German Jazz 1960s

Am 13. August 1961 wurde in Ostberlin die Berliner Mauer gebaut. Für viele Jahre waren nun west- und ostdeutsche Jazzmusiker voneinander getrennt.

Im Fernsehen der Bundesrepublik wurden die großen amerikanischen Musiker zur besten Sendezeit vorgestellt. Um 1960 endete dagegen zunächst das Interesse der westdeutschen Musikproduzenten an Plattenaufnahmen von Musikern wie Wolfgang Lauth; Jazzmusik erschien als nicht mehr gut verkäuflich. Noch Anfang 1964 musste Horst Lippmann feststellen: „Die deutsche Schallplattenindustrie hat seit Jahren alle modernen deutschen Jazzmusiker vernachlässigt und nur gelegentlich Platten mit Amateurbands im Dixieland-Bereich vorgelegt. Keine deutsche Plattenfirma scheint sich auf die künstlerische Verpflichtung vorbereitet zu haben, den modernen deutschen Jazz angemessen zu veröffentlichen, wie das in den Bereichen der symphonischen und der Kammermusik der Fall ist.“ Lippmann überzeugte auf eigenes Risiko CBS davon, Langspielplatten mit Musik von Albert Mangelsdorff, Joki Freund und Wolfgang Dauner zu veröffentlichen. In der Folge kam eine neue Generation von Jazzproduzenten wie Siegfried Loch und Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer auf den Plan – Platten von Ingfried Hoffmann, von Klaus Doldinger, von Attila Zoller, Hans Koller und Gunter Hampel kamen kurz darauf auf den Markt. Eine besondere, herausragende Stellung nimmt der Musikkritiker und Produzent Joachim Ernst Berendt in dieser Zeit ein; hat er doch den deutschen Jazz in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren maßgeblich geprägt. Ohne ihn hätten weder der europäische Free Jazz noch einzelne Musiker wie Albert Mangelsdorff, Rolf Kühn und Joachim Kühn und andere die Bedeutung, die sie heute für den deutschen Jazz haben. Berendt war der erste und bisher einzige Globalplayer unter den Jazzkritikern und Produzenten der deutschen Jazzszene, der sich für Jazz aus Deutschland im Ausland starkgemacht hat.

Die bekannten Jazzgruppen in der alten Bundesrepublik waren damals die Quintette von Albert Mangelsdorff (mit Heinz Sauer und Günter Kronberg) und von Michael Naura (mit Wolfgang Schlüter) und das Quartett von Klaus Doldinger (mit Ingfried Hoffmann). Neuerer waren auch das Wolfgang Lauth Quartett mit Fritz Hartschuh und das Trio von Wolfgang Dauner (mit Eberhard Weber und Fred Braceful). Musikalisch erfolgte eine bewusste, aber doch behutsame Abgrenzung vom amerikanischen Vorbild und die Entwicklung eigener Zugänge. So war es möglich, sich „wirklich von Schablonenvorstellungen frei zu machen und die Freiheiten zu nützen“, die der Jazz bietet. Doldinger und Mangelsdorff konnten mit wachsender Beliebtheit auch im Ausland auftreten und Platten veröffentlichen. Naura musste sich aus Krankheitsgründen vom aktiven Musikerleben zurückziehen und wurde Jazzredakteur beim NDR. In der DDR ist hier zunächst das Manfred Ludwig Sextett zu nennen, lange Zeit die einzige Combo, die sich der Stilistik des modernen Jazz verschrieben hatte.

1965 betrat das Quintett von Gunter Hampel, das einen gemäßigten Free Jazz pflegte, mit Musikern wie Manfred Schoof, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Buschi Niebergall und Pierre Courbois die deutsche Jazz-Szene und gab auch in der „Provinz“ zahlreiche Konzerte. Kompromisslosen Free Jazz hörte man dann vom Manfred Schoof Quintett (Voices) und einem Oktett um Peter Brötzmann (Machine Gun 1968). Insbesondere in den kleineren Städten Westdeutschlands verschwanden mit dem Aufkommen der Beatmusik die Jazzclubs. Ab Mitte der 1960er fanden in der DDR die Trios von Joachim Kühn – der 1966 in den Westen migrierte – und Friedhelm Schönfeld, sowie auch Manfred Schulze einen eigenständigen Weg in den freien Jazz

In the 60s, you could say, I don’t yet know who I am, who I will become, what I am for, for whom, that is, so to speak, the journey abroad of yourself, because you are just finding yourself, the child who spends no longer than two years anywhere, because the parents drive him from village to village, from city to city, work-related – in the 60s, I read in my mother’s diaries, Klaus Doldinger was very popular, in the 60s there was the Elbe disaster, the Cuban crisis, the young woman, the mother, doesn’t know what is happening to her and even less why she loves a man who is apparently oblivious to all this, so uninterested

in the 60s, free jazz emerged, in the 60s we sat with our parents in the drive-in movie theater and watched Heintje, in the 60s Dollar Brand emigrated from South Africa, only to return there briefly in 1974 and compose the worldwide hit Manenberg, the anti-apartheid song par excellence and soon a hymn to Nelson Mandela – Dollar Brand, now Abdullah Ibrahim, now lives with his wife in Bavaria, and I sort music by year. In the 60s, cool jazz, hard bop or what Blue Note does is all so successful, parents still listen to Brenda Lee or the Marvelettes and the Tokens

