German Jazz 1970s

German Jazz 1970s

Die 70er Jahre waren geprägt durch die Internationalisierung und die Kommerzialisierung der deutschen Jazzwelt. Jazz wurde mit verschiedenen anderen Musikgenres kombiniert. Jazzmusiker wie Christian Burchard (Embryo), Wolfgang Dauner (Et Cetera), Klaus Doldinger (Passport), Volker Kriegel und das United Jazz and Rock Ensemble folgten in der Alt-BRD dieser Strömung in Richtung Rockmusik. Gleichzeitig traten jüngere Musiker wie Herbert Joos, Alfred Harth oder auch Theo Jörgensmann an die Öffentlichkeit und erregten mit ihrer Musik die Aufmerksamkeit der Jazzszene. Bemerkenswert ist, dass die deutschen Musiker beim hiesigen Publikum genauso ankamen wie amerikanische Jazzer. Das Theo Jörgensmann Quartett z. B. gelangte sogar in die Popular Music Best-of-Listen des Musik-Jahrbuchs Rock Session. Zur gleichen Zeit etablierten sich die deutschen Plattenfirmen FMP, ECM und ENJA. Auch akustisch-romantische Darbietungen von Joachim Kühn und anderen Pianisten wie Rainer Brüninghaus kamen damals in Mode. In Moers und an anderen Orten Westdeutschlands entstanden Festivals, die die neuen Entwicklungen des Jazz in den Mittelpunkt stellten.

Zu Beginn der 1970er Jahre gab die DDR-Staatsmacht ihre reservierte Haltung gegenüber der Jazzmusik auf und „erklärte“ den Jazz zu einem festen Bestandteil der DDR-Kulturpolitik. Klaus Lenz und die Modern Soul Band fanden einen eigenen Weg der Fusion von Rock und Jazzmusik.
Besonders im Free Jazz entwickelte man in der DDR einen eigenen Gestus und improvisierte zunächst über scheinbar DDR-spezifisches Material, so dass im Ausland die Vorstellung vom „Eisler-Weill-Folklore-Free-Jazz“ aufkommen konnte. Die Selbstbehauptung war dabei ausgeprägter als in Westdeutschland. Zu den bekannteren Künstlern dieser Ära zählen Conny Bauer und Ulrich Gumpert (Zentralquartett), Manfred Hering, Manfred „Catcher“ Schulze und Günter „Baby“ Sommer. Diese Musik sprach dort ein besonders breites, junges Publikum an und war sehr erfolgreich. In den neuen Leiden des jungen W. erinnert sich Plenzdorfs Held an die montäglichen Jamsessions in der »Großen Melodie« und zählt die bereits genannten Musiker auf. Das beim Bemühen, einen eigenen Weg des Jazz zu finden, „allmählich erstarkende musikalische Selbstbewusstsein“ der Musiker „brachte einen ernsthaften Widerspruch zur herrschenden Monokultur zum Ausdruck.“ Veranstaltungen mit Free Jazz wurden daher „zu Treff- und Sammelpunkten einer kritischen Zuhörerschaft zwischen Resignation und Aufbegehren“. Nach einer Analyse von Bert Noglik begriff daher ein Teil der Zuhörenden den neuen musikalischen Weg als „Medium des Andersseins oder -denkens“; für einen anderen Teil des Publikums war er gewiss auch ein „Ersatz“ für andere, in der DDR nicht greifbare Musik und Subkultur.

Jazz begann im Kulturleben eine wichtige Rolle zu spielen – so entstand in Weimar eine äußerst beliebte Karnevalsveranstaltung Jazz blues ‚mer los!, auf der Musik vom Boogie Woogie bis zum Free Jazz gespielt wurde. Anlässlich der Jazzwerkstatt Peitz besuchten 1979 2.500 und 1980 4.000 Menschen ein neunstündiges Jazz-Marathon mit überwiegend freier Musik. Ab Mitte der 1970er Jahre veröffentlichte AMIGA zahlreiche Alben mit Jazzmusikern und -bands der DDR; auch Auftritte von Musikern aus dem westlichen Ausland wurden auf Platte festgehalten. Der Jazzjournalist Bert Noglik stellt im Rückblick fest: „In der Jazzentwicklung der DDR hat sich im Verlaufe der 1970er Jahre der Free Jazz (weit gefasst) als die wichtige Spielrichtung des Jazz herauskristallisiert und das sowohl in quantitativer als auch in qualitativer Hinsicht. Diese Feststellung bezieht sich auf die Musiker, das Publikum und auch auf die Organisationsstruktur des Konzert- und Tourneebetriebs. All das ist um so erstaunlicher, wenn man bedenkt, daß in östlichen wie westlichen Nachbargebieten immer ein relativ starker Mainstream floß.“ Jazz DDR

The return to Germany with overseas crates to the main street of the small town in Hessen, the music hardly gets a voice, apart from the singing in the congregation, the whimpering organ playing of the cantor, the visit to the Christmas Oratorio in the Catholic Church, the first attempts at the trumpet. Later, as janitor of the congregation, there were three pianos [one of them tuned to ragtime] and an organ to choose from plus the trumpet, on which music by James Last was imitated, the Schlagerparade. No jazz.

