rondo Magazine: “In his continuing search for sounds there is a preference for the morbid half-dark, which has much more in common with Chet Baker and Billie Holiday, than, for example, with Freddie Hubbard”. And Bert Noglik added in Jazzpodium that “the ideal of Herbert Joos is precision in the emotional message, a fragility intensified into the artificial – expression of the feeling between security and being doomed, a romantic feeling”.

Herbert Joos self-portrait with short bio

Both records, as adventurous as they were then, are now part of the European jazz history and still important documents of Joos’s artistry. In 1979 he founded his Quartet and released the first of their three albums, ‘Ballad 1’. The group then featured Paul Schwarz on the piano, Jürgen Wuchner on bass and Thomas Cremer on drums, who for the next two recordings would be replaced by Joe Koinzer. The covers for these albums were all designed and drawn by Herbert Joos, who beside as a musician had made himself a name as illustrator and had already designed covers for some German jazz magazines, especially Jazzpodium. Around that time Herbert was also a member of the Carlos Bäder Big Band and made a few self-released recordings with them.

It was as well in 1979 that he was contacted by Mathias Rüegg with the invitation to play in the Vienna Art Orchestra, a new big band Mathias had co-founded and whose leader, composer, arranger and organizer he was. And so began a musical voyage of eighteen years, during which Herbert recorded as many albums and performed hundreds of concerts all around the world, with what would become the most important and famous big band of its time. His contribution to the success of the Vienna Art Orchestra was massive and some outstanding soli on the records he participated on, are proof of this. Remembers Mathias Rüegg: “For the Vienna Art Choir he played his wonderful and heartbreaking melodies over the Swiss folk song “Es git kein sölige Stamme” (album ‘Five Old Songs’, 1984). In ‘Plädoyer For Sir Major Moll’ (album ‘Suite For The Green Eighties’, 1982) Herbert can show all his nuances and in ‘Herzogstrasse 4’ (album ‘Concerto Piccolo’, 1981), the address in Stuttgart where the confirmed bachelor lived most of his live, he is managing admirably for 11 minutes all the challenges and then plays a duel with Wolfgang Puschnig at the end, in perfect ‘Art Orchestra aesthetic’ of the 1980’s. I like especially the ballad by pianist Uli Scherer ‘le XVIII catalan’ (album ‘standing …. WHAT?’, 1993), as it has extremely beautiful, at times completely open, dialogues between Uli and Herbert”. Even so the VAO really brought Joos to a wider and global audience and became his main recording and touring outlet for the 80’s and most of the 90’s, he worked, toured and recorded as well with different artists and bands at the same period of time. One example is the group Part Of Art, which featured members of the Vienna Art Orchestra, but gave them a small group vehicle to express themselves. The group featured Wolfgang Puschnig on alto sax, Uli Scherer on piano, Jürgen Wuchner on bass and first Joe Koinzer and then Wolfgang Reisinger on drums. Their two albums, ‘Moebius’ (1981) and ‘Son Sauvage’ (1983) are powerful and timeless modern jazz recordings, which have been re-issued in 2004 under the title ‘Complete Works’. He recorded as well with Hans Koller and the collective Südpool, where he features on six of their recordings. A duo album with Joe Koinzer and one with Mathis Rüegg were released before his next solo recording ‘Still Life’ in 1984, which, one can say, is the follow up to his first album, with inclusion of nature sounds and Herbert playing all instruments. And before the 80’s came to an end he went into the studio with Austrian guitar master Harry Pepl and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen to record ‘Cracked Mirrors’, which was released in 1988 to critical acclaim. The ECM website states that on this album “Joos lays down a breathy gorgeousness … and … shines like a snake of light”.

Herbert Joos cover art for album Chapter II by Vienna Art Orchestra

Jazz in both parts of Germany after 1980 shows a rich diversity in styles, from traditional to avantgarde and all possible mixes in between, with various influences from rock to pop, classical and local folk music. Jazz education improved, specialised magazines, festivals and labels were founded and the two scenes stood on fertile ground. With the disappearance of the Berlin Wall in 1989, followed by reunification, Berlin once again became the jazz centre of Germany.  Many musicians from all over the world moved to Berlin and gave the music scene an injection of fresh ideas. Leading bands and artists of the time were Jazzkantine, Der Rote Bereich, Lisa Bassenge, Nils Wogram and trumpeter/singer Till Brönner, who became the most successful jazz artist in the history of the country. In 1990 the Jazz Institute Darmstadt was founded, financed by the city, and maintained the archive of Joachim Ernst Berendt – records, photos, books – which the city had bought a few years earlier and thanks to this archive and their ongoing activities it became the most important information centre for the jazz community in Germany.

I had heard and seen the Vienna Art Orchestra a few times already and knew some of the musicians a bit, but when I signed them to PolyGram Austria in 1989, I got to meet and know everyone better. And for the 1991 release ‘Chapter II’ I worked for the first time directly with Herbert Joos, as he was delivering the art work for his album. I met a straight forward, charming man, humble and humorous. We spoke a lot about jazz and he showed me some of the portraits of musicians he had sketched and drawn – amazingly accurate and beautiful. For three album covers for the VAO he delivered wonderful ready-mades, using parts of instruments and cement to create a musical piece of art. We stayed in touch after I moved to London and I asked him to draw some legendary artists of the Verve roster and some active artists for our company Christmas cards in the early to mid 90’s. He did portraits of Charlie Parker, Ella, Diana Krall, Andrea Bocelli and many others for these cards and I as well have a signed Billie Holiday and Joe Henderson at home.

Diana Krall by Herbert Joos

In 1991 Herbert released the first of his huge art books, dedicated to Chet Baker. The screw-bound book allows you to take any given page out without destroying the book, frame it and decorate your flat or house with it. The books are 49 cm x 43 cm big and include portraits of the artist through his or her career – a truly impressive feat. The second book was released in 1991 and was dedicated to Miles Davis and even featured a CD – a selection from the Columbia recordings. And the third book, published in 1994 was dedicated to Billie Holiday and as well featured a CD, but this time it was Herbert and his group (Paul Schwarz on piano, Mirjam Ernst on English Horn and Joe Koinzer on drums) performing Billie’s songs in Herbert’s arrangements. This album I released as well commercially on Emarcy Records, part of PolyGram Jazz, whose international marketing office I was running by that time. I am the proud owner of all three books, sought after rarities nowadays.

Miles Davis by Herbert Joos

Alto saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig and Herbert had played together in the VAO and as well in the small ensemble Part Of Art and in 1999 they renewed their cooperation on Puschnig’s album ‘Aspects’, continued it on the 2002 release ‘3+4 Ob’n Und Unt’n – Austrian Songs’, a touching and jazzy take on Austrian Folk compositions. Puschnig again called on Herbert’s art when recording his new album with his group Alpine Aspects (a mix of a jazz group with a traditional Austrian Brass Band) ‘Homage To O.C.’, a groovy and powerful tribute to Ornette Coleman (2008). The last cooperation between the two came on Puschnig’s 2018 release ‘Songs With Strings’, a chamber music influenced jazz record. Herberts airy sound makes these recording even more special than they already were. Most of these projects had a tour connected to the release, so Herbert, after the Vienna Art Orchestra, was still continuously on the road. And he recorded as well his own music: in 1992 he released his ‘Ballade Noir’ with Paul Schwarz and Joe Koinzer, a touching take on the art of the ballad with Joos in top form. This was followed in 2000 by ‘Nature Way’ a group recording featuring saxophonist Klaus Dickbauer, bass player Georg Breinschmid and drummers Mario Gonzi and Emil Kristof. Most of the compositions on the album are from Joos and Dickbauer, plus they play a great version of Ornette Coleman’s ‘Tomorrow Is The Question’. In June of 2001 Herbert recorded the live album ‘New Bottles, Old Wine – The Standard Project’ with Klaus Dickbauer and Peter Lehel on saxes, Achim Tang on bass, Kalman Olah on piano and Mario Gonzi on drums. They perform compositions by Miles Davis, Benny Golson and others and swing and groove amazingly. ‘Adagio 1+2’ reunited Joos with old friends Michel Godard, Wolfgang Puschnig and others for a studio and live session. Joos then recorded a few duo albums – with guitarist Frank Kuruc and pianist Patrick Bebelaar respectively and they confirm what a outstanding improviser Joos was and that, as Herbert said, “the breaks are the most important in music”.

