German jazz

The development of jazz in Germany and its public notice differs in several respects from the "motherland" of jazz, the USA.

The 20s

One of the first books with the word "jazz" in the title origins from Germany. Paul Bernhard relates in his book Jazz - eine musikalische Zeitfrage (Jazz - a musical issue) of 1927 , the term Jazz to a specific dance. In the "Tanzmanie" (dance mania) of the post-war period, there were not only modern dances as tango and foxtrot, but 1920 also Shimmy and 1922 the Two-step; in 1925 the Charleston dominated the dance halls. In 1917 in the United States the first recorded jazz title was the "Tiger Rag" and it was in January 1920 already marketed by a german record company. As early as in the 20s the clarinetist and saxophonist Eric Borchard played own recordings, which were comparable to the American jazz greats. But from 1920 to 1923 within economic turmoil and inflation, larger german jazz orchestras, that played the new jazz dances were a rarity. Initially a trio with a pianist, a drummer and a "Stehgeiger" (standing violonist), who also served the saxophone, were more often. Only after 1924 an economic stability has been achieved and the economic basis for larger dance orchestras was given, which now Bernard Etté, Dajos Béla, Marek Weber and Stefan Weintraub founded . It was the predominant element of improvisation in this country, where people have always played on concrete writen notes, that lacked of understanding. Marek Weber, for example, demonstratively left the podium if its nightly band played jazz interludes.

In the 20's Jazz in Germany was primarily a fad/fashion. The "Salonorchester" turned to the new style, because dancers wanted so. Already in 1924 the first jazz on the radio was played; after 1926, when in Berlin Paul Whiteman had a sensational success regular radio programs were broadcasted with jazz, that was played live. His music was available also on record and there existed sheet music editions. Musicians from many musical backgrounds, composers of classical music concerts such as Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek and Kurt Weill, turned to the new music genre that came form America and incorporated it in their musical language. For the classical composers, the orchestral casts, the timbre, syncope, and the blues harmonies of jazz were a synonym for the modern era. This new music genre was recognised not only as a fashion and entertainment music, but as real art. However, already 1927 the composer Karol Rathaus called it somewhat premature a „Jazzdämmerung“ ("twilight Jazz" or jazz dawn/dusk) and Theodor W. Adorno spoke negatively about the Jazz : It being part of the art industry .

Years of National Socialism

In neighboring European countries the trend continued in the 1930s. Fan magazines were created for jazz there and so-called "hot clubs" gathered. However, the Nazi regime pursued and banned the broadcasting of jazz on the radio. Partly because of the African roots of jazz and because many of the active jazz musicians were of Jewish origin. On the other hand, because of in a certain way this music handels with individuality and freedom. An anti-jazz radio broadcast From the Cake Walk to Hot should have deterrent effect with "particularly insisting musical examples" .

In 1950 Helmut Zacharias won the jazz-Poll of AFN Frankfurt as the best jazz violinist.

From 1937 American musicians in Europe stopped with their programs at the German borders. Admittedly, in spite of persecution it was, at least in major cities, still possible , to buy jazz records until the beginning of the war, however the further development and the contacts with the American Jazz World were largely interrupted. Officially the "Reichsmusikkammer" (Reichs Music Chamber) supported dance music that bore some traits of the Swing. But listening to foreign stations, which regularly played jazz, was presented under penalty from 1939 on.

At that time, in Germany only a relatively small number of people knew, how the jazz music sounded like in America - at that time, the swing - and that it is Jazz. There were even pieces developed and produced newly and given a new text by the Nazis in special studios. One example is the song "Black Bottom", that was presented as "Schwarzer Boden". For some Germans the banned foreign stations with jazz programs were very popular. The stations of the allied were on one hand disturbed, but also copied by the Nazis. The band Charlie and His Orchestra is considered as a negative example, also called Mr. Goebbels Jazz Band. Here the Nazis replaced the original texts with their own provocative propaganda texts.

The situation intensified in 1942 with the entry of the United States in the war. For diplomats of foreign embassies and Wehrmacht members a couple of jazz clubs continued to be remained open in Berlin. In addition, there were individual, not legitimate venues and private parties, where jazz was played. In 1943 the record production was stopped. Charlie and His Orchestra was moved in the still bombproof province.

