Adalbert Luczkowski

Adalbert Luczkowski (1954)

Adalbert Luczkowski (born December 8, 1900 in Berlin , † March 27, 1971 in Cologne ) was a German conductor and orchestra leader .

First years

At the beginning of 1900 the parents moved from Dresden to Berlin-Reinickendorf , where their son Adalbert was born. His older brother was the later pianist Edmund (* 1899 in Dresden), the younger brother "Waldi" Waldemar (* 1904 in Berlin, † 1952) became a drummer. The highly talented violinist Adalbert "Alli" Luczkowski entered the Berlin Scharwenka Conservatory at the age of nine and played in the Blüthner Orchestra in 1915 , which was located in the "Blüthner Hall" belonging to the Scharwenka Conservatory. From the symphonic music of the Blüthner orchestra, Adalbert Luczkowski finally switched to dance music when he started with Marek Weber's dance orchestra in 1916 . He founded his first own band in 1919. During recordings he appeared for the first time in the line- up of the Mitja Nikisch orchestra in autumn 1929 with brother Waldemar in Nikisch's “symphonic orchestra”, and in autumn 1931 he played with the Royal Orpheans, the band by the Dutch trumpeter Louis de Vries .

After a short stay in Spain from April 1933, he returned to Germany in September 1933. Here he and his brother Waldemar made recordings for Robert Gaden's orchestra in the same month . For Paul Godwin he appeared with his brother on September 16, 1933 in Berlin for recordings ( Twilight / Orient Express ; Electrola EG 2859). Again together with his brother in November 1934 he was a founding member of the pure studio band Die Goldene Sieben , which gained a legendary reputation; Waldemar is considered to be the inventor of the band's name Golden Seven . In 1935 it became the official dance orchestra of the German broadcaster . Both stayed with the septet until August 1939.

War years

Between 1936 and 1941, Adalbert Luczkowski worked on film music for the gramophone and film company as a conductor . Between August 1941 and March 1942 he was involved in the musical support for the troops. When Propaganda Minister Goebbels commissioned the film composer Franz Grothe to found a large orchestra for the performance of modern dance and light music on German radio in September 1941 , Grothe recruited 38 top-class musicians. Georg Haentzschel acted as co-director of the ensemble known as the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra and Horst Kudritzki as assistant . The selection and recruitment of musicians was completed in April 1942. Adalbert Luczkowski was appointed to the string section there, in which he worked as a violinist until May 1945. However, he did not function there - as is sometimes claimed - as concertmaster (that was Kurt Henneberg ). On March 27, 1944, there was a meeting to discipline the orchestra. Luczkowski had distinguished himself here with trumpeter Hendrik Bruyns through opposing heckling.

post war period

He got a position as concertmaster in June 1945 at the Hamburg radio station, where he stayed until October 1945. Between November 1945 and April 1947 he spent with the Bremen Dance Orchestra, from May 1947 he was director of the Frankfurt Radio and Dance Orchestra until October 1947.

On November 13, 1947, he received the post of Kapellmeister of the dance and entertainment orchestra at NWDR Cologne, after separating into two broadcasting companies, he stayed with WDR in Cologne from January 1956 . This dance and entertainment orchestra at WDR was used alongside Kurt Edelhagen on the radio for almost all programs in which music was part of the program design. Instead of the original recordings, it mostly played instrumental in-house productions and quickly gained great popularity. His television appearances with the orchestra began on August 29, 1953 in the television program Stars and Stars from the Apollo Theater (Düsseldorf) .

With his orchestra, Adalbert Luczkowski accompanied numerous pop interpreters on recordings, such as René Carol in Fern von der Heimat und ferne von Dir (1950; EG 7424), The South Wind, which blows (June 1951; EG 7614), Red Roses, Red Lips, Red Wine (recorded on June 8, 1952), which was the first German gold record of the post-war period with over 750,000 copies sold , or Every Night Sounds in Abbazia (March 23, 1954). Luczkowski's orchestra became a record holder among German dance orchestras, as René Carol alone had 92 appearances. His dance orchestra also accompanied Gerhard Wendland ( Der Rote Bill von Golden Hill ; May 1953), Bibi Johns ( Sehnsucht , November 2, 1953, EG 8019; Bella Bimba , October 26, 1953; EG 8020), Eddie Constantine ( Gift of your wife ( but now and then red roses) ) (April 1955; EG 8172), I wish you a sleepless evening (December 1956; EG 8560), Wolfgang Sauer ( So in love , 1954, EG 8144; I call you from a distance , December 1955 , EG 8554), Peter Alexander ( In Sorrent / Nicolo, Nicolo, Nicolino 1953, Austroton 9594V; It was in Napoli many, many years ago , June 1, 1954, Austroton 9615V), Caterina Valente ( Come along to Italy for a bit , October 18, 1955, Polydor 50116; Melodie D'Amore , January 29, 1957, Polydor 50520), Fred Bertelmann ( Arreviderci Roma / Wedding Day , September 30, 1955, EG 8527; The Pearl Diver from Santa Margerita , June 30, 1956, EG 8620), Margot Eskens ( In the small café , February 1957, Polydor 24361), Angèle Durand ( Adieu Monsieur / So is Paris , September 1956, EG 8617; from the film Oh-la-la Cherie , premiere in France: March 28, 1956), Udo Jürgens ( Where may love be , B-side of Jenny ; September 1960, Polydor 66819) or Bill Ramsey's number one hit Pigalle (The Great Mousetrap) (January 6, 1961).

Own recordings and participation in films

Obviously since 1953 the orchestra has also made its own recordings. These include, above all, Rumba Tambah (December 21, 1953; EG 8035), Eine Melodie geht um die Welt (March 1954; Polydor 22179), Diamantina (April 1956; Phillips 344 789), Picadilly-Lilly (May 1959; Polydor 24 008 ), Peter Stuyvesant-Marsch (May 1960; Polydor 24 219) or Tschiou, Tschiou (1960). In the movie Southern Nights (premiere: December 8, 1953) he played the band leader of an orchestra. It was followed by So a Millionaire Has It Hard (December 18, 1958) and Salem Aleikum (December 3, 1959).

Adalbert Luczkowski led the WDR dance orchestra until his retirement in December 1965. Luczkowski retired on January 1, 1966 and died five years later in Cologne.

Web links

• Dagmar Luczkowski about her father Adalbert Luczkowski

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jürgen Wölfer, Jazz in Deutschland , 2008, p. 216
2. ↑ Martin Lücke, Jazz im Totalitarismus , 2004, p. 96
3. ↑ Axel Jockwer, Popular Music in the Third Reich , 2005, p. 507 f.
4. ↑ Manfred J. Franz, German Music Charts 1954 , 2012, p. 18