Herbert Joos, photograph by Rainer Rygalyk

In 2017 Herbert Joos was awarded the Jazz Prize Baden-Württemberg and the ceremony was held at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart on Janury 20^th. He got the prize for his lifetime achievements for jazz in Germany and was delighted to be awarded this honour. Instead of a speech he decided to bring some of his friends and played a concert with his latest compositions instead, which was recorded and released the following year under the title ‘Change of Beauty’.

On December 7^th, 2019 Herbert Joos died in a hospital in Baden-Baden after short illness. His unique sound, kind humanity, outstanding recordings and wonderful paintings will be his legacy for eternity.

Sources:

Martin Pfleiderer, Germany in The History Of European Jazz – Edited by Francesco Martinelli

Redaktion Jazzeitung, 11. Dezember 2019, Flügelhorn und Zeichentisch: Zum Tod von Herbert Joos

Uta G. Poiger – Seaching for Proper New Music: Jazz In cold War Germany

Guido Fackler, Jazz Under The Nazis, Music And The Holocaust

Mathias Rüegg, Herbert Joos Nachruf in Jazzpodium 2/2020

Hans-Jürgen Linke, Jazz in Germany in Deutsches Musikinformations Zentrum, 2023

Tanja B. Spitzer, ‘Swing Heil‘: Swing Youth, Schlurfs, and others in Nazi Germany in The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, 2020

Wikipedia / Discogs / Jazzpodium archive

Herbert Joos, photograph by Rainer Rygalyk

European Jazz Masters Of The Past # 2 – Harry Pepl

Harry Pepl –  September 10, 1945 - December 5, 2005

“The history of Jazz in Austria is not necessarily identical with the history of Austrian jazz, whose development started later as the initial encounters of the Austrian audience with this music”. With these true words starts the book by Klaus Schulz ‘Jazz In Österreich (Jazz In Austria) 1920 – 1960, published in 2003 and still a valuable source of information for the German-speaking researcher. Before WW I jazz was only heard when US musicians were touring the country and they found an interested and enthusiastic audience, especially in Vienna and Graz. Louis Douglas was one of these artists coming to the country, as well as various dance and music revues. After the war it took some time for US musicians to return to Austria, but meanwhile a few artists had started to copy the new music and even to compose ragtimes and cakewalks. The new music wasn’t always received well and especially the political traditionalists criticised these revues with racist undertones.  Composer Ernst Krenek’s jazz opera ‘Jonny spielt auf’ (Johnny plays) in 1927 and Josephine Baker’s visit to Vienna especially enraged the nationalist and anti-Semitic press. Krenek’s opera later would be prohibited and labelled ‘Entartete Kunst’ (Degenerated Art) by the Nazis.

With the global economic depression of the early thirties less US bands would come to Austria, therefore local musicians stepped in to provide the hungry audiences with the new music – Ernst Holzer, who made 2 two jazz recordings for Polydor in 1930, featuring Josef Hadraba on trombone and band leader Bobby Sax (Ernst Moritz Sachs) were two of the most important musicians of that time.  Jazz had an active scene and audience more or less until Hitler’s ‘Anschluss’ (Annexation) of Austria to the German Reich in 1938. Many influential musicians, including Bobby Sax, left the country in fear of prosecution. For the jazz fan only illegal listening sessions in private homes or clubs were a possibility to listen to new recordings. Close to the end of the war, some dance orchestras, with a new name and arrangement, occasionally added an American jazz composition to their repertoire, under great risk, but to the enjoyment of their audiences.

In December of 1945, the year WW II ended, Harry Pepl was born in Vienna into a family of music lovers, especially of classical music and jazz. Austria, divided in sectors by the allies, was only slowly getting back on its feet and especially the Americans (and interestingly the Russians in Vienna) helped by allowing dances and entertainment. The US Forces even started a radio station, Blue Danube Network, where as well jazz would be played, so offering wide access to this music and being a big influence to young musicians. Around 1948 saxophonist Hans Koller was one of the first local jazz musicians introducing Bebop to the Viennese audiences. And in the following year pianist Josef Erich ‘Joe’ Zawinul was offered a job to perform in an American soldier’s club. Joe was as well part of the first Austrian jazz group that got international recognition – The Austrian All Stars, featuring beside Joe on the piano, Karl Drewo on tenor sax, Hans Salomon, saxes and clarinet, Rudolf Hanson on bass and Viktor Plasil on drums. The piano chair was occasionally occupied by Friedrich Gulda, already an established and famous classical pianist, known for his marvellous interpretations of Mozart’s works. They formed in 1952 and lasted until Zawinul emigrated to the US in 1959 to try his luck overseas.

Meanwhile an eight-year-old Harry Pepl started to make music on his own, having just got his first instrument – an accordion, on which he already started to improvise. 1955 Austria became an independent country again and Hans Koller’s New Jazz Stars played as the first ever jazz band at the prestigious Musikverein to critical acclaim. In the same year clarinettist Fatty George opened his club, Fatty’s Salon in the centre of Vienna, soon becoming the place to listen to jazz gigs and the late-night jam sessions. At the age of 15 Harry got his first guitar and started to play around on it, trying to find his way on the new instrument. And he started to listen to jazz guitarists, especially Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow and Wes Montgomery. He listened, transcribed and practiced. He studied classical guitar with Prof. Karl Scheit, expanded his education at the Vienna Conservatory and, in addition to his work as a musician with the successful Beat group Austrian Evergreens, soon appeared as a sideman in various jazz formations. On the 1964 single by the Evergreens, ‘Skinny Minny’, Pepl composed the B-Side, titled ‘Olymp’, one of the first of his compositions to be recorded.

Austrian Evergreens – photo Pepl Family Collection

In the mid 1960’s trombone player Erich Kleinschuster started his first band and a year later Erich would start his work with the Austrian Radio Company ORF, for which he arranged a series of live recordings in their studios, before becoming the head of the jazz department at the broadcast company. He initiated the ORF Big Band and invited many international jazz musicians to perform with them, including Art Farmer. Avantgarde jazz came at the same time from the US to Europe and in Austria was expertly performed by a few groups, of which the Reform Art Unit of Fritz Novotny became the most famous one. On the other hand, jazz fusion found its fans within the Austrian scene of musicians as well and in 1970 guitarist Karl Ratzer and keyboarder Peter Wolf (who would go on to play with Frank Zappa and become a very successful producer in the US) founded the group Gypsy Love.

Harry played his first jazz gigs with the Harald Neuwirth Consort and the Erich Kleinschuster Sextett, worked as a sought-after studio musician and live with the ORF Big Band and pop artists like Peter Alexander. One of the earliest jazz recordings of Harry came when he was invited to go into the studio with the ORF Big Band under composer Roland Kovacs in 1974 and on the album ‘King Size’ is playing the solo in the title track and the song ‘Operation Rose’ and showing already his individual sound and amazing technique. He recorded again with the ORF Big Band, that time under Richard Österreicher in 1976, soloing on the title ‘Leave Me’. Other formations Harry Pepl played in throughout the Seventies were Conception M, a group formed by pianist Albert Mair; Harry Pepl Trio with Peter Ponger and Joris Dudli, playing in the style of Miles’ ‘Bitches Brew’; Trio Infernal with Adelhard Roidinger and drummer Erich Bachtraegl, Hip Jargon, the first band in which he played with composer / vibraphonist Werner Pirchner; Heavyweight with Hans Salomon, Austria Drei and many others, including the Erich Kleinschuster Sextett, with whom he recorded the album ‘St. Gerolder Messe’ in 1978. Swiss pianist, composer and arranger Mathias Rüegg formed in 1977 together with alto sax player Wolfgang Puschnig and others the Vienna Art Orchestra and in 1979 they recorded their first album ‘Tango From Obango’, and Harry Pepl is playing on one track of this legendary recording. And that year he started to teach jazz guitar at the Music Conservatory in Graz and continued to do so until 1995, having been made Professor in 1984.