Postwar period and'50s

In the post-war period after nearly 20 years of isolation many music fans as well as the musicians were very interested in the movements of jazz they had missed. In the jazz clubs the jazz lovers played at each other important records even before they could organize concerts. Especially in the American section of occupation the post-war jazz could develop well. Berlin, Bremen and Frankfurt were centers of jazz. Young german musicians could perorm before a larger audience in american GI-venues. In the 1950s in the western Federal Republic in numerous cities "Existencial" jazz cellars (Existence in the french way of philosophy) emerged after the model of Paris.

American jazz musicians were heard at the Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts and at events in the major concert halls in western Germany. In the clubs local musicians played primarily. In order to raise the level of cultural recognition concert tours by the German Jazz Federation (a merger of the clubs) were increasingly organised. As long as to the end of the '50s the german jazz scene was strongly fixated on to imitate the american jazz and regain the missed development. However, from 1954 on there were first gentle steps of detachment from this musical role model in West Germany. Therefore the quintet of pianist and composer Jutta Hipp played a central role. This formation included the saxophonist Emil Mangelsdorff and Joki Freund, who also wrote instrumental compositions. Although Hipp's music was heavily oriented to american role models, she impressed the American jazz critic by their sovereign and independent performances. The peculiarity of her music was an asymmetrical melody in the improvisations, the beginning and end located to unusual places.

Albert Mangelsdorff, here is much older than in the year 1960

The rhythmic accented and rhythmically innovative Bebop had heyday in America until the mid-50's. With it, the German musicians were not acustomed, unlike the Cool Jazz booming in the'50s. The Cool Jazz was less explosive, more soft and slow, with an emphasis on brass melodies, and its interaction, as well as the tone, was preferred by the western musicians .

The DDR-Staatsführung (German Democtratic Republic [GDR]) appraised the Jazz more and more skeptical because of its american roots. Karl Heinz Drechsel was dismissed as employee of the GDR broadcasting in 1952 because of his fondness for the Jazz and , only in 1958 he could organize jazz broadcasts again. The founder of the jazz group Leipzig, Reginald Rudorf, held well-attended lectures on jazz, which explained also the culture of the United States. But they were stopped with disruptive actions by the state security organization ("Staatssicherheit"). In 1957 the Dresdner Interessengemeinschaft Jazz (community interested in jazz) was prohibited in connection with the trial of the regime against Rudorf, as a suspected spy.

While the DDR-Tanzorchester (dance orchestra) still played a few Swing numbers, it was the Modern Jazz which hardly could be integrated in the dance combos, that was officially seen critical. It was branded even later by André Asriel as "snobbistic Jazz" .

The 60s

On television of the Federal Republic the great American musicians were introduced at prime time. About in 1960 for the first time the interest of western music producers ended to record musicians like Wolfgang Lauth; jazz music seemed to be no longer a good sale. Still later in 1964 Horst Lippmann had noted : "The German record industry neglected all modern German jazz musicians and only occasionally presented records with amateur Dixieland bands in the area. No German record company seems to be prepared on the artistic obligation to publish the modern german jazz appropriate as it is the case in the field of symphonic and chamber music. "As if this appeal had been heard and has found a new generation of jazz producers like Siegfried Loch, and Hans-Georg Brunner Schwer to come up, records of Klaus Doldinger, Albert Mangelsdorff, but also by Attila Zoller or Wolfgang Dauner came onto the market shortly thereafter .

The best-known jazz groups in West Germany 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). 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 growing popularity Doldinger and Mangelsdorff could also perform abroad and publish records. Naura had to retire from active life as musician because of illness , and became redacteur of the Jazz part of the NDR (Northern German Broadcast). For the GDR the Manfred Ludwig sextet has to be mentioned firstly for a long time the only band, which turned to the style of modern jazz.

The 70s

The 1970s were marked by the globalization and commercialization of the german jazz circuit. Jazz was combined with various other music genres. Successful jazz musicians like Klaus Doldinger, Volker Kriegel and the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble followed this flow in the direction of rock music in the FRG. At the same time, younger musicians like Herbert Joos, Alfred Harth or Theo Jörgensmann stepped into public acknowledgemnet and they excited the attention of the jazz scene with their music. It is noteworthy that the German musicians arrived an acceptance at the local audience just as good as american jazz musicians The Theo Jörgensmann quartet, for example, was even in the Best of Lists of Popular Music in the Music-Yearbook Rock Session. Also acoustic-romantic performances by Joachim Kühn and other pianists like Rainer Brüninghaus came into fashion. In Moers and other western german places festivals emerged that focussed on these new developments of the jazz.