The Lion sleeps tonight – the original is by Solomon Linda and is called Mbube – let’s take Roy Orbinson, Adele, Booker T. & The Mgs or Quincy Jones – The Ronettes – Henri Mancini’s Pink Panther, Baby Love by The Supremes – now imagine the red earth of Africa and ask me about Miriam Makeba, the tongue beat in Pata Pata from 1967, Wikipedia also has something corresponding to this – the so-called click song already exists in 1960 – in my native village in Johannesburg

I hear it and search for it in Google, it’s a new search every year, it changes rapidly, I find that last house of my childhood in Kempton Park, in Duganhage Ave – crossed by Granaat Straat – and have to turn off, it’s about German Jazz not Cape Town or Johannesburg Jazz – formerly Dollar Brand today Abdullah Ibrahim lives in Bavaria – we still talk – back then, under the same tent roof – get up once and go

– the playlists at this time are well frequented from Nina Simone to Chico Hamilton, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Roland Kirk and Sun Ra – I find it difficult to find German speakers – not to say: not at all. What is shown here is the result of recent searches – it’s only intuition that tells you whether the search is worthwhile. Seen in this light: it’s not much yet, but a start has been made.

Following your own axis of life between here and there, German & South African jazz. The Lion sleeps tonight or Mbube. In German: Home is not where you were born, home is what you become. In the here or now or from then to tomorrow, that also changes. Those who do not change.

German Jazz 1960s Wiki:

On August 13, 1961, the Berlin Wall was built in East Berlin. For many years, West and East German jazz musicians were now separated from each other.

The great American musicians were presented on West German television in prime time. By 1960, however, West German music producers‘ interest in recordings by musicians such as Wolfgang Lauth had initially waned; jazz music no longer seemed to sell well. At the beginning of 1964, Horst Lippmann had to admit: “The German record industry has neglected all modern German jazz musicians for years and only occasionally released records with amateur bands in the Dixieland genre. No German record company seems to have prepared itself for the artistic obligation to release modern German jazz adequately, as is the case in the areas of symphonic and chamber music.” At his own risk, Lippmann convinced CBS to release long-playing records with music by Albert Mangelsdorff, Joki Freund and Wolfgang Dauner. As a result, a new generation of jazz producers such as Siegfried Loch and Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer came onto the scene – records by Ingfried Hoffmann, Klaus Doldinger, Attila Zoller, Hans Koller and Gunter Hampel were released shortly afterwards. The music critic and producer Joachim Ernst Berendt played a special, outstanding role during this period, as he had a decisive influence on German jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. Without him, neither European free jazz nor individual musicians such as Albert Mangelsdorff, Rolf and Joachim Kühn and others would have the significance they have for German jazz today. Berendt was the first and so far only global player among the jazz critics and producers of the German jazz scene to promote jazz from Germany abroad.

The well-known jazz groups in the old Federal Republic at that time were the quintets of Albert Mangelsdorff (with Heinz Sauer and Günter Kronberg) and Michael Naura (with Wolfgang Schlüter) and the quartet of Klaus Doldinger (with Ingfried Hoffmann). The Wolfgang Lauth Quartet with Fritz Hartschuh and Wolfgang Dauner’s trio (with Eberhard Weber and Fred Braceful) were also more recent. Musically, there was a conscious but cautious differentiation from the American model and the development of own approaches. This made it possible to “really free oneself from stereotypes and make use of the freedom” offered by jazz. As their popularity grew, Doldinger and Mangelsdorff were also able to perform and release records abroad. Naura had to retire from active musical life due to illness and became jazz editor at NDR. In the GDR, the Manfred Ludwig Sextett, for a long time the only combo dedicated to the style of modern jazz, should be mentioned here first.

In 1965, Gunter Hampel’s quintet, which cultivated moderate free jazz, entered the German jazz scene with musicians such as Manfred Schoof, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Buschi Niebergall and Pierre Courbois and also gave numerous concerts in the “provinces”. Uncompromising free jazz was then heard from the Manfred Schoof Quintet (Voices) and an octet led by Peter Brötzmann (Machine Gun 1968). Jazz clubs disappeared with the rise of beat music, particularly in the smaller cities of West Germany. From the mid-1960s, the trios of Joachim Kühn – who migrated to the West in 1966 – and Friedhelm Schönfeld, as well as Manfred Schulze, found their own way into free jazz in the GDR.