Jazz musician in Germany
Jazz musicians in Germany often not only play jazz , but jazz is an important basis for their work. Jazz musicians only play a marginal , subordinate role in Germany's social and cultural life . Today they find recognition more as teachers for young musicians than on stage. While the professional situation of jazz musicians in Germany is dealt with here, the historical development is dealt with in the main article Jazz in Germany .
Weimar Republic
As early as the 1920s, alongside jazz groups from the USA and England, the bands of Eric Borchard and Julian Fuhs such as Stefan Weintraub's Syncopators Jazz played. The Syncopators also included Franz Waxman , who would later make a career in Hollywood , as well as Friedrich Hollaender , who was the pianist in the group. “Very few musicians… who discovered jazz for themselves in the 1920s did so purposefully. Jazz musician was not a career option for a music student at that time. ”For dance musicians of the time, jazz dances and“ jazzy gigs ”were just as“ part of the tools of the trade ... as one had to be able to play waltzes or tango . ”
As early as 1925, Alfred Baresel's jazz book was the first guide for dance musicians as “instructions for playing, improvising and composing modern dance pieces” in the jazz idiom and reached four editions within a year. At the end of the 1920s, a large number of musicians can be found in Germany who can play jazz, even if initially most of the musicians in the bands were still inexperienced in improvisation and only a few good “hot soloists” were available. It was not until the beginning of the 1930s that “the level of the solo parts in the recordings also increased”. The time of swinging dance orchestras began - also in Germany. Initially, most of it took place in the metropolis of Berlin, but also in other large cities such as Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Leipzig, Frankfurt and Essen, but even in Baden-Baden, hot jazz dances and swing could be heard in dance cafés or in variety shows . For young, jazz-enthusiastic musicians like Willy Berking or Freddie Brocksieper , this gave the opportunity to play jazz improvisations in the dance orchestras.
In 1928, Bernhard Sekles started the initiative to hold a jazz class at Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, the first in the world at a music college or university. Not only did the Frankfurter Tonkünstlerbund turn against this initiative, it also preoccupied the public and the Prussian state parliament . In 1928/29, 19 students were studying the new subject. Theodor W. Adorno, who teaches at the neighboring Frankfurt University, justified the training of the young musicians, as some of them were forced to earn a living with light music. "Preference should be given to such utility music [...] that is clean and imaginatively put forward. [In addition] the jazz school is to be welcomed as a means of emancipating the accents from the good beat. ”( ) From 1930 onwards, the Berlin music house Alberti published the Musik-Echo: Zeitschrift für Melodie und Rhythmus , which is primarily aimed at musicians Arrangers and band leaders directed and gave useful tips for the instrumentation and orchestration, but also for improvisation.
1933-1945
With the seizure of power of Hitler 1933, the Jazz is the so-called degenerate music explained. Jewish musicians, for example Rudi Annex , but also musicians with Jewish roots such as Hans Berry with a Jewish grandfather were discriminated against and persecuted. The Weintraubs Syncopators could only perform abroad. The jazz class of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main was closed. From 1935 jazz broadcasts were prohibited on German radio. The void in popular music created by the ostracism of so-called “degenerate nigger music” was used by a number of bands, especially in the big cities of Berlin and Hamburg, by giving the pieces German titles like Teddy Stauffer and thus under the supervision of the police or SA tried to escape. "In addition to the" who ", the inspectors' gaze was focused primarily on the" what "and the" how, ie on the repertoire and the performance of the band. ""
In addition to numerous dance music professionals, there were already some musicians, especially in Berlin, “who were on par with their American colleagues in terms of quality and swing .” Despite a balancing act that consisted of “playing jazz à la swing and yet not closing the Reichsmusikkammer The orchestras to which they belonged succeeded in keeping up with the times: Technically, a lot was right, even if the timing and dynamics of the large formations could still be improved. One of these formations was that of Erhard Bauschke (who took over the ensemble from James Kok in 1935 after the latter was banned from working for racist reasons). Especially in the late evening, when the Reichsmusikkammer was barely inspected, it was possible in pubs such as the Moka Efti to perform jazz titles authentically. At the latest after the beginning of the Second World War, the Nazi regime demanded even more stringent compliance with cultural moral rules; Dance events were banned. Works that contradicted the "national feeling" were no longer allowed to be performed. In November 1941 it was even forbidden to play pieces by "hostile composers".
