Ata Berk

Blues session with Dietrich Geldern (left) and Günter Boas (right)

Willy "Ata" Berk (born June 14, 1923 in Frankfurt am Main , † December 17, 1988 there ) was a German drummer of traditional jazz .

Live and act

Berk, who is a self-taught musician , started in the (forbidden) hot club combo in 1943 and played in soldiers' clubs of the US Army after the crackdown on National Socialism . Since the 17th time in 1945 he was allowed to play in the sextet of the Hot Club Frankfurt (with Carlo Bohländer , Paul Martin , Louis Freichel , Hans Otto Jung and Heinz Tischmann) with the permission of the military government "until the curfew at 8 p.m." also for the German audience in Frankfurt Play Tivoli at Goetheplatz. From 1954 he belonged to the Two Beat Stompers , with whom he already worked in the founding phase and now went on tour and performed at jazz festivals in Düsseldorf, Sopot and the New Orleans Festival in Paris. He accompanied Kid Ory on a tour of Germany. He later played with Willy Berking , Dietrich Geldern and the Hot Swingers around Roland Schneider . With the Frankfurt Swing Stars , which also included Gustl Mayer , Conny Jackel and Fritz Hartschuh , he accompanied Claude Williams (TV recording) at the Burghausen Jazz Festival in 1988 . He can be heard on records with the Two Beat Stompers , Bill Ramsey , Benno Walldorf , the Hot Swingers and the Frankfurt Swing All Stars ( Jive at Five , 1988).

Lexical entries

Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler: Reclams Jazzführer (= Reclams Universal Library. No. 10185/10196). Reclam, Stuttgart 1970, ISBN 3-15-010185-9 .
Jürgen Wölfer : Jazz in Germany. The encyclopedia. All musicians and record companies from 1920 until today. Hannibal, Höfen 2008, ISBN 978-3-85445-274-4 .

Individual evidence

↑ cf. The history of the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 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. @1@ 2
↑ Jürgen Schwab The Frankfurt Sound. A city and its jazz history (s). Frankfurt am Main, Societätsverlag 2005, p. 128
↑ Jürgen Schwab The Frankfurt Sound. Frankfurt am Main, Societätsverlag 2005, p. 212
↑ Bayerischer Rundfunk (excerpt on YouTube)

personal data
SURNAME	Berk, Ata
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Berk, Willy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH	June 14, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH	17th December 1988
Place of death	Frankfurt am Main

[1] . The history of the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 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. @1@ 2

[2] Jürgen Schwab The Frankfurt Sound. A city and its jazz history (s). Frankfurt am Main, Societätsverlag 2005, p. 128

[3] Jürgen Schwab The Frankfurt Sound. Frankfurt am Main, Societätsverlag 2005, p. 212

[4] Bayerischer Rundfunk (excerpt on YouTube)