club date … photo Pepl Family Collection

It was in 1980 that Harry really made waves on the international jazz circuit. First with the debut album of his duo with Werner Pirchner, called Jazzzwio, recorded for the German Mood label and titled ‘Gegenwind’ (Headwind). And secondly by touring and recording with jazz world star Benny Goodman. In an interview I did with Harry in 1984 he explained to me how he met Werner Pirchner and how the Jazzzwio was born: he was playing at that time in a trio with bass player Wayne Darling and drummer Fritz Ozmec and they wanted to add a fourth sound, but as they couldn’t find a pianist at the time, they had, on recommendation of Fritz Ozmec, vibraphonist Pirchner come in for a session and hired him. Harry and Werner began to experiment occasionally during soundchecks without the rest of the band, and quickly after they started playing gigs, excited “by the possibilities of the duo”. Harry knew Benny Goodman’s music from his father being a fan and so he took the job after some hesitation and started to play with Benny and recorded 3 albums with the band leader. “He swings like hell”, Harry would say about Goodman, who left him space to express himself and would encourage him to play his individual style. The recordings with Goodman were the live album ‘Berlin 1980’, the soundtrack ‘Fantasma D’Amore’ and another live recording, this time from Copenhagen, titled ‘Farewell’, as the soundtrack recorded in 1981. Playing with Benny was fun, but not really what Harry wanted to do musically long-term and therefore he stopped and toured more frequently with Werner as the Jazzzwio. Their concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1981 was recorded and released a few months after the event and got incredible reviews all around Europe and was seen as an instant European jazz classic. To create his personal sound, Harry used a Roland rack in which he integrated a stereo pre-amp, an amp, an echo-machine and two digital relays. That does delay his signal – meaning in one channel it goes directly and in the other with minimal delay. “This creates a real nice sound” he told me. The duo not only gave Harry a stage for his tremendous talent as guitarist and improviser, but as well as composer, as he and Werner wrote most of their repertoire themselves. In 1980 / 1981 Harry recorded as well with Runo Ericksson’s Omnibus, featuring Charlie Mariano; the Joachim-Ernst Berendt produced ‘String Summit’; a project featuring Leszek Zadlo titled ‘The Loss’ and with Adelhard Roidinger the album ‘Schattseite’ for ECM Records, so having his first contact with label head Manfred Eicher.

rehearsing with Benny Goodman
photo Pepl Family Collection

While Harry was building his reputation as one of Europe’s most interesting and unique guitarists, the Austrian jazz scene went through a very productive and interesting period. This had mainly two reasons: The Vienna Art Orchestra, out of which a handful of incredible young musicians came and founded smaller groups between them, like Part Or Art, Pat Brothers and Airmail and secondly because of the excellent education musicians could get at the Music Conservatory in Graz, headed by saxophonist Karlheinz Miklin. From there the scene welcomed musicians like the brothers Christian (p, tb) and Wolfgang Muthspiel (git), as well as, to just name a few, bass player Peter Herbert and drummer Alex Deutsch. The mid 80’s saw the emergence of a new big band and with that a new breeding ground for young artists: Nouvelle Cuisine, founded by Christoph Cech and Christian Mühlbacher and artists like Franz Koglmann and Max Nagl started to create a buzz for their work as well. Airmail was a group featuring from the Vienna Art Orchestra alto saxophonist, flutist Wolfgang Puschnig and drummer Wolfgang Reisinger, plus Pepl and Mike Richmond (Mingus Dynasty) on bass. They started touring in Austria, but before they were to record their first album, Harry and Werner fulfilled a dream by recording for ECM, this time with drummer Jack De Johnette. Originally planned as a quartet recording with Dave Holland, but the bassist got ill just before the recording date and the decision was made to record anyway, but as a trio. Despite this initial setback, as both Harry and Werner had looked forward to record with Dave Holland, the album is outstanding in terms of compositions and performances.

I met Harry first in 1984, when Wolfgang Puschnig invited me to a concert of Airmail in Vienna and I encountered a very humble, charismatic and private person with a great sense of humour. Someone who was constantly looking for new ideas and ways to express himself. I interviewed him for Jazz Live, the Austrian jazz magazine, the same year and afterwards loosely stayed in touch with the guitarist. The group Airmail recorded their first album in 1985 for the German Moers Music label and it became soon clear to Harry that this could be something special and therefore the band rehearsed more than he ever did before. And it paid off – the band got tighter and tighter and played with power and understanding. Meanwhile Pepl and Pirchner had developed in different directions musically and the Jazzzwio kind of faded out. In 2003 a live concert from 1985 at the Viennese jazz café ‘miles smiles’ was released, featuring as well Georg Polansky on drums and is the last document of their work together. Finally in 2008 the Montreux album of 1981 was re-issued as ‘Live In Concerts’, together with a concert from 1984 in Innsbruck and the special edition of the release featured a DVD with the film of the Montreux concert and an interview with both musicians.

Jazzlive … all photos by Rainer Rygalyk

Harry focused on Airmail, but continued to appear as sideman for recordings or tours. He was back recording for ECM as well, this time in 1986 with the Enrico Rava / Dino Saluzzi quintet, featuring as well bass player Furio Di Castri and American drummer Bruce Ditmas. They promoted the 1987 release of the album with a European tour, at some dates featuring Bob Moses on drums. The next record for the German label Harry did in equal billing with Herbert Joos, (tp, flh) and drummer Jon Christensen, titled ‘Cracked Mirrors’. They recorded in February 1987 and Harry composed most of the album and even played, for the first time on record, on one track on the piano. The other novelty here is Harry’s use of the MIDI guitar, to “expand the boundaries of his instrument”. The concerts of the trio generally received amazing reviews, always highlighting the amazing sounds Harry could produce on his guitar. A few months later Airmail were on tour again and decided to record their new album ‘Light Blues’ during two nights in Wels, to be released in 1988 by PolyGram Austria, for which at the time I was responsible for the jazz productions. Harry and Puschnig had asked me if I would be interested in releasing the new music and I gladly agreed to do so. The album was put out all over Europe and got wonderful reviews, especially Pepl’s work with the MIDI guitar, which opened up the soundscape of the group tremendously. Airmail was special to Harry not only because of the space and freedom he had in the group, but as well because of his connection with sax player Wolfgang Puschnig, who, as Harry stated, “always could play even the most complicated pieces”. Harry was as well invited to play one track with Wolfgang on his debut album ‘Pieces Of The Dream’ in 1988.

Around that time Harry as well started to perform and record with French clarinettist Michel Portal and at one of the groups he met Dave Liebman and Mino Cinelu and he kept in touch with both artists, hoping to record with them under his own name in the future.

with Jack De Johnette, Dave Liebman and Mino Cinelu
photo Pepl Family Collection

In 1989 Harry suffered a stroke and took a break for his recovery, which was completed later that year. Harry came to my office one day with the idea to record a piano album for PolyGram Austria. Which I found a bit surprising, but … OK. Actually, it wasn’t really a piano album, because he wanted to play the left hand and the right hand separately on his guitar into a midi computer, then transfer these files into a computer piano, so that the sound in the end was an original piano sound, even so played on the guitar. I like crazy ideas and this was definitely one – we booked the studio in the Konzerthaus in Vienna, had a Bösendorfer Computer-Piano 290 SE brought in, hired the band for the recording (David Liebman on soprano sax, Johannes Enders on tenor sax on two tracks, and Wolfgang Reisinger on drums) and made the record. It was truly a strange experiment seeing the musicians playing to the piano … without a pianist! And then we set up a release concert in the smaller room of the Konzerthaus, this time with Wolfgang Puschnig on alto sax and flutes, Harry doing the pedals on the piano and drummer Wolfgang Reisinger. The album was called ‘Schönberg Improvations’, a mix of the two words improvisation and variation, as the album was influenced by Glenn Gold’s ‘Goldberg Variations’. Musically, I still find this album exciting, challenging and powerful. Unfortunately, when the first reviews came out, most writers focused on the technical side of the production and less on the musical part … same for the concert. Only the 2004 reissue gave the album the credit it, in my opinion, deserved; the liner notes by Andreas Felber state that it was „without a doubt the most spectacular record of one of the most original guitar players of European Jazz in those years”.

