Hugo Strasser

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Hugo Strasser (2013)

Hugo Strasser (born April 7, 1922 in Munich-Schwabing ; † March 17, 2016 in Munich-Trudering ) was a swing and jazz musician from the very beginning in Germany after the Second World War. His orchestra Hugo Strasser was known for its dance music , especially through the album series Dance Record of the Year and the musical tone and beat of many dance world championships .

biography

Strasser's father Simon, a civil servant caretaker of the Amali school (today's foreign language institute of the state capital Munich ), came from a farming family in Jetzendorf , his mother from Schrobenhausen . Strasser made his first public appearance at the age of seven on the radio of the German hour in Bavaria , the forerunner of the Bavarian radio . He played Grandmother's song on his harmonica . At the age of 16 he came to the Academy of Music in Munich. In his eighth semester (1940) he was drafted into the Wehrmacht. However, he did not have to take an active part in the war as a soldier, but played with soldiers' bands in Stettin and later in the Ruhr area. After the war he played jazz music in American clubs in Munich and other Bavarian cities, including from June 1945 to December 1945 in the Upper House in Passau for the US infantry division there . From 1949 he worked as a saxophonist and clarinetist in 1948 founded the Max Greger - sextet , which was later expanded to a dance orchestra.

In 1955 he founded his own 16-piece dance orchestra, the Hugo Strasser Orchestra , with which he performed at numerous ball events until 2016, including the carnival balls in the Deutsches Theater in Munich , and which continued after his death. The last ball that Hugo Strasser played in the Deutsches Theater was the Ball der Sterne on January 30, 2016. Crucial to Strasser's success was his sound, which was created by the clarinet being the first - similar to the Glenn Miller movement Trumpet was usually doubled an octave lower and was of course also used as a soloist. Strasser's clarinet was the “voice” of his orchestra. A great advantage for this famous Strasser sound was that his arrangers were always musicians of his orchestra. The tenor saxophonist Werner Tauber, who died in 2001, the trombonist Hans Ehrlinger (1931–2010), the trumpeter Etienne Cap and the guitarist Dirk Schweppe, who died in 2012, deserve special mention . In 2008 the orchestra consisted of Strasser's clarinet, five saxophones, three trumpets , three trombones , keyboard , guitar , bass and drums . Although the orchestra has existed for more than five decades, there have been hardly any personnel changes. The first alto saxophonist and clarinetist Hans Wolf (* 1927) led Strasser's saxophone setting from 1957 to 2009, his successor was Werner Bernklau.

Already in 1956 Strasser accompanied the first dance tournaments together with his orchestra. In the decades that followed, he and his band professionalized dance music. Ballroom and Latin American dancers and dancers loved his music. In dance tournament circles he was unsurpassed as the best dance orchestra in the world. The dance sport legends and 13-time world champions Bill and Bobbie Irvine explained: “When Hugo Strasser stands on his clarinet accompanied by his orchestra at the microphone and we dance to his sounds, we feel as if we are floating across the floor. For us, Hugo Strasser is the best dance bandmaster in the world! ”. Strasser was also particularly successful with the production of the dance record of the year .

With his orchestra he appeared in the ZDF entertainment show Musik ist Trumpf with Peter Frankenfeld and in numerous TV programs with Lou van Burg such as We make music , sing with me - dance with me and everything goes better with music . Together with Dieter Hildebrandt and Klaus Havenstein , Hugo Strasser and his orchestra took to the stage in the legendary New Year's Eve cabaret Schimpf in front of the laughing and shooting company in the 1960s and 1970s .

Hugo Strasser was also successful as a composer and arranger. Well over 500 melodies come from his pen.

On the occasion of a concert on his 65th birthday, Strasser founded the formation Hot Five . In addition to Strasser, the cast included Martin Schmid (bass), Uwe Gehring (guitar), Ladia Base (piano and arrangement) and Werner Schmitt (drums).

Since 2000 he toured with Max Greger († 2015) and Paul Kuhn († 2013) as swing legends with the SWR - Bigband u. a. with A Tribute to Glenn Miller through the country. Strasser continued to tour regularly with Greger. In January 2009 he gave a concert with Max Greger and Bill Ramsey as swing legends in the Stuttgart Liederhalle. Guest stars were the Kessler twins . In 2013 he gave a concert with the Aichach swing band Crazy Oak Big Band , the concert came about after a birthday greeting. Hugo Strasser played from the 1955/1956 ball season to 2016 for a total of 60 years in the Deutsches Theater in Munich and in many other places throughout Germany at ball evenings with his dance orchestra. In 2016, just a few weeks before his 94th birthday, Strasser took part in the ball night in the Deutsches Theater, as he had for many years. It had its last appearance on February 28, 2016 in Unterhaching. Hugo Strasser died on March 17, 2016 of complications from bladder cancer. He was buried anonymously in a Kempten cemetery.