After 1970, the mighty ministries of the GDR state gave up their reserved attitude towards the jazz music and "explained" that jazz became an integral part of GDR culture politics. Klaus Lenz and the Modern Soul band found its own way to the Fusion of rock and jazz music. In the GDR especially in free jazz musicians developed an own gesture and improvised first on apparently GDR-spezific material in a way that the idea of an "Eisler Weill Folk-Free jazz" could arise abroad. The self-assertion was pronounced stronger than in western Germany. Among the better-known artists of this era Conny Bauer and Ulrich Gumpert (Zentralquartett), Manfred Hering and Guenter "Baby" Sommer were included. This music communicated 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 cristallized to be the form of the major direction of practice and its majority passes and exists both in quantitative and in qualitative respects. This statement refers to the musicians, the audience and also on 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 always flowed a relatively strong mainstream music. "

Eberhard Weber

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 Cour Bois, stepped on the german jazz scene and also performed many concerts in the "province". Free jazz, without compomises could be herard from Manfred Schoof quintet (Voices) and an octet by Peter Brötzmann (Machine Gun). Especially in the smaller towns of western Germany the jazz music clubs disappeared with the advent of the Beat. From the mid-1960s in the GDR, the trio of Joachim Kühn- he migrated in the West in 1966 - and Friedhelm Schönfeld, and Manfred Schulze found their own ways into free jazz.

The 80s

In the years of the 80s the jazz audience, as well as the jazz scene divided in in many different directions in West Germany . There were formations with both traditional repertory, the various currents of free jazz and fusion music, a turning to Neobop but also style elements that hinted to the Modern Creative, and the neo-classical jazz. A new interest awakened for the work of Big Bands. Jazz arrangers like Peter Herbolzheimer raised this genre in Germany on an international level. New venues were opened in middle sized cities. Due to the large number of different directions of jazz styles such concerts were poorly attended , especially in the larger cities.

On the other hand in the GDR it remained clearly laid out. In addition to a comparatively wide Dixieland scene in the area and in the mainstream jazz of american style, free improvisational music developed here in a way that Fred Van Hove (later relativated) spoke misguidingly of the, "Promised Land of Improvised Music" .

The 90s until today

Known by its comedy with jazz sounds: Helge Schneider

In the year 1992 the Jazz researcher Ekkehard Jost remarked two basic trends of the jazz scene: jazz as a repertoire music and jazz in stable and dynamic development. The latter lives from musical practice and is based on the origins of jazz. In the 90 years even more than in the 80s, the marketing of music styles dominated the music business. In particular, the jazz was affected. In addition, between East and West Germany an alignment of styles occurred, clearly much to the detriment of the East German jazz culture. In the course of time, elements of jazz were often integrated into other styles like hip-hop, and later in Drum 'n' Bass and others. These results were assessed as Acid Jazz or as NuJazz if there is sufficient jazz participation. Today Jazz can be found in many known and unknown musical productions, in German Hip-Hop, House, Drum 'n' Bass, in some dance music, and many other styles of music.

A well-known entertainer knew it, how to integrate the jazz on his own way into his comedy art: Helge Schneider. Thus he hit the nerve of the consumers. And Helge Schneider is probably contrary to his reputation as a comedian, a professional, talented jazzman.

Another known German jazz musician and entertainer is Götz Alsmann.The trumpeter Till Brönner is also successful. In addition to Brönner there are a number of other jazz musicians who established in the entertainment scene with jazz. However, it's not only these musicians who work as jazz musicians sometimes under difficult conditions in Germany, and who create the Jazz in its diversity.

Places on television for jazz are rare now. Jazz clubs and other venues still have to face the difficulty that the visitors situation is, at least, difficult to predict and often changes dramatically. Often the younger audience stays away. Even for tax purposes (so-called "Ausländersteuer" i.e. foreigner tax), the major international musicians, in particular the Modern Creative, who play in Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy and France, increasingly skip Germany on their routes and tours.

Known Jazz events (selection)

• JazzFest Berlin
• Total Music Meeting
• Internationales Dixieland-Festival Dresden
• Leipziger Jazztage

Numerous other Jazz festivals exist in Germany.