Most of the early 90’s Harry built on his ‘instant composing’ technique and moved closer to contemporary classical music as he transferred his improvisations into notated instant compositions for various ensembles, including the Kronos Quartet. Pepl explains his method on the example of the composition for Kronos:

«In my method, which is caught in the pair of terms ‘instant composing’ and ‘real-time composing’, both areas experience a rare, paradoxical fusion. My starting point is the guitar, or more precisely: the MIDI guitar, which is capable of adopting a multitude of timbres (e.g. violin, cello…). As an instrumentalist, I can camouflage myself with its help, so to speak. Although I play the guitar, I am able to slip into the timbre of every conceivable instrument. When composing the string quartet for the Kronos Quartet, I improvised freely, in accordance with my method. After inventing a voice, I improvised the remaining three by spontaneously reacting to this finished voice. The result is printed out as a score and then presented to the players for interpretation as a finished work. So, what is performed as a fixed work is a product of momentary inspiration, is the result of spontaneous improvisation and also of reacting to this improvisation. It becomes a composition through the fact that it is notated and is also conceived for a special sound group, in this case the Kronos Quartet. Of course, it also takes on the character of a work in that, although spontaneously conceived, it contains enough substance to be understood as a work to be interpreted. The relationship to improvisation is preserved in that spontaneously conceived ideas are not corrected, which is decisive. What happens in the moment of creation remains untouched. In this method, my musical aesthetics, which attach decisive importance to the unrepeatable moment of sound production, is expressed very clearly. From the spirit of spontaneity and in the confrontation with the available, defined playing time, the improviser has to achieve a maximum: A maximum of novelty, of surprise, ultimately of inspired quality. In such an aesthetic, the ideal goal of an improvisation is probably also captured. Namely: to play a sequence of notes at the moment that is so successful that it does not need any reworking and is substantial enough to be interpreted as a composition by other instruments. Thus, it would be a lasting portrait of the current state of a musical subject».

photo Pepl Family Collection

In 1992 Harry recorded in New York with his quartet the album ‘N.Y.C. Impressure’ one day after having a concert there at the Knitting Factory. The group, which featured Claus Stötter on trumpet, Paul Novinski on bass and drummer Jojo Mayer, played as well gigs in Europe, but overall was a short time project. Despite not liking New York, Pepl recorded another album there in 1994, this time with the ensemble Abstract Truth, put together by Austrian trombone player and label owner Paul Zauner and featured next to Harry and Paul, John Purcell on tenor sax, Kenny Davis on bass and Ronnie Burrage on drums. They played a few shows as well, but then, in 1994, Harry unfortunately suffered another stroke and again needed time for a complete recovery. His blood pressure nevertheless remained very high and on recommendations by his doctors he had to stop performing publicly and had to leave his position as Professor at the Music Conservatory in Graz.

While recovering he started to play the piano as a way to relax and as an outlet for his still incredible creativity. “When playing the piano I have a lot of freedom. Unencumbered by profession or image I am able to immerse myself in the sound of the instrument, the acoustics of the room, in the ambience, the instant. After a few moments I don’t feel time anymore. An emotion of happiness floats through me and the sounds stream on their own”. Pepl records 1995 his first piano solo album ‘Consequence’ at the Bösendorfer company, but didn’t release the music. In 1996 he recorded his second piano solo album ‘Flow’ on a Steinway in the Musikverein, released in the fall of the same year. ‘Flow’ is exactly that – Harry sat down at the piano, which he never really learned to play, nor practised, and plays, let’s the music flow through him. The result is as pure as it gets – no corrections or overdubs. The essence of Harry Pepl: “The moment I make music or compose in an inspired way – which is the same for me – I believe in the absolute: in the truth in which all opposites coincide”.

The following years saw Harry continue to work in the genre of contemporary classical music through his instant composing technique and start recording at his home studio under the project name ‘Lonely Single Swinger Band’. In 2004 some of this music was performed via a feed with live musicians and visuals by his friend jazz photographer Rainer Rygalyk.

with jazz photographer Rainer Rygalyk, 2004
photo Pepl Family Collection

On December 5^th, 2005 Harry Pepl passed away in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.

Some of Harry’s recordings (he plays all instruments) as the Lonely Single Swinger Band have been released digitally – in 2019 ‘Art Of Trio, Vol.1’, a wonderful guitar driven 4 track EP that is really pure Pepl; and in 2020 ‘Harry Pepl’s Lonely Single Swinger Band, Volume One’, again showcasing Pepl’s instant composing technique and improvising skills. He truly was a one-man band then. His most famous compositions, first among many ‘Air, Love And Vitamins’, have been recorded several times by young jazz musicians from Austria and beyond and his contemporary classical pieces are performed and have as well been recorded by various ensembles.

Sources:

Klaus Schulz, Jazz In Österreich 1920 – 1960, Album Verlag 2003

Andreas Felber, Austria, The History Of European Jazz, edited by Francesco Martinelli, Equinox 2018

Johannes Kunz, Als der Jazz nach Österreich kam, Wiener Zeitung 29./30. April 2023

Nikolaus Kohler, Harry Pepl: Ein Porträt des Musikers und Komponisten, Diplomarbeit (unpublished), 2006

Jazz Live, Österreichiches Jazz Magazin, various articles by Rainer Rygalyk & Wulf Müller, 1983 – 1985

Daniel Pepl, with special thanks for his tremendous support and providing information as well as the photos from the family collection

Wulf Müller, A Life In Music, Amazon Direct, 2022

Andreas Felber, Liner Notes to re-issue of ‘Schoenberg Improvations’, 2004

www.Harrypepl.com

Discogs

Wikipedia

European Jazz Masters Of The Past # 1 – Aladar Pege

The start of a new year is probably a good period to start something different and new … and for my blog I finally am at the point to do so. As I announced last year, I will start a series of short artist portraits titled European Jazz Masters Of The Past and it will feature musicians that had an impact on the history of jazz in their respective countries and beyond. Having been working in the European jazz scene for more than 40 years and having had the honour and luck to hear, meet and work with some of these legendary artists, I will start with a selection of musicians I personally met and had the good fortune to get to know a bit better or work with, in one or the other capacity. These portraits will include biographical data, info on the local jazz scene, personal stories, listening recommendations and photos. The order in which the artists will appear is of no relevance, nor does it show any preference of one over the other. It is a personal selection of musicians I liked to listen to in concert and still like to hear on disc today. In that manner it is as well a list of artists that I recommend the younger jazz fan to listen to, so getting a deeper understanding of the local and regional jazz history. With these short portraits I want to create a kind of jazz gallery, but instead of looking at artistic paintings from the past, we are listening to the Jazz Masters from times before us.

European Jazz Masters Of The Past # 1: Aladar Pege (8. 10. 1939 – 23. 09. 2006)

After the first world war the Hungarian music scene centred in Budapest where the Franz Liszt Music Academy gave aspiring musicians a classical education. Like in many European countries at that time, Jazz had caught the interest of openminded music listeners and recordings were imported from the US. Early local jazz influenced records go back to around 1912, some claim even to 1905. For sure Hungarian radio started to play regularly imported jazz around 1925 and at the same time more local bands started to record their music, even so they had to do so abroad, as then there was no recording studio in Budapest.

By the time Aladar Pege was born in 1939 into a family of bass players – his father, grandfather and one uncle played the instrument – the jazz scene in Hungary was active and found outlets in bars and hotels. Aladar decided at 14 to as well follow the family tradition to play the bass and a year later his father got him his first instrument. He studied classical bass at the Bela Bartok Conservatorium and at the Franz Liszt Academy, from which he graduated in 1969. He paid for his studies with the money he made playing at the Moulin Rouge in Budapest at night, having started to perform around 1955, with his own group or as a sideman with other local greats. Despite classical music being his first musical love, he was on the way to make himself a name in the jazz scene in Hungary and abroad. The first time he got some international recognition was at the 1963 Bled Jazz Festival in former Yugoslavia, where his group played a very successful and critically acclaimed show.  This and further performances outside of Hungary led to the group being invited to the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1970, where they were voted the best group and Pege elected as the best European Soloist.

Photo by Rainer Rygalyk

Parallel to Peges development, the Hungarian jazz scene went through many difficult phases, directly connected to the political landscape after WW 2: first there were a few healthy years with a traditional jazz scene around master musician Lajos Martiny, but in 1949 jazz had to underground, as the communist government forbade all western cultural import or copy. During the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, which cost thousands of people their lives, many musicians fled to the West, including some of the best jazz musician of the times in Hungary, as, to name just two, Attila Zoller and Gabor Szabo. Jazz was only heard in illegal and private listening sessions of records smuggled into the country. But in 1962 politics opened up a bit and the first jazz clubs, festivals and training courses for musicians were made available. Hungaroton, the state-owned record company, started to work with local jazz acts as well. The Dalia jazz club in Budapest was one example of a new place presenting young jazz musicians in concert and Aladar Pege was among those performing there. Since 1965 the Bela Bartok Music Conservatory has a jazz faculty and local media are interested in the new music as well. By the end of the 1970’s Hungary counted overall 52 jazz clubs, giving their local scene many places around the country to perform.

