Label:
MPS Records – MPS 15274
Format:
Vinyl, LP; Country: Germany - Released: 1970
Style:
Free Jazz
Recorded
March 23rd, 1970 Walldorf Studio, Frankfurt, Germany.
Engineer
– Torsten Wintermeier
Producer
– Joachim Ernst Berendt
Fotos
by Inge Werth, cover and graphic work by Günter Kieser
A1
- Wide Open . . . 3:45
A2
- Never Let It End . . . 9:48
A3
- Certain Beauty . . . 9:14
B1
- The 13th Color . . . 6:54
B2
- Open Mind . . . 4:17
B3
- Roitz And Spring . . . 7:14
B4
– Nachwort . . . 1:50
Albert
Mangelsdorff – trombone
Heinz
Sauer – saxophone (tenor, alto)
Günter
Lenz – bass
Ralf
Hübner – drums, percussion
Jazz
in Germany – the 60s/70s
The
music critic and producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt took an eminent position at
this time, influencing German jazz mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. Without him,
neither the European Free Jazz, even as individual musicians like Mangelsdorff,
Doldinger and others, would have gained the importance that they have for the
German jazz today. Berendt was the first and only global player of the jazz
critics and producers of the German jazz scene, who introduced jazz from
Germany abroad.
The
best-known jazz groups in West Germany were the quintets of Albert Mangelsdorff
(with Heinz Sauer and Günter Kronberg), Michael Naura (with Wolfgang Schlüter),
and the quartet of Klaus Doldinger (with Ingfried Hoffmann.) Innovators were
also the Lauth Wolfgang quartet (with Fritz Hartschuh) and the trio of Wolfgang
Dauner (with Eberhard Weber and Fred Braceful). Musically there was a
deliberate but careful delineation of the American model. With their growing
popularity, Doldinger and Mangelsdorff could also perform abroad and publish
records. Naura had to retire from active life as a musician because of illness,
and later became an editor of the Jazz part of the NDR (Northern German
Broadcast). For the GDR, the Manfred Ludwig sextet has to be
mentioned,originally for a long time the only band, which turned to the style
of modern jazz.
In
1965, the quintet of Gunter Hampel, a moderate Free Jazz maintainer, with
musicians such as Manfred Schoof, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Buschi
Niebergall and Pierre Courbois, arrived on the German jazz scene and performed
many concerts in the "province". Free jazz, without compromises,
could be heard from the Manfred Schoof quintet (Voices) and an octet by Peter
Brötzmann (Machine Gun). Especially in the smaller towns of western Germany,
jazz music clubs disappeared with the advent of the Beat. From the mid-1960s
on, in the GDR, the trio of Joachim Kühn (who migrated to the West in 1966),
Friedhelm Schönfeld, and Manfred Schulze found their own ways into free jazz.
Label:
MPS Records – 21 21746-9, BASF – 21 21746-9
Format:
Vinyl, LP; Country: Germany - Released: 1973
Style:
Free Jazz
Recorded
September and December 1972 at Walldorf-Studio, Frankfurt/M.
Design
[Cover Design] – Günter Kieser
Liner
Notes – Claus Schreiner
Photography
By – Ralph-B. Quinke
Producer
– MPS Records
A1
- Wobbling Notes And Fluted Crackle . . . 14:18
A2
- Grive Musicienne . . . 5:42
B1
- Birds Of Underground . . . 11:37
B2 - Xenobiosis . . . 11:42
Albert
Mangelsdorff – trombone
Heinz
Sauer – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Gerd
Dudek – tenor/sopran saxophone, flute
Buschi
Niebergall – bass
Peter
Giger – drums, percussion
The
1970s were marked by the globalization and commercialization of the German jazz
world. Jazz was combined with various other music genres. Successful jazz
musicians such as Klaus Doldinger, Volker Kriegel and the United Jazz and Rock
Ensemble followed this trend in the direction of rock music in West Germany. At
the same time, younger musicians like Herbert Joos, Alfred Harth and Theo
Jörgensmann garnered public acknowledgment and aroused the attention of the
jazz scene with their music. It is noteworthy that the German musicians
achieved an acceptance with the local audience on par with American jazz
musicians. For example, the Theo Jörgensmann quartet, an avant-garde jazz
group, was even in the Best-of Lists of Popular Music in the Music-Yearbook
Rock Session. At the same time the German record labels FMP, ECM and ENJA
established in the market. Also acoustic-romantic performances by Joachim Kühn
and other pianists like Rainer Brüninghaus came into fashion. In Moers and
other West German towns, festivals were held that focused on these new
developments in jazz.
In
the 1970s, scholastic learning of jazz was also achieved in West Germany. The
annual summer course at the Akademie Remscheid (Remscheid Academy) was very
popular among young jazz musicians. There is hardly a professional jazz
musician, born between 1940 and 1960, who did not attend this course as a
student or teacher.
After
1970, the mighty government ministries of East Germany gave up their antagonism
towards jazz music, giving the "explanation" that jazz had become an
integral part of East German culture and politics. But Klaus Lenz and the
Modern Soul band found its own way to the Fusion of rock and jazz music. In
East Germany in particular, free jazz musicians developed their own gestures
and improvised first on apparently East German-specific material in such a way
that the idea of an "Eisler Weill Folk-Free jazz" could take hold
abroad. The self-assertion was more strongly pronounced in East than in West
Germany. Among the better-known artists of this era were Conny Bauer and Ulrich
Gumpert (Zentralquartett), as well as Manfred Hering and Günter
"Baby" Sommer. This music resonated with a very broad young audience,
and was very successful. The jazz journalist Bert Noglik noted in retrospect:
"In the course of the seventies in the GDR in the evolution of jazz the
Free Jazz (in a broader sense) has crystallized to be the form of the major
direction of practice and its majority passes, and exists both in quantitative
and qualitative respects. This statement refers to the musicians, the audience
and also the organizational structure of the concert and tour management. All
of this is even more astonishing when one considers that in the eastern and
western neighboring regions, there always flowed a relatively strong mainstream
music."...etc
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