Hans Koller

This article deals with the jazz musician and painter. For other people see Hans Koller (disambiguation) .

Hans (Antonio Hans Cyrill) Koller (* February 12, 1921 in Vienna ; † December 22, 2003 ibid) was one of the most famous Austrian jazz musicians and also an art painter in an abstract manner. In addition to the tenor saxophone, he also played sopranino , soprano saxophone and clarinets .

Live and act

Hans Koller was born in Vienna on February 12, 1921. His father encouraged his son's desire to play the saxophone. His role model at the time was the sound of a Lester Young. Due to his talent and previous knowledge, the then 14-year-old Koller was accepted into the fifth semester of the Vienna Music Academy.

In 1941, when he was 20, he was called up for military service. He got into American captivity, where he founded a camp band. After returning from captivity, he founded the Hot Club Vienna in Vienna in 1946 .

Due to the poor performance and income opportunities for jazz musicians in Austria, he went to Germany in 1950. There he played the tenor saxophone in the band of the swing drummer Freddie Brocksieper in Munich and shortly afterwards founded his own quartet with the pianist Jutta Hipp , the double bass player Shorty Roeder and the drummer Karl Sanner . This cool jazz- oriented band, in which Albert Mangelsdorff achieved early fame, quickly became one of the most famous ensembles of modern jazz in Germany.

In 1953 he made recordings for the American record label Discovery . He was the first European jazz musician to receive five stars, the highest award , in the American music magazine Down Beat . In the same year he was on tour with his "Hans Koller New Jazz Stars" and the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie . At the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in 1954 he played the chamber music fuguette in duo with the pianist Roland Kovac . In 1956 Koller was on a European tour with the American alto saxophonist Lee Konitz and the baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin .

In 1957/58 he was a member and soloist in Eddie Sauter's orchestra . After an engagement with the Südwestfunk -Orchester in Baden-Baden , he formed a new band in 1958 with guitarist Attila Zoller , bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Kenny Clarke . “Blues in the Closet” was her best-known piece. Around 1958 Koller played together with Duke Ellington in the studio of Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in Villingen-Schwenningen .

At the first pan-European jazz festival in Antibes in 1960 , Hans Koller was honored as the best soloist. From 1958 to 1965 he was in charge of the NDR jazz workshop in Hamburg . During these years he also worked as a film composer and took over the musical direction of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg for the 1968/69 season . In 1961 Koller became a member of the "European All Stars" and played with Tete Montoliu , Monica Zetterlund and Dusko Goykovich , among others . In 1965 he received the highest award (five stars) in the Down Beat for the second time for the record "ZO-KO-SO" with Attila Zoller and Martial Solal .

Despite numerous offers from America, he preferred to stay in Europe. He played with many internationally recognized jazz musicians, such as B. Benny Goodman and his orchestra at the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels , the three Austrian pianists Joe Zawinul , Fritz Pauer and Roland Kovac, the trumpeter Chet Baker , with the tenor saxophonist and big band leader Bill Holman , with the tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh ( 1984) and Zoot Sims (1958), in Stan Kenton's big band , Bill Russo , with baritone saxophonist Ronnie Ross . Building on these experiences, he was able to vary his music styles throughout his life.

As an “ onomatopoeia ”, Hans Koller managed a primarily “unmusical” approach to onomatopoeia with certain colors and shades. He later formed the early fusion group Free Sound (with, among others, Zbigniew Seifert , Albert Mair , Adelhard Roidinger or Jürgen Wuchner and Janusz Stefański ) and can today be assigned to an abstract modern classic .

In 1993 the Wiener Musik Galerie in the Wiener Konzerthaus organized the three-day festival Hans Koller - The Man Who Plays Jazz , at which Koller's dazzling personality was shown again in all its many facets. For example, his compositions such as the Hommage à Jean Cocteau (1968) or Eleven / Four (1967) were performed by long-time colleagues such as William Russo , Kenny Wheeler , Jimmy Raney and Koller himself, as well as the bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi and the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as a contributor. The program book for this festival includes a. the first comprehensive Hans Koller biography.

In 1996 the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture donated the Hans Koller Prize , Austria's highest award for jazz musicians, in Koller's honor .

Koller was buried at Vienna's Central Cemetery Group 41F, Row 8, No. 1 in an honorary grave.

Awards

• 1986 Gold Medal for Services to the State of Vienna
• 1993 Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class

Discography (selection)

• Freddie Brocksieper Orchestra: Alt Shot Gun Boogie ( Bear Family Records , 1948–1952)
• Hans Koller: Hans Is Hip ( Discovery Records , 1952)
• Hans Koller: Hans Koller New Jazz Stars 1954 ( Mod , 1954)
• Hans Koller: Joachim Ernst Berendt Presents Hans Koller - The Musician of the Year 1955 (Mod, 1955)
• Hans Koller New Stars: German Jazz Festival 1954/1955 (Bear Family Records, 1954/1955)
• Hans Koller: Some Winds (2 CD - RST, 1954–1955)
• Oscar Pettiford Quartet: Vienna Blues ( Black Lion Records , 1959)
• Hans Koller Quartet: Multiple Koller (L + R, 1962)
• Oscar Pettiford Quartet: Various Artists - Artistry In Jazz (Black Lion, 1960)
• Klaus Doldinger & NDR-Workshop: Doldingers Best ( ACT Records , 1964)
• Hans Koller & The International Brass Company (L + R, 1979)
• Attila Zoller & Hans Koller: The K & K in New York (L + R, 1979)
• Hans Koller & The International Brass Company: Live At The Jazz Festival Frankfurt (L + R, 1980)
• Bernd Konrad - Hans Koller Unit: Phonolith (HatOLOGY, 1980/1994)
• Hans Koller - Minor Meetings 1958 (Rare and previously unreleased recording (LP, CD), Sonorama Records 2014)

Quotes

“ I was a walker and didn't know anything about art. My father was a locksmith at the gas works, he said, Koller can spun, he's a Kaiser. When I was nineteen, Hans had g'numma in his band in Munich. Then he threw me out. Rightly. I was no net guat gnua. Hans is my mentor. He was the most famous jazz musician in Europe and is now one of the greatest artists in Austria. He and Ben Webster were the biggest drinkers I've known.
Hansi, can you remember that you drank a hundred cognac at a time .
Koller: "They were Steinhäger ".
The Hans is incredible, he is a kind of human being. "

- Joe Zawinul, 1987

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Koller in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hans Koller Prize
• Bert Noglik: Pioneer of European Jazz: Hans Koller (1921–2003) , Jazzzeitung, 2006/02, page 14.
• Koller on SRA
• Hans Koller at Discogs (English)

References and comments

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ AllAboutMusic portrait of Hans Koller (1921–2003) ( Memento of the original dated November 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ With Gerry Weinkopf (fl), Albert Mangelsdorff (tb), Peter Trunk (b), Conny Jackel (tp), Joki Freund (tuba), Joe Nay (dr), Ingfried Hoffmann (keyb), Emil Mangelsdorff (as) and Rolf Kühn (cl) formed Koller as the German All Stars in 1958
4. ^ Hans Koller in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
5. ^ "A Tribute To Hans Koller" ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Jazz & Music Club Porgy & Bess