In that period the Aladar Pege Group featured mainly the following musicians: Bela Lakatos or Marta Szaboky on piano, Geza Lakatos on drums, Janos Nemeth or Mihaly Raduly on tenor sax and the later as well on flute. They recorded in 1970 the first album under Pege’s name, ‘Montreux Inventions’ for Hungaroton, featuring mainly Pege’s compositions, plus the standards ‘Moon River’ and ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ plus D. Goen’s ‘Scherzo’. This record put him firmly on the map as one of Hungary’s most important musicians, already displaying his immense talent on the bass and as a composer.

The years between 1975 and 1980 Pege decided to spend in Berlin. He wanted to continue study classical bass and became a private student of Herbert von Karajan’s first solo bass player, Rainer Zepperitz. Years Pege enjoyed not only because Zepperitz was a great professor to him, but as well for the many opportunities to perform. While in West-Germany he played Swing or Bebop with Leo Wright, Walter Norris, Dexter Gordon, Art Farmer, Albert Mangelsdorff or Carmell Jones, while in the East of the divided city he played only free jazz, beside others with Günter ‘Baby’ Sommer or Ulli Gumpert. And he played electric bass in a band that had engagements for dances! In that way he could play in any style during these years in Berlin and learned a lot in classical music as well as in jazz. He recorded two albums with pianist Walter Norris for the German enja label, ‘Synchonicity’ and ‘Winter Rose’. The second of these duo albums got 4 ½ stars in Downbeat and brought Pege even wider recognition. Wherever he went and played, people were astonished by his outstanding technique on his instrument, something that led a German reviewer of a concert in the magazine JazzPodium call him the ‘Paganini of the contrabass’. His playing was as well full of emotions and he therefore reached his audience deeply, not only via his outstanding technique but as well through the emotional content of his performances. He meanwhile had become a Professor at the Franz Liszt Academy, teaching classical bass twice a week for 5 hours. 1978 he was awarded the Franz Liszt Price by the Hungarian Minister for Culture, one of the highest honours given every year to classical musicians of the country.

In 1980 Pege played at the Jazz-Yatra in Bombay with his band and as the Mingus Dynasty played there as well, it happened that Sue Mingus, widow of bass legend Charles Mingus, was in the audience at Pege’s concert. Sue was moved to tears by Aladar’s emotional and captivating set and after the concert spontaneously promised to give him one of Mingus basses. Journalist Lee Jeske wrote in an article about the festival in Bombay: “And the musical hit of the week-long festival was a little-known Hungarian bassist: Aladar Pege”. Aladar was then invited to perform with The Mingus Dynasty band and, among other concerts, performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival to critical acclaim. The members of the band at this concert were Joe Farrell, Randy Brecker, Jimmy Knepper, Sir Roland Hanna, Pege and Mike Richmond on bass and Billy Hart. The concert was released as an album by Atlantic Records in 1981, but hasn’t been released as a CD yet, nor does it seem to be available in a digital format.

Photo by Rainer Rygalyk

Promoter George Wein invited Pege to come to the Kool Jazz Festival to New York, where he was supposed to perform at Carnegie Hall, but didn’t know with whom until a few days before the show, when he was told that he would be in a group with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Wynton Marsalis. This was in 1982, and while he was in New York Sue Mingus invited him to a party in her house and handed him, as promised, one of Mingus’s basses. His New York trip was very successful and opened many doors for him, but he decided to go back to Budapest, mainly because of his teaching role, but as well, as he stated: “I am a normal human being and I am afraid of America”.

Around the same time, 1980, Pege started to travel to close by Vienna – initially on invitation by clarinettist Fatty George, to participate in a TV show with Fatty, pianist Fritz Pauer and drummer Fritz Ocmek. Through Pauer Aladar got to meet and perform with trombone player Erich Kleinschuster, guitarist Karl Ratzer, pianist Rudi Wilfer and drummer and label boss Rudi Staeger, with whom Pege would record some outstanding albums. The first of these recordings was the piano/bass duo album ‘Blues Fuge’ with Rudi Wilfer (1981), followed by ‘Solo Bass’ (1982), a tour de force of solo improvisations over traditional songs from Hungary or jazz standards like ‘Lover Man’ or John Lewis’ ‘Django’. I saw Aladar performing live in duo or trio in Vienna a few times, thanks to my friendship with Rudi Staeger. In the fall of 1983, I interviewed a charming Aladar for the Austrian Jazz magazine ‘Jazz Live’ and the article was published in the December 1983 issue. In October that year Pege had recorded the second solo bass album for RST Records, Rudi Staeger’s label, live at the Viennese jazz café ‘miles smiles’, highlighting again his virtuosity, beautiful sound and soul. The live recording features Pege’s own compositions, including an improvisation titled ‘Miles Smiles’, which he dedicated to the club and the people working there. In the interview I asked Aladar, who only practised classical music, how he would himself explain his exceptional talent and feel for jazz, to which he answered: “I was born like that”!

album cover photo by Rainer Rygalyk

1981 was the year the most successful Hungarian movie of all time was released: ‘Mephisto’ by Istvan Szabo, which won the 1982 Academy award for Best Foreign Language film. The movie featured a Blues-Improvisation by Pege titled ‘Juliette’ and Aladar proudly told me that “a Hungarian film gets an Academy award and I have been involved a little bit as well”! Pege continued his frequent trips to Vienna and recorded a few more albums for Staeger’s label – ‘Rudi Wilfer Trio’, with Wilfer, Pege and Staeger plus special guest Karl Ratzer; ‘Rolltreppe’, a wonderful duo album with pianist Fritz Pauer and finally in 1990, ‘Solo Bass III – Classic & Jazz’, where he, besides originals and standards as well performed his adaptations of pieces by Bach and Mozart. The duo recordings with Rudi Wilfer and Fritz Pauer were later released on one CD under the title ‘Great Jazz Duos’ and the first two solo recordings as well were issued on one CD (1998) simply titled ‘Solo Bass’. All of these are highly recommended.

Pege continued to teach, perform and record in the following years. He recorded at home and abroad and with a variety of local and international musicians, including Eugen Cicero, Johannes Faber, Lee Harper, Charly Antolini and Bruno Castelluci. In 1994 he played a few shows in a trio with Larry Coryell and Bireli Lagrene, of which a full concert video from Cologne is available on YouTube and it’s definitely worth checking out. Two years later he started to release some of his live recordings on his own label, unfortunately only in Hungary and continued to do so until his passing in 2006. One can say for sure that there haven’t been or are many bass players who can play both, jazz and classical music, on the level Aladar Pege did. He opened up to jazz when hearing Oscar Pettiford for the first time while studying classical bass and stepped into this free and open musical world as if he always was meant to be there. His influence on young bass players, not only in Hungary, can still be felt today.

Photo by Rainer Rygalyk

Sources:

Gabor Turi – Hungary: The Road To Independence, in: The History of European Jazz, edited by Francesco Martinelli, 2018

Wulf Müller – Aladar Pege, in: Jazz Live, Austrian Jazz Magazine, issue December 1983 / January 1984

Liner notes from his various RST Records releases – with a special Thanks to Rudi Staeger for his help

Wikipedia and Discogs websites

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Here are a few recently released recordings I can recommend listening to:

Nils Petter Molvaer / Certainty Of Tides – orchestral arrangements of some of Molvaer’s best compositions … dreamlike and touchingly beautiful music

Geri Allen & Kurt Rosenwinkel / A Lovesome Thing – a duo live recording from a unique and outstanding concert

Sunny Kim, Vardan Ovsepian, Ben Monder / Liminal Silence – soundscapes and meditations by three diverse and amazing musicians

Enjoy!

‘The present moment …’

It took me some time to be clear of how I wanted to move forward with my writing, but finally, I got an idea of how I want the new version of my blog to look like – I will go away from simply writing album reviews, but will still recommend a few I really like every time I write, but mainly I will either react to some current jazz affairs (see below some comments on the Wayne Shorter documentary on amazon prime video) or create one in a series of short artist portraits of European jazz musicians of the past. Having been around in the jazz scene for a while now (over 40 years to be precise), I met many artists and some of them have unfortunately passed away already. I can see now that some are almost forgotten, that new generations don’t know these names nor their music anymore and therefore I would like to re-introduce some of these musicians to my circle of friends and readers. I will start with artists I had the pleasure to meet and/or work with, and then go into musicians I like and/or most likely had seen perform. Work on the first portrait has started already, info material and music being collected, read and listened to and I am sure later this month I can start writing. Stay tuned.