Only a few bands still played pure jazz programs, especially in the Golden Sieben and in Kurt Widmann's orchestra ; In the field of troop support, for example, Heinz Wehner's band was able to maintain a corresponding repertoire, at least in part. As a result, the job opportunities for musicians who initially wanted to play jazz became increasingly limited. Unless they were called up for military service themselves, they were cut off from the latest international developments on the one hand and on the other hand they had to fear censorship and the Gestapo at all times . In individual cases they were even used for propaganda purposes ( Charlie and His Orchestra ). Only a few musicians like Ernst Höllerhagen consciously went abroad for political reasons. Young players as well as fans were pushed underground as so-called swing youth , as the experiences of Emil Mangelsdorff exemplify.
Western zones and the old Federal Republic
1945-1960
After the liberation from the Nazi dictatorship, the western "occupying powers", especially the US-Americans, brought swing and rhythm & blues with them to Germany. The Frankfurt hot club around Carlo Bohländer , Horst Lippmann and Emil Mangelsdorff belonged to the jazz musicians of the " zero hour " just like the blind pianist and singer Wolfgang Sauer from Wuppertal or Kurt Widmann in Berlin . From 1945 onwards, they and other jazz musicians in Germany offered numerous job opportunities in clubs of the US and British Army. The German audience also showed some interest in jazz music again. Especially in the American occupation zone (with Frankfurt am Main and Munich as centers) it was now possible for some of the musicians to live exclusively on jazz. Big bands were also under contract with some radio stations (for example those of Kurt Edelhagen in Baden-Baden and Cologne or those of Erwin Lehn in Stuttgart ). As a rule, however, it was by no means only possible to play jazz here, but the bands had the function of dance and entertainment orchestras and therefore also played hits and the like. Since the late 1950s - primarily for economic reasons - some of the jazz musicians employed in such bands, such as Hans and James Last , who had received several jazz basses , decided to only play easy listening music or they even switched, like trombonist Ernst Mosch to the so-called folk music camp . Others like Johannes Rediske switched to working as a film musician .
At this time the (West German) scene began to internationalize. Germans and Americans got together regularly for jam sessions ; this had Jazzkeller (such as the domicile du jazz by Carlo Bohländer in Frankfurt or from Fritz Rau founded in Heidelberg Cave 54 ) an important function. However, during this time there were hardly any permanent groups in which Americans and Germans played together. However, there was a musical transfer, with most musicians at the time viewing the American game as exemplary. T. imitated. The Hungarian-born Attila Zoller and the Austrian Hans Koller had formative, successful years in Germany, especially in Frankfurt. Dusko Goykovich , who was born in Bosnia, also settled permanently in Germany after “journeyman years” in the USA.
1960-1990
Since the 1960s, foreign musicians such as Herb Geller , Don Menza , Leo Wright , Wilton Gaynair , Jimmy Woode , Peter Herbolzheimer and Ack van Rooyen have found long-term work in the Federal Republic, especially in the dance orchestras of the broadcasting companies, which are developing into big bands. At this time, Europeans began to become more self-confident and, building on a return to their own musical culture, to play more independently. First and foremost, the Albert Mangelsdorff quintet from the old Federal Republic, who was initially still committed to hard bop , should be mentioned. Around Gunter Hampel , Manfred Schoof and Alexander von Schlippenbach , groups with musicians emerged for the first time who had a university education in music as a prerequisite. Some also knew about serial composition techniques. That was one of the prerequisites for an independent, (West) European approach to free jazz . Although the guest performances of innovative groups like the Gunter Hampel Ensemble in jazz clubs in medium-sized cities, such as B. Wuppertal, sometimes lasted a week, many musicians could not live from this music alone, but also had to work in more commercial bands. Even the musicians of the Mangelsdorff Quintet, the most successful German jazz combo at the time alongside the Klaus Doldinger Quartet, needed additional earnings as musicians in the Hessischer Rundfunk jazz ensemble . Even the bassist Eberhard Weber , who had been well employed since the mid-1960s (among others with Wolfgang Dauner ), was only a “semi-professional” until 1972 and was dependent on work in a Stuttgart film company. The establishment of the artists' social insurance fund has improved the possibility of health and pension insurance since 1983. Since 1973 the quasi-trade union Union of German Jazz Musicians has also tried to improve working conditions.
