Gerd Köthe

Gerd Köthe (born April 13, 1943 in Großfurra ; † January 12, 2014 in Winterkasten ) was a German music producer and composer .

biography

Gerd Köthe studied in Frankfurt at Dr. Hoch's Conservatory and at the Badische Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe. His instruments were flute and saxophone. During his studies, he got to know the guitarist Hans Lingenfelder, with whom he then played in various bands, including five years with the Karlsruhe Moonlights . In the early 1970s he became a member of Joy Fleming's band and was featured on many Joy Unlimited albums with and without the singer as a musician and songwriter. There he met Roland Heck, organist and head of the band. In addition, Köthe was also active as a solo saxophonist under the stage name Cisco Silver .

In 1973, Hans Lingenfelder alias " Ricky King " also became a member of the band that was already performing without Joy Fleming. Three years later, Köthe and Heck decided to produce a guitar instrumental album together with Lingenfelder. With the Oliver Onions Cover Verde from 1976 and Le Rêve , written together in the same year , they reached the top ten twice as Ricky King in Germany, Austria and Switzerland . Until the 1990s, Köthe and Heck produced numerous albums for Ricky King that were successful in the charts.

This made the two of them interesting for other German-speaking musicians and they then worked with Paola , Denny Blue, Ute Berling, Costa Cordalis , Ivan Rebroff , Daliah Lavi , Deborah Sasson , Peter Alexander , Gunther Emmerlich , Ulrich Herkenhoff , Mara Kayser , Wolfgang Edenharder , Gaby Albrecht , Siegfried Jerusalem and Erkan Aki as producers and also as songwriters. The collaboration with tenor and rock singer Peter Hofmann , with whom several chart albums were recorded, including the number one album Rock Classics in 1982, was particularly successful . The productions by Köthe and Heck have received numerous gold and platinum awards .

In the 1990s, the two began working with television as well. They were responsible for the music for ARD reporting at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. They produced music for TV shows from 1000 voices, 1000 sounds to the DJ bobo show . In addition, there was TV music for programs such as Magical Home and Alpine Melody and an identification melody for aspects . They also supported music projects such as Wunderland with André Heller , the Versailles choir project and the brass project Pomp & Brass with Guildo Horn . In 2011 they produced a new version of the musical The Phantom of the Opera together with Deborah Sasson .

With Castle Studios, the two producers operated their own music studio in Grasellenbach, Hesse, and published through their own publishers Blue Ocean Music and Super Nova .

Gerd Köthe died of an embolism on January 12, 2014 .

Discography

album

• Saxophone Explosion (as Cisco Silver, 1978)

swell

1. ^ Insert of the LP Minne by Joy Unlimited, new edition from 2015
2. ^ Ricky King 2000 - The Interview , by Karl-Heinz-Villis, Homepage Ricky King, accessed on January 17, 2014
3. ^ The Ricky King Story , Karl-Heinz-Villis, Homepage Ricky King, accessed on January 17, 2014
4. ↑ Mystical figure in a world of love and passion - world star Deborah Sasson shows new version of the Phantom of the Opera  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Michael Hörskens, Frankfurt live, January 5, 2011  
5. ↑ Composer and producer Gerd Köthe died unexpectedly ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2014 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. , Music Market, January 17, 2014 
6. ↑ Cisco Silver at discogs

Web links

• Official website of Roland Heck and Gerd Köthe
• Discography at hitparade.ch
• Gerd Köthe at Discogs (English)