‘Zero Gravity’, the three-part documentary on the life and music of the late saxophonist Wayne Shorter is a marvel in pictures and sound. It pays homage to Wayne the human being, who tried to express his humanity through his compositions and through the way he dealt with his fellow humans on a daily basis. What it makes clear is that Wayne developed his music by standing on the shoulders of giants … Art Blakey, Miles Davis – his most important mentors – and others like Coltrane, Zawinul, Hancock, etc. The work with Blakey and Davis made him grow as a composer and improviser, as they both allowed him the space to do so and nurtured his curiosity to go into the unknown in both areas. I would say that the development as an artist has gone hand in hand with his development as a human being, as his foray into the unknown musically made him discover deeper levels of his humanity as well. Buddhism helped him then to channel this experience into an understanding of the human species and the individual, that went far beyond what most of us know and feel. If you want to write music expressing your humanity, you must have a deeper understanding of it, an emotional knowledge, so you can compose (and perform) from a place universally understood. And Wayne could do that like few other composers and instrumentalists. He felt people on an emotional level and therefore could react to them in the most appropriate way. Having met Wayne myself numerous times, I felt that his ‘reading’ of other people didn’t get the exposure it deserved in the otherwise really well-done documentary.

Wayne Shorter left the world a huge legacy of compositions and recordings, some of them will only properly be understood in years to come. For the curious one, beside his early music, I would recommend the 3 CD plus comic book version of ‘Emanon’, his 2018 Blue Note release. Disc one has the Wayne Shorter Quartet (Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade) perform some of Wayne’s compositions with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the other two CDs showcase the same quartet live in concert in their incredible way of creating music on the spot. Both highlight Wayne the composer and improviser and so reflecting on Wayne Shorter the human being. I would as well suggest to the interested to read the incredible biography of Wayne ‘Footprints’ by Michelle Mercer, who manged to capture Wayne’s essence in words.

 At one point in the documentary, while at home, Wayne is wearing a baseball cap, which says ‘Saxophone Hero’ on the front and ‘All Time Top Human Being’ on the left side – whoever had this made for him got it absolutely right! From all the wisdom Wayne shared in the included interviews, I would like to end this little review with one statement I liked a lot: ‘The present moment is the only place where we can change the past and dictate the future…..’

A few new recordings I can recommend:

Tania Giannouli – Solo / An outstanding solo piano effort by the Greek composer and instrumentalist, emotional and touching, baring her most inner self to the listener. Impressive from beginning to end!

Rymden – Valleys& Mountains / It seems that this group is getting better and better! Bugge Wesseltoft, Dan Berglund & Magnus Öström are creating soundscapes and grooves and ambient environments the listener can get lost in. They make music in the tradition of the best piano trios, but as well of Weather Report, but taking it into today and making it all their own. Sublime album, which features John Scofield on one amazing track!

Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage / Merchant’s songs are little gems, that shine brighter the more you listen to them. Her voice soars over the excellent music and gives meaning to the emotions cladded in words. Great arrangements, a great band and an outstanding vocal performance by Merchant make this album standing out.

Christian Muthspiel & Orjazztra Vienna – La Melodia della Strada / A unique 2 CD set of this large ensemble (I stay away from big band in their context, as they are set up differently) performing the music written by Muthspiel as an homage to Federico Fellini and his movies. And as the movies, the music reflects life and death and all human expression and emotion. Great compositions and wonderful improvisations make this relevant listening in modern music.

summer and beyond …

It’s been a while, since I last wrote on my blog … I think I was kind of ‘written out’ after I finished my biography and published it. Not that there isn’t anything happening in the world that might ask for a comment … or that there haven’t been great records released over the past weeks and months … I think it was just important to re-focus myself and find a new idea for the blog and for what to do with my time. In the last few weeks and months, I did put some order in my music archive – digital and physical – and there is still some work to do there, even so I had over 5000 discs in my hand over that period. After the summer, I will finish the work on the archive and then start my blog again. More frequently, but with a different concept. I might still occasionally write about a new record that really got me, but reviews are done in so many other places, that I am not sure, I am needed to point out some of these records as well. What I have in mind is a series of short portraits and listening recommendations, under the working title: ‘Least we forget: European Jazz Masters Of The Past’.

During almost 40 years in the music business, I was lucky enough to meet countless amazing artists, some who unfortunately have passed away already and I would like to pay tribute to their lives and artistry by making sure we won’t forget them. A few of these musicians I had the pleasure to work with, others not, but their influence in the European jazz scene was and still is felt. Who today is remembering Aladar Pege? Or Jutta Hipp and Milcho Leviev? What about Edward Vesala, Ian Carr or Hans Koller ….. and the list goes on and on … this will be a project of love for the artists, their music and jazz in general. It will need a lot of research and listening and therefore it will be perfect for me to do in the fall and winter and I am already looking forward to get going.

Meanwhile I wish everyone a wonderful summer (or winter, depending where you are) and hope you will be reading me again in a few weeks’ time.

Love, Jazz and Happiness

Into the Deep … Remembering Wayne Shorter

The news of the passing of composer and saxophonist Wayne Shorter left the music world sad and in mourning. As the numerous obituaries pointed out correctly, his influence on modern jazz over the last 60 years has been tremendous. I had the pleasure to first meet Wayne personally in 1995, when he released his first album on Verve and I worked the global marketing for this release. I knew who he was, knew his music as a leader or sideman, but had never before met him. From that first meeting on, we would run into each other at festivals or gigs and always found a bit of time to chat. Wayne for me, beside the genius musician he was, was first of all a wonderful and deep human being, someone who felt people differently, who understood humans on a very emotional level, reading their ‘vibes’ like no other person I knew. Here are a few stories about Wayne, taken from my book ‘A Life In Music’, explaining the person behind the artist:

Herbie Hancock and Wayne were the sole protagonists on one of our main releases for 1997, the incredible duo recording ‘1 + 1’, which they toured extensively. I think I must have seen the two guys performing together about ten times that year, but the concert in London and one in Italy remain in my mind for their sheer musical beauty and deepness. The concert in Italy was to be held outdoors and the piano tuner came in the afternoon for the soundcheck to tune the piano, but as temperatures changed before the show started, he should have come back before the gig to check the piano again. Which he didn’t and Herbie immediately got problems as some keys were out of tune. They tried to find and call the tuner, but couldn’t locate him, so Herbie had to play on the discordant piano, which seemed to had sharpen his instincts, as he simplified his playing to tremendous effect and Wayne often checked on him with a smile. The concert lasted less than an hour and the piano was basically unplayable at that point. After the show Herbie, Wayne, our label guy in Italy, Pietro Paravella, the promoter of the show and myself went to have dinner in a local taberna, which was excellent. The wine was great too and so was the conversation. We spoke about religions and as Wayne and Herbie both are Buddhists, Wayne told a few stories about his belief. Like when one day Ike and Tina Turner had a major argument and Tina fled their home and came to Wayne’s house to hide. But they expected Ike to figure out in the end where she would have gone and come to get her. Wayne suggested to sit down and meditate, pray and chant, and while they were doing so, outside a very thick fog settled over the neighbourhood. Ike, who was on the way to Wayne’s house, got lost in the fog and never made it there. Wayne truly believed that their prayers helped. He had more stories like that, truly amazing. For me Wayne was a guy who had a true believe in the spiritual power of humans, who had a deeper understanding and feeling for human beings than anyone else I ever met. It is as if he could read people’s emotions and feelings directly, connecting with them on a different level.

After the death of my father in 2008, I went to the North Sea Jazz Festival, as I couldn’t just sit at home and think about what happened. I was looking forward to see my family in a weeks’ time and celebrate my father’s life, but I needed to go out and be distracted. We had a lot of artists playing there and no-one knew about the passing of my father, as I usually keep these private things to myself. It was at a late stage during the festival, that I went backstage to say “Hello” to Wayne Shorter, who, before I could say anything, asked me: “Why are you so sad?”. I was surprised and relieved at the same time, as I now could tell someone and Wayne, who had felt me dealing with the loss of my father, listened. He was just sitting there and let me speak, unload my mourning, knowing that alone would help me.