Works

In the list of his works, the series Tanzplatte des Jahres , which he produced from 1966 to 1996, should be mentioned above all . The first album in this series in 1965 did not have a year in the title, but since the concept was received extremely successfully in dance sports circles, "The dance record of the year 1966/67" was released a year later, followed by a new edition every year . Until 1977 Strasser also had the exclusive right to a “Dance Record of the Year”, after which there were other records authorized by ADTV, among others by Max Greger and Günter Noris. In 1996, Hugo Strasser's “Dancing 2000” was the last album in this series. A few best-of CDs were released after 1996, but its heyday was over. A curiosity was the album What I wanted to say ... (1989). On it Strasser could actually be heard as a singer, with songs about himself, life and his hometown Munich. There was even a single with the song I can ned dance (Strasser flirted all his life with the fact that he always got out of step when dancing).

Among the best-known titles recorded by Strasser are definitely You're the Cream in My Coffee ( Quickstep ) from tournament dance trumps ; So What's New (a melody by Bert Kaempfert ), as well as the catchy Wild Cat Blues , also a quickstep that prominently presents Strasser's clarinet, can be found at ARD Masters Gala '92 (the song was also the music to accompany a 70s break film by Hessian broadcast with kittens crawling around in half-open hr cubes).

He also remained loyal to swing and jazz. B. through appearances in quintets , his so-called Hot Five , of which there are also CDs.

Occasionally he also composed film music like 1964 for Das Mädel aus dem Böhmerwald with Gerlinde Locker .

Discography

  • Chic dance music (1962/63 ?; fashion dances like Letkiss and Madison)
  • Tournament Dance Trumps (1963)
  • The dance record of the year (30 pieces; 1966 to 1996; since 1982 as a digital recording, since 1984 also as a CD)
  • Das Goldene Tanzalbum 1–4 (1967–1968; Part 1: Valencia - The Roaring 20s ; Part 2: In the Mood - Melody and Rhythm ; Part 3: Why must years go by - ever-young film hits ; Part 4: Yesterday - Vom Twist to the beat )
  • The Golden House Party Album 1-3 (1968)
  • With Hugo Strasser in 3/4 time (1968)
  • World Dance Championships 1970 (1970)
  • Hit Movies for Dancing (1970)
  • Dance test record (1971/72 ?; cross-section from his first records, fold-out cover for the ADTV dance badge, which was just introduced at the time )
  • Tanzhits '71 (1972; beat and rock tracks)
  • Romantic Party (1972; Strasser in a cuddly sound, which aroused a lot of protest among his fans because they wanted to dance to his music and not sit on the sofa and listen; the next such 'softened' record, The Dancing Clarinet , still sounded relative cuddly, but was danceable again except for one title. It was the first LP with an English, internationally marketable title, as Strasser was now in demand from America to Japan )
  • Olympia-Ball (1972; specially composed title for the Olympic Games in Sapporo and Munich )
  • Swinging Christmas (1973, famous Christmas carols)
  • The Dancing Clarinet (1973; traditionals from all over the world in a strict rhythm)
  • The Golden Dance Shoe (1974; opera melodies for dancing; Strasser received this extremely rare award for his services to dance music and dance sport)
  • Der Goldene Tanzschuh (1986; music from the ZDF broadcast of the same name; favorite titles of the award winners such as Irvine, Trautz, Beer, Wessel-Therhorn or Führer; effectively a cut from Strasser records 1963–1986)
  • What I wanted to say ... (1989; Hugo Strasser sings)
  • Dance! Dance! Dance! (1990; Peter Kreuder Melodies)
  • ARD Masters Gala '92 (1992)
  • So what's new? Single with MC Matuschke and the Bananafishbones (2001)

Awards

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Hugo Strasser  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Veronika Beer: The clarinet has fallen silent. Mourning for Hugo Strasser ( memento from September 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). "Hugo Strasser last lived with his longtime partner Eva Gehring-Pantelli in Munich-Trudering, where he also died." March 18, 2016, in: br.de , accessed on March 30, 2016.
  2. ↑ Jutta Czeguhn: Maxvorstadt - Biography of a special school. Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 28, 2020, accessed on March 1, 2020 .
  3. ^ Everything swing - Hugo Strasser on his 90th birthday . Bavarian radio . March 25, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  4. ↑ Christian Mayer: The born clarinetist [1] . Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 17, 2010
  5. ^ Report of the evening show of October 21, 2013 ( Memento of October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on the pages of Bavarian television
  6. ↑ Crazy Oak Big Band with Hugo Strasser . Bayerischer Rundfunk on youtube . October 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  7. ^ The ball night with Hugo Strasser . German Theater Munich . January 23, 2016. Accessed March 5, 2016. Note: Strasser can be seen and heard in the video
  8. ↑ Swing legend Hugo Strasser is dead. FOCUS online, March 17, 2016
  9. ↑ Seehofer honors 74 personalities . Süddeutsche Zeitung . October 5, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Strasser, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clarinetist and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich-Schwabing
DATE OF DEATH 17th March 2016
Place of death Munich-Trudering