As early as the end of the 1950s, there were the first jazz courses at the Cologne University of Music, which ensured that jazz was no longer a "secret science" for classical music students. In the 1970s, the up-and-coming musicians in the field of jazz began to acquire jazz at school. The annual summer course at the Remscheid Academy was very popular with young jazz musicians. There is hardly a professional jazz musician born between 1940 and 1960 who did not take part in this course as a student or teacher. It was not until the 1980s that an acceptable infrastructure developed, so that at that time more and more jazz musicians could live from their music.
Soviet Zone and German Democratic Republic
1945-1960
Immediately after the end of the Second World War, there was a small jazz boom in the Soviet occupation zone as well as in the western zones. As a kind of music defamed and suppressed by the Nazis, jazz initially stood for the positive tendency of musical development. From 1947 onwards, the Amiga record company published a large number of jazzy and swing-oriented dance music productions. Musicians from all occupation zones were involved in them. The Radio Berlin Tanzorchester , initially under the direction of its founder Michael Jary and later under that of Horst Kudritzki , played in the style of the leading big bands . Rolf Kühn , then still a member of the Leipzig Radio Orchestra (under the direction of Kurt Henkels ), was one of the first to deal with bebop .
However, the expansion of the Cold War and Stalinism largely brought the jazz activities of musicians in the GDR to a standstill. This only improved in the thaw period , when jazz clubs were founded and concert opportunities were created - albeit not to the same extent as in Poland or Czechoslovakia .
1960-1990
Unlike in the West, there were hardly any meetings with American colleagues. Rather, the radio, especially the Voice of America , was the main source of information for the musicians about current developments in international jazz. To take a stand against this background and to see oneself as part of the great jazz history that is known primarily from listening and hearsay is a fundamentally different socialization than what musicians in the West enjoyed. In addition, the musicians had to register with the state before performing in order to be recognized. With this game permit, however, you were also covered by social insurance. Professional musicians had to be academically trained since the 1960s, and according to the 1964 “Ordinance on the Practice of Dance and Popular Music”, all professional musicians had to be in possession of a professional ID. The prerequisite for acquiring it was usually a successfully completed degree at a conservatory or music academy , some of which - unlike in the Federal Republic - have set up dance music classes. The GDR cultural bureaucracy had organizational problems with the jazz musicians who “looked chaotic and difficult to classify”. In the 1970s, a "Jazz Section at the General Directorate of the Committee for Entertaining Art of the German Democratic Republic" was founded, which tried to regulate the musicians on the one hand, but also supported them financially on the other.
For the musicologist Ekkehard Jost , “the comparatively high instrumental, technical and music-theoretical standard of jazz musicians in the GDR” was a noticeable result of this formal training. The Manfred Ludwig Sextet was the only modern jazz group in the GDR in the early 1960s . This combo had to play dance music more and more after 1966, when cultural policy changed again and occasionally even performance bans were issued (as for Ruth Hohmann ). Apart from the Joachim Kühn Trio, there were no musicians until the early 1970s who could earn their living exclusively or mainly through jazz activities. To put it simply, jazz was practiced either in dance music bands who played jazz on the side or as a leisure activity. The classical orchestral musician Dietrich Unkrodt also played as a tuba player in old-time jazz bands . According to an analysis by jazz journalist Rolf Reichelt , this “predominant amateur jazz activity” stood in the way of an increase in the quality of jazz in the GDR for a long time in the sense of a consistent penetration of jazz and independent further development . The establishment of continuously rehearsing and performing ensembles was not possible because the schedules of musicians working in different groups were difficult to coordinate ”.
An exception was Friedhelm Schönfeld's trio , which like Manfred Schulze found their way into free jazz from 1966. For the members of the trio, “acting on role models was not enough;” they wanted to “achieve something really unique with their music.” A little later, individual musicians of the Modern Soul Band came to free play via jazz rock and joined Ernst-Ludwig in 1973 Petrowsky and Günter “Baby” Sommer from Schönfeld to form the Synopsis group and the Gumpert Workshop Band . They showed that an independent approach to the history of jazz was also possible in the GDR. Funded by the GDR cultural policy, these musicians also played at company parties from the 1970s . From 1978 onwards, under certain conditions, they were also able to go on tours to “western countries” and play together in mixed groups with musicians from other countries, whereby when East and West German musicians meet in the GDR there is always at least one foreign musician in the project or the Band had to play along. At that time, western jazz musicians were paid an average of 400 East German marks per concert. A tour in the GDR was attractive for the West German jazz musicians because, in addition to the GDR fee, for which goods could be bought in the GDR, the musicians also received financial compensation in DM from the Federal Ministry for Internal German Relations , which was 60% the fee was. On the other hand, some jazz musicians from the GDR were also allowed to perform in western countries. They received for their work abroad foreign exchange, to 70% for the artist agency of the GDR in GDR marks be exchanged had; They were able to keep 30% of the foreign currency.