When I left his little room in the backstage area, I was still in a kind of shock of what just happened and came across Danilo Perez, Wayne’s pianist and a good friend of mine and I told him the story. “Oh”, he replied, “Wayne is doing this all the time. When I was told by my wife that we were expecting our first child, I went to Wayne to tell him and share my happiness, but before I started talking, he already had said ‘Congratulations’. He is so deep, man”. Indeed, he was deep and kind and always thinking before answering a question, coming up with some incredible and challenging thoughts and statements.

My thoughts are with his family and friends. Wayne’s music will stand the test of times to come and so he will not be forgotten, but he will be missed deeply. R.I.P.

A short look forward and long look back

It has been a while since I wrote a blog – the freedom of being retired and being able to run one’s own schedule … no deadlines or pressure to write … I’ll do it, when I feel like it. But the start of a New Year is a good occassion to set a few words down.

2023 started still in the shadows of covid and one can say for sure, that this isn’t over yet! Even so it is hard to get any proper information at the moment, numbers are going up everywhere and China is suffering the most. At least here in Spain the mask is still obligatory on public transport, but unfortunately not in supermarkets and other crowded areas. Hospitals struggle with flu, covid and other respiratory illnesses and a cold spell over the country doesn’t help either. As every year, there is hope on many levels that it will be a better one, especially as 2022 was a tough one globally and as a result as well individually for many. Otherwise, nature showed its beauty again early this year with a dramatic and colourful sunset over Madrid.

The previous year gave us a lot of great music in all genres, but I’ll stick to Jazz here and will, in no particular order, list some of my favourite ones, all highly recommended listening:

Julian Lage – View With A Room

John Scofield – John Scofield

Charles Lloyd – Trio of Trios

Bill Frisell – Four

Arild Anderson – Affirmation

Claudia Acuna – Duo

Wolfgang Puschnig – World Embrace

Badi Assad – ILHA

Michael Leonhart & JSWISS – Bona Fide

Zela Margossian – The Road

Chick Corea – The Montreux Years

Ketil Bjornstad, Anneli Drecker, Lars Saabye Christensen – Between Hotels And Time

Last year I started as well to bring some order in my physical music collection. Beginning with a box of Japanese Paper Sleeve releases, at which I hadn’t looked in ages. Amazing the music in there – from the Verve, Impulse, Decca, Mercury, etc. labels – some of the most important and iconic recordings, as well as some pretty odd ones, but musically incredible. I found 20 John Coltrane on Impulse, 15 Oscar Peterson on Verve, plus Charlie Parker, Ella, Billie, Keith Jarrett on Impulse, some cool Johnny Griffin and so on. Impulse alone was represented with over 120 releases …nice the original album reproduction and the various themes the series came in: David Stone Martin Collection, Verve at 50, We Like Mercury, etc. etc. Treasures all of them in more than one way.

Next were the box sets and now I’ll start with the CD collection – many boxes with no order, but once catalogued, I might finally know what I got here … and then there are a few more boxes still in Vienna … that will keep my busy for a while!

A book recommendation, or better two, from my reading list of last year:

Anthony Doerr – Cloud Cuckoo Land … an homage to books and readers .. I couldn’t stop and smiled a lot reading this imaginative work. Splendid!

Aidan Levy / Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins – extremely well researched and detailed biography of the saxophone master. Engaging and captivating!

And looking forward, there will be a bunch of amazing new recordings coming out in the first few months of the year:

Dhafer Youssef / Street Of Minarets – featuring Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller and more … a fascinating and powerful new statement by the Tunisian singer and oud master

Lakecia Benjamin / Phoenix – another gem by the outstanding saxophonist, produced by Terri Lynn Carrington.

Kenny Barron / The Source – his first solo piano release since 1981. Stunning!

Dave Liebman / Live at Smalls – free improvisation recorded live at Smalls Jazz Club featuring the NEA Jazz Master alongside trumpeter Peter Evans, Leo Genovese, John Hébert and Tyshawn Sorey.

Jason Moran / From the Dancehall to the Battlefield – a concept album about the life and legacy of American ragtime musician and early jazz bandleader James Reese Europe.

And these are only a few I know about … should be a good year for jazz, as it is always when politics move globally more to the right.

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2023!

A Life In Music

Dear friends

I am proud to announce that from today onwards my autobiography

A Life In Music will be available to order exclusively via amazon worldwide.

The book will be released in three formats:

A Life In Music – An Illustrated Chronicle / eBook version with over 200 photos

A Life In Music – An Illustrated Chronicle / printed version with over 200 photos

A Life In Music – A Chronicle / printed version, text only.

It’s the story of my life seen through the music I listened to, the music I worked with and the artists I encountered. After spending over 35 years in the music business, first with PolyGram in Vienna and then with PolyGram/Universal in London, before working from my home in Madrid with OKeh / Sony, I have a lot of stories to tell – about the artists, how the business works and about personal experiences. From Sting to Ornette Coleman, from Status Quo and Deep Purple to Pat Metheny, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Chick Corea, all these artists, and many more, played a role in my life. Written as a chronicle it starts with my birth in 1955 and ends after my retirement from the music business in early 2022, with me being directly involved in the making and release of over 100 recordings.

A different kind of portrait of our times.

Double C …

The Double C stands for many things here … first of all my two friends Claudia Acuña and Christian Muthspiel, whose new music I want to introduce to you. Secondly for the idea of duos, as on Claudia’s record. You double the number of artists when inviting a duo partner, multiply the possibilities of expressions. Thirdly for the two Double CDs Christian delivered, one with new music of his ORJAZZTRA VIENNA and the other one being a work show of his career so far, which was put together for his 60^th birthday. Great music guaranteed.

Chilean singer and composer Claudia Acuña presents with her latest album ‘DUO’ a recording of songs from her homeland and she invited friends to the sessions – musicians with whom she had worked before or whose art she admired. The nine songs from various composers are performed with Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, Fred Hersch, Regina Carter, Arturo O’Farrill, Carolina Calvache and Russell Malone. The album kicks off with Patricio Manns & Horacio Salinas’ ‘MediaNoche’, Claudia here accompanied by the wonderful Kenny Barron on piano, whose reflective support gives Acuña space to shine and whose solo picks sensitively up where the vocals left the song. Christian McBride’s bass joins Claudia on Margarida Lecuona’s ‘Eclipse De Luna’, which he opens with a short intro, for the voice to pick up the mood. Acuña’s vocals are immaculate and full of emotions, on the point in delivering mood and passion. Pianist Carolina Calvache opens delicately the Victor Heredia song ‘Razon De Vivir’, another vocal highlight of the album, with Claudia Acuña delivering a wonderful reading of this song and Calvache flowing behind and around her beautifully.  ‘Jurame’, by Maria Grever, features pianist extraordinaire Fred Hersch weaving a colourful carpet for Claudia to walk on. On these tracks Acuña shows that she must be counted as one of the most impressive and expressive (jazz) singers of today. As great as she is when singing in English, I always felt her stronger when she was singing in Spanish, and this great album just confirms that to me. It seems then her singing is coming from a deeper source within her. After Hersch’s amazing contribution, the following track is Victor Jara’s ‘Manifesto´ and the partner for this one is none other than the brilliant violinist Regina Carter. For me, this is the most touching and beautiful track of a really outstanding album – the way the two musicians communicate, react to each other and create something unique, is special and the emotions and respect can be heard throughout the song. Carter is holding back, supporting, then taking the story to tell her view on it and shortly after, inviting Claudia back in. Spectacular!!! Augustin Lara’s ‘Verdade Amarga’ partners Claudia with guitarist Russel Malone, whose minimalist accompaniment gives the singer a lot of freedom to express herself and for ‘Piensa En Mi’, from the same composer, Acuña invited pianist Arturo O’Farrill to be her duo partner. He brings his powerful Latin touch to the song and adds to the strong expressions of the singer. The last two songs, Chick Corea’s ‘Crystal Silence’ and her own ‘Yo’, Claudia Acuña is singing alone. Doing ‘Crystal Silence’ acapella is something else, but she pulls it off amazingly. ‘Yo’ speaks of her relationship with Mother Earth. ‘…at the end of the day we all walk alone, and we can discover our beauty when we see Earth and us as one’. As I know most of Claudia’s work and have seen her numerous times live, I can easily say that I think this is her best recording so far. The most personal, the album where she took the most risks and where in the end, she created something really special. One of the best releases of the year so far!