It was the blues, with B.B. King, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, who made the first attempts to transform the quarter time into a vital beat, also the Frankfurt City Blues Band Is in Town … 1979. The sharp guitar of Manfred Häder, the voice of Andreas August – they played on the occasion of the Jazz Weekend in the underground garage of the Center – there were regular blues sessions in the pub, we were supplied or stocked by the mail order company Zweitausendeins, many second-hand copies with the cover corner bitten out – that’s where Mood Records established itself from 1977 with its United Jazz & Rock Ensemble under Mangelsdorff, Schoof, Weber, Kriegel, Thompson, Hiseman, Van Rooyen, Mariano and Wolfgang Dauner, the initiator of what was probably the most successful jazz rock formation of the 70s & 80s.

If you were interested in jazz, you had to rely on tips and advice from friends, you could look around in the reference booklet of Zweitausendeins, go to the record store in the next biggest district town every now and then or pick up something here and there on the radio – the material from there wasn’t really sustainable or reliable, as there was no one in my own circle of friends who listened to it as well. I had heard of Peter Herbolzheimer, but nothing of the HR Big Band under the direction of Heinz Schönberger. You don’t see or hear any recordings from that time, the big band is said to have put on as many as 50 concerts a year.

The formations around Klaus Doldinger were a household name up and down the country, Volker Kriegel was known, Albert Mangelsdorff was something for insiders and free jazz aficionados, the time when people still allowed themselves night shifts in front of the television with the broadcasts of Rock Nacht from WDR. In other words, there was hardly any jazz in the rural low mountain range, and most of the recordings came to you years later – in a timely manner or In Time or Free in the sense of free play – zero. Jazz rock was what was possible – even Miles Davis‘ Bitches Brew was still too avant-garde, Weather Report on the other hand was self-evident, but the German jazz scene?

A book with seven seals, so the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble came just in time and were diligently bought from Lp to Lp. We went to the concert. Always longing to be closer to the music from the city, they went to Saturn in Cologne and rummaged through the record shelves for hours. The guitarists dreamed of studying there and were not accepted. We found out too late that the punk and new wave train had left. Even Kraftwerk, CAN or Embryo were barely mentioned, the horizon was reflected in The Scorpions, in Boney M and James Last, in the corner pubs the Scorpions played up and down while the billiard balls rolled. The whole thing was from my own perspective: a view as if through sunglasses at night.

German Jazz 1970s

The 1970s were characterized by the internationalization and commercialization of the German jazz world. Jazz was combined with various other musical genres. Jazz musicians such as Christian Burchard (Embryo), Wolfgang Dauner (Et Cetera), Klaus Doldinger (Passport), Volker Kriegel and the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble followed this trend towards rock music in the old FRG. At the same time, younger musicians such as Herbert Joos, Alfred Harth and Theo Jörgensmann came to the fore and attracted the attention of the jazz scene with their music. It is remarkable that the German musicians were just as popular with the local audience as American jazz musicians. The Theo Jörgensmann Quartet, for example, even made it into the popular music best-of lists of the music yearbook Rock Session. At the same time, the German record companies FMP, ECM and ENJA established themselves. Acoustic-romantic performances by Joachim Kühn and other pianists such as Rainer Brüninghaus also became fashionable at the time. In Moers and other places in West Germany, festivals were held that focused on the new developments in jazz.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the GDR state power abandoned its reserved attitude towards jazz music and “declared” jazz to be an integral part of GDR cultural policy. Klaus Lenz and the Modern Soul Band found their own way of fusing rock and jazz music.
Free jazz in particular developed its own style in the GDR and initially improvised on seemingly GDR-specific material, giving rise to the idea of “Eisler-Weill-Folklore-Free-Jazz” abroad. The self-assertion was more pronounced than in West Germany. Among the better-known artists of this era were Conny Bauer and Ulrich Gumpert (Zentralquartett), Manfred Hering, Manfred “Catcher” Schulze and Günter “Baby” Sommer. This music appealed to a particularly broad, young audience and was very successful. In the new Leiden des jungen W., Plenzdorf’s hero recalls the Monday jam sessions in the “Große Melodie” and lists the musicians already mentioned. The musicians‘ “gradually growing musical self-confidence” in their efforts to find their own way in jazz “expressed a serious contradiction to the prevailing monoculture.” Events with free jazz therefore became “meeting and gathering points for a critical audience between resignation and rebellion”. According to an analysis by Bert Noglik, some listeners therefore saw the new musical path as a “medium of being or thinking differently”; for another part of the audience, it was certainly also a “substitute” for other music and subculture that was not tangible in the GDR.

Jazz began to play an important role in cultural life – an extremely popular carnival event Jazz blues ‚mer los! was held in Weimar, where music ranging from boogie woogie to free jazz was played. At the Jazzwerkstatt Peitz, 2,500 people attended a nine-hour jazz marathon with mainly free music in 1979 and 4,000 in 1980. From the mid-1970s, AMIGA released numerous albums with jazz musicians and bands from the GDR; performances by musicians from Western countries were also recorded.[49] Looking back, jazz journalist Bert Noglik notes: “In the course of the 1970s, free jazz (broadly defined) emerged as the most important jazz genre in the development of jazz in the GDR, both in terms of quantity and quality. This statement refers to the musicians, the audience and also to the organizational structure of the concert and touring business. All this is all the more astonishing when one considers that a relatively strong mainstream has always flowed in both eastern and western neighboring regions.”