Since the 1990s
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The listening and concert conditions for jazz have changed significantly since the 1990s: event culture is the keyword that has since severely restricted the work opportunities for jazz musicians. Much of the money that used to flow into the regular concert series is now used for major events and festivals. The older and committed audience of the 1970s also stayed away from the small events. The possibility of downloading music from the Internet at the click of a mouse has led to a completely new culture of reception , especially among the younger generation of listeners , which jazz musicians playing live can only join to a limited extent. In particular, the middle generation of musicians lack effective marketing strategies.
“Concerts are no longer seen as an event per se, the CD shelves of jazz lovers are so full that the tendency to replenish has recently decreased threateningly. Above all, however, there is a creeping, growing information deficit ”(Volker Dobbestein), which the younger generation of musicians who are best trained in marketing can follow. These also occupy trend-setting niches at short notice and switch back and forth between musical styles, as can be seen, for example, in the various albums by Till Brönner , who is following a path that has already been followed in Germany by musicians like Helmut Zacharias , Bill Ramsey and others left. Currently there is a tendency among young musicians - due to the conventional training programs - to produce entertaining jazz. For many, this means that the musical goal is simply getting a job in a big band. Some jazz editors of the public institutions cherish and maintain these ensembles and make them the benchmark for current jazz events. A situation that is reminiscent of that in West Germany in the early 1960s. A lot of creative energy is bound in this process. With other young musicians, on the other hand, it is true that many no longer become jazz musicians at all, but instead take up a livelihood, "because they attach a different importance to their work than that of a profession to secure material life". Those over 70 are in a comparatively good position; Anyone who has built up an international reputation as a jazz musician for themselves can usually still benefit relatively safely from their own image even in transitional periods and also find it easier to be noticed with new projects and invited to the club or festival stage. In contrast, middle-generation jazz musicians such as Christoph Spendel and Michael Sagmeister are only noticed with difficulty and live mainly from teaching (be it at a university or as a private teacher).
German jazz study 2016
In 2016, the Darmstadt Jazz Institute , the IG Jazz Berlin and the Union of German Jazz Musicians published a study by Thomas Renz on the living and working conditions of German jazz musicians on the initiative of the Federal Jazz Conference. The basis was an online survey in June 2015, in which 1,860 musicians answered all questions (that was 40% of the 4,663 independent jazz musicians who were registered with the artists' welfare fund).
70% of the jazz musicians questioned then have a university degree. The financial situation of most jazz musicians was described as precarious, and only a few could make a living from jazz music. 50% had a total annual income of less than 12,500 euros; if one only takes musical performances into account, even 68% (16% earned more than 30,000 euros per year, but only 5% with only musical activity). About half of the musicians complete between one and 25 live performances a year; about a quarter graduate 26 to 50 a year. For 70%, teaching was a significant part of their income.
Half were performing less than once a week, only 15% twice, and only 4% had more than 100 gigs a year. A fee of 250 euros per appearance and person, referred to as entry-level in the study, was not achieved in 84% of the appearances. (64% of the appearances were remunerated with less than 150 euros per person.) Half of the fee in large cities was closer to 50 euros per person and appearance. 66% of jazz musicians also performed in other styles of music. Most jazz musicians lived in large cities (more than 500,000 inhabitants, 50%) or medium-sized cities (more than 100,000 inhabitants, 20%), most of them in Berlin and Cologne . 80% of the respondents were male.
The study recommends funding that goes beyond the previous funding for culture, especially for venues. In addition, a stronger anchoring in schools and music schools is recommended, where jazz musicians can bring improvisation skills to the table and which is also considered to be important for teaching jazz to young people.
List of musicians
The list of jazz musicians in Germany with the Wikipedia biographies on individual musicians listed there forms important starting material for this article.