I first met trombonist, pianist, composer and conductor Christian Muthspiel in 1986, when he and his brother Wolfgang came to present me with their first recording, ‘Schneetanz’, released on a small label in Styria, Austria. They called themselves DUO DUE then and I signed them on to amadeo/PolyGram Austria and released the duo’s next two albums, ‘Focus It’ and ‘(TRE)’ in 1987 and 1989 respectively. That was the start of an ongoing friendship with both musicians. Christian released for his recent 60^th birthday the double CD compilation ‘Diary 1989-2022’, with highlights from his recording career. None of the Duo Due recordings made it on the discs, but a few others I am proud to have been part of and lots of incredible and wonderful music – recorded with his brother Wolfgang or various bands, up to this year’s new ORJAZZTRA VIENNA release, about which I will write below. Christian always has been a musical traveller between jazz, Austrian folk music and classical music, between written parts and improvisation and mixed these various genres with feeling and taste. This compilation proves this perfectly and serves as well as a great introduction into Muthspiel’s music, but as well as a wonderful and diverse stand-alone album. Artists which are featured here include beside his brother, guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, bassists Gary Peacock and Steve Swallow, drum legend Paul Motian, trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and vocalists Ernst Jandl, Sainkho Namtchylak and Anca Parghel.

‘Homecoming’, the new double live CD by the ORJAZZTRA VIENNA, is a reminder of the history of jazz big bands, from Ellington to the Vienna Art Orchestra, but points as well at the future for these ensembles. Group interaction, written sequences and free improvisation, all done within the unique sound of the ORJAZZTRA and based on Muthspiel’s outstanding compositions, written especially for this formation. The bands unusual instrumentation features Lisa Hofmaninger, Fabian Rucker, Astrid Wiesinger, Robert Unterköfler, Ilse Riedler, Florian Bauer – saxophones, clarinets / Gerhard Ornig, Lorenz Raab, Dominik Fuss – trumpet, flugelhorn / Alois Eberl, Daniel Holzleitner, Christina Baumfried – trombone / Philipp Nykrin – piano / Judith Ferstl, Beate Wiesinger – bass / Judith Schwarz, Marton Juhasz – drums. The music was recorded “live without audience” during three livestream-concerts March 22-24, 2021, at Porgy & Bess, Vienna. The ORJAZZTRA moves between powerful and energetic tracks and contemplative and subtle, almost affectionate, moments. Muthspiel uses many different influences in his compositions, from a modern blues to polyphony, from straight jazz to classical hints and gives the soloists space to express themselves. Precision in freedom comes to mind when hearing the band perform and the improviser takes flight. The playfulness in the compositions and their execution is a delight to listen to. I haven’t heard a better big band album coming from Europe in a while. Outstanding!

For Chick Corea and Claude Nobs ….

On September 23^rd a new Chick Corea live compilation album will be released. All tracks have been recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival and are a wonderful collection of amazing musicianship. As I knew both Chick Corea and the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Claude Nobs, well and worked with them for many years, I was (surprisingly for me) asked, if I could write the liner notes for that album. I gladly agreed to do so and after I listened to the music, selected by Fraser Kennedy, as well a long-time collaborator of the festival and a friend of Claude and myself, I felt honoured to write about the album and a bit about my relationship with Chick. Both men have been a great influence in my professional life and I learned a lot from both of them. Working with them has been a pleasure and privilege for me.

The album ‘The Montreal Years’ will be released as a 2 LP package and a single CD, and of course digitally and is a worthy addition to the Corea catalogue.

Following are my liner notes for the record, which were added to what John McLaughlin wrote about his friendship with Chick:

Armando Anthony ‘Chick’ Corea played in Montreux for the first time in 1972 as part of the Stan Getz Quartet, followed in 1979 by a duo concert with Herbie Hancock. He then was invited by festival founder Claude Nobs many more times to perform with his various groups and guests. It would have been easy to compile, out of the 14 recorded concerts Chick Corea played in Montreux during the Claude Nobs era, an album simply with all his ‘hits’. But that wouldn’t have given credit to the artist, nor to the festival and his founder, as both of them were about openness and variety and didn’t know borders or genres when it came to music. Chick Corea was a musician without limits. He moved from straight ahead jazz to the Avantgarde, to Latin Jazz and Fusion and always had a foot in Classical music. Genres didn’t matter, it was all music, nothing else. ‘The Montreux Years’ reflects this broad musical world of the composer and pianist, as well as paying tribute to the influential improviser.

Chick’s music was a big part of the soundtrack of my life ever since I discovered ‘Return To Forever’ in 1973. In 1992 Chick started Stretch Records for his releases. That’s when I met him for the first time and started to work on his albums. Chick invited me to the opening of the Blue Note in Milano in 2003 and we discussed the publication of a project he had done with Philips Electronics – the surround sound recording of a series of shows at the Blue Note in New York. ‘Rendezvous In New York’, features the ‘crème de la crème’ of improvised music! Whenever possible I saw Chick on tour, we had dinners or lunches together or just chatted a bit.  Once he gave me as a present a new iPod, the so-called ‘Chickpod’ with a little video message on it … and when I got married in July 2007, he sent me a little song, ‘Wulf’s Wedding Song’, from wherever he was at the time on tour … something my wife and I still value a lot.

Chick Corea was a very generous man, in general, as well as when making music, leaving space for his side men to shine and add something to his outstanding compositions. On the opener on this album, ‘Fingerprints’, recorded with his New Trio featuring Avishai Cohen on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, Chick gets into the song with a lot of energy and swinging power, then steps back a bit and lets Jeff Ballard shine. On the following ‘Bud Powell’ Chick’s intro into the song is beautiful and touching, displaying his musical affinity with and respect for Powell. The Freedom Band goes into the swing easily and especially Christian McBride, who stands out beside the leader. This composition was performed and recorded a lot by Corea, my personal favourites, next to what can be heard here, are the versions he did with Gary Burton and the one with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.

The original recording of ‘Three Quartet, No. 2’ was released in 1981 and featured Michael Brecker, Eddie Gomez and Steve Gadd. The same line up recorded the track as well live for the 2003 ‘Rendezvous In New York’ album. Here the version is just a trio and puts more focus on Corea, who showcases everything that made him such a legendary figure in jazz: melodic and rhythmic sensibility, incredible technique, improvisations of the highest level and all this bundled with lots of emotions. On ‘Interlude’ by his Elektric Band, Chick is playing with the audience, before having the band come in and take the groove away. That was another important thing for Chick – having fun while playing, with his musicians and the audience. And these tapes from Montreux are further proof of this.

‘Who’s Inside The Piano?’ is, despite being part of a quartet concert, a powerful and touching solo piano performance and giving a clear answer to that question: what is the spirit and soul of Chick Corea? ‘Dignity’ stems from the same concert as ‘Fingerprints’, and is a beautiful and captivating composition by Chick, dedicated to his mother. The New Trio is in fine form and makes the song sound almost ‘classical’. Which leads perfectly into the one classical composition by Corea on the album: ‘America’, part of ‘Continents’, a concerto for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra. This fascinating mix of Jazz, Latin and Classical opens up new sounds for Corea and got enthusiastic reviews when recorded and released in 2012.

Corea’s intro to ‘The New Waltz’ is mesmerizing in its soulfulness and sets the tone for the rest of the band, especially sax player Bob Berg following the master’s lead in melodic improvisations. The album ends with a track from Chick Corea’s third Montreux performance in 1981, featuring an all-star band. Chick had performed with drummer Roy Haynes and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson before, but never with both of them together and the addition of bass player Gary Peacock rounds up an outstanding line up. Their version of Thelonious Monk’s ‘Trinkle Tinkle’ (vinyl format only) is not only a wonderful tribute to the great composer and pianist, Monk, but as well a powerful statement of four musicians about how exciting jazz can be: tight ensemble-play and outstanding individual contributions by all four artists, make this one of the highlights on the record. Joe Henderson simply sounds amazing, Peacock and Haynes giving heartbeat and a solid base for Chick and Joe to improvise on and they inspire each other to incredible results.

Chick Corea: ‘The Montreux Years’ manages to portrait not only the featured artist, but as well the festival, which allowed him to perform in all these different groupings. It is tribute to one of the most important artists of our time, as well as to his friend Claude Nobs, the soul of the Montreux Jazz Festival. This is going to be an album I will listen to many times in the future, remembering the moments I spent with Chick Corea and the concerts I was lucky enough to hear. The soundtrack of my life is expanding with this new live compilation.

Wulf Müller

March 2022

A photo I took backstage at the Montreux Jazz Festival 2001:
left to right: Tomatito, his manager, Michel Camilo and Chick Corea