German books on "Jazz in Gemany"

• Rainer Bratfisch (Pb., 2005): Freie Töne : die Jazzszene der DDR. Berlin: Ch. Links
• Mathias Brüll (2003): Jazz auf AMIGA - Die Jazz-Schallplatten des AMIGA-Labels von 1947 bis 1990. Zusammenstellung von Mathias Brüll. (RMudHwiW / Pro Business Berlin - ISBN 3-937343-27-X)
• Rainer Dollase, Michael Rüsenberg, Hans J. Stollenwerk (1978): Das Jazzpublikum : zur Sozialpsychologie einer kulturellen Minderheit. Mainz, London, New York, Tokyo : Schott
• E. Dieter Fränzel/Jazz AGe Wuppertal (Pb.) (2006): Sounds like Whoopataal. Wuppertal in der Welt des Jazz. Essen : Klartext
• Frank Getzuhn (2006): Wandeljahre öffentlicher Lerngeschichte zum Jazz in Deutschland von 1950 - 1960 : Lernangebote und Lernen in Zeitschriften und Sachbüchern zum Jazz. Berlin : wvb Wiss. Verl.
• Bernfried Höhne (1991): Jazz in der DDR : eine Retrospektive. Frankfurt am Main : Eisenbletter und Naumann
• Ekkehard Jost (1987): Europas Jazz : 1960 - 1980. Frankfurt a.M. : Fischer paperback
• Michael H. Kater (1995): Gewagtes Spiel. Jazz im Nationalsozialismus. (A Ventorous Game. Jazz in the National Socialism) Köln : Kiepenheuer & Witsch
• Wolfram Knauer (1986, Pb.): Jazz in Deutschland. Darmstädter Beiträge zur Jazzforschung 5. Hofheim : Wolke Verlag
• Horst H. Lange (1996) Jazz in Deutschland : die deutsche Jazz-Chronik bis 1960. Hildesheim ; Zürich ; New York : Olms-Presse (2. run)
• Martin Lücke (2004): Jazz im Totalitarismus : eine komparative Analyse des politisch motivierten Umgangs mit dem Jazz während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus und des Stalinismus. Münster: Lit
• Rainer Michalke (Hg., 2004): Musik life – Die Spielstätten für Jazz und Aktuelle Musik in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Essen: Klartext Verlag
• Bert Noglik (1978): Jazz im Gespräch. Berlin (DDR) : Verlag Neue Musik, ders. (1992): Swinging DäDäRä. Die Zeit, 8. Mai 1992, S. 60
• Bruno Paulot (1993): Albert Mangelsdorff : Gespräche. Waakirchen: Oreos
• Fritz Rau (2005): 50 Jahre Backstage : Erinnerungen eines Konzertveranstalters. Heidelberg: Palmyra
• Werner Josh Sellhorn (2005): Jazz - DDR - Fakten : Interpreten, Diskographien, Fotos, CD. Berlin Neunplus 1
• Fritz Schmücker (1993): Das Jazzkonzertpublikum : das Profil einer kulturellen Minderheit im Zeitvergleich. Münster ; Hamburg : Lit
• Werner Schwörer (1990): Jazzszene Frankfurt : eine musiksoziologische Untersuchung zur Situation anfangs der achtziger Jahre. Mainz ; London ; New York ; Tokyo : Schott
• Dita von Szadkowski Auf schwarz-weißen Flügeln Focus Verlag 1983 ISBN 388 349 3074
• Jürgen Wölfer (im Erscheinen): Jazz in Deutschland : Das Lexikon - Alle Musiker und Plattenfirmen von 1920 bis heute.
• Robert von Zahn (1999): Jazz in Nordrhein-Westfalen seit 1946. Köln: Emons; ders. (1998): Jazz in Köln seit 1945 : Konzertkultur und Kellerkunst. Köln : Emons-Verlag
• Mike Zwerin (1988): La tristesse de Saint Louis : Swing unter den Nazis. Wien : Hannibal

Magazines in german language to the topic Jazz

• Jazz Echo
• Jazzpodium
• Jazzthetik
• Jazz thing
• Jazz Zeit
• Jazz Zeitung

Jazz clubs

• Henkelmann, Iserlohn
• Domicil, Dortmund