Books and newspaper articles
- Rainer Bratfisch (ed., 2005): Free tones: the jazz scene of the GDR. Berlin: Ch. Links
- Bernfried Höhne (1991): Jazz in the GDR: a retrospective. Frankfurt am Main: Eisenbletter and Naumann
- Ekkehard Jost (1987): European Jazz: 1960 - 1980. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer paperback
- Wolfram Knauer (1996, ed.): Jazz in Germany. Darmstadt contributions to jazz research 5. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag
- Wolfram Knauer (2019): "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart: Reclam, ISBN 978-3-15-011227-4
- Peter Köhler, Konrad Schacht (1983): The jazz musicians: on the sociology of a creative fringe group. Freiburg i.Br .: Roter-Punkt-Verlag, ISBN 3-924209-00-6 .
- Horst H. Lange (1986): Jazz in Germany: the German jazz chronicle until 1960. Hildesheim; Zurich; New York: Olms-Presse (2nd ed.)
- Bert Noglik (1978): Jazz in Conversation. Berlin (GDR): Verlag Neue Musik, ders. (1992): Swinging DäDäRä. Die Zeit, May 8, 1992, p. 60
- Dietrich J. Noll (1977): On improvisation in German free jazz: Investigations into the aesthetics of freely improvised sound surfaces. Hamburg: Verlag der Musikalienhandlung Wagner
- Bruno Paulot (1993): Albert Mangelsdorff: Talks. Waakirchen: Oreos
- Thomas Renz (2016): Study on the living and working conditions of jazz musicians in Germany
- Rainer Schulze (2007): Jazz musicians in Germany: "We have become call boys" . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 1, 2007
- Werner Josh Sellhorn (2005): Jazz - GDR - facts: performers, discographies, photos, CD. Berlin Neunplus 1
- Günter Sommer, About some peculiarities of the jazz scene in the GDR. In: Darmstädter Jazzforum 89. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag 1990, pp. 120-134
- Dita von Szadkowski , Crossing Borders: Jazz and its Musical Environment of the 80s. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuchverlag
- Sabine Westerhoff-Schroer (2000): Jazz musicians in Germany - living conditions today. Jazz newspaper 11/2000: 25-26
Individual evidence
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 34f.
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 53
- ↑ See W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, pp. 35, 44ff., 57f.
- ↑ cit. after Jürgen Schwab The Frankfurt Sound. A city and its jazz history (s) . Frankfurt aM Societät, 2004, p. 25. See Peter Cahn Das Hoch'sche Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main (1878-1978) . Frankfurt am Main: Kramer, 1979.
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 68.
- ↑ Numerous so-called “quarter and half Jews” such as Eugen Henkel were at least temporarily banned from performing. See Michael H. Kater Daring Game. Jazz in National Socialism Cologne, Kiepenheuer & Witsch 1995, p. 89, and 213
- ↑ Kater Daring Spiel , p. 90
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 89
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 108
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 107
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 103ff. In contrast to the big bands, the recordings of smaller groups “clearly showed what the musicians involved had in their ears, what they actually wanted to play, who their role models were and that they were very well aware of their style” (p. 108 )
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 90
- ↑ See W. Knauer, "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Reclam, Stuttgart 2019, pp. 263-274
- ^ W. Knauer, "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Reclam, Stuttgart 2019, p. 205
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Reclam, Stuttgart 2019, p. 332
- ↑ Bert Noglik Eastern European jazz in upheaval. In: Wolfram Knauer Jazz in Europe. Darmstadt Contributions to Jazz Research, Vol. 3. Hofheim 1994, pp. 147–162
- ^ Ekkehard Jost, European Jazz: 1960-1980, Frankfurt a. M., p. 237
- ↑ cit. n. Ekkehard Jost, Jazz in Europa, p. 235
- ^ W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Reclam, Stuttgart 2019, p. 333
- ↑ Volker Dobbestein, From the struggle of the middle generation of jazz musicians. Jazz Podium 2/07: 3-6
- ↑ Jürg Solothurnmann , Pluralism and New Thinking. In: Darmstädter Jazzforum 89. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag 1990, pp. 28-48
- ↑ Thomas Renz, Maximilian Körner, Jazzstudie 2016. Living and working conditions of jazz musicians in Germany , March 2016.
- ↑ The KSK membership was also asked