Mama Basuto
Mama Basuto is a blues band from Leipzig . It was founded in 1968 by Michael Codse Malditz and is the longest- serving rhythm and blues band in East Germany. The band belonged to the first generation of bluesers in the German Democratic Republic and developed into one of the most important representatives of this GDR-specific youth culture .
Founding cast
- Thomas Eichenberg (drums; † 2012)
- Ulli Doberenz (bass, piano)
- Michael Codse Malditz (vocals, guitar, harmonica, saxophone; † 2019)
Band history
While numerous GDR rock bands from the very beginning “tinkered” with their careers with hit parade pop songs , “vied for” subsidies, TV appearances and record contracts, Mama Basuto never lost her down-to-earth attitude and oriented herself, apart from the mainstream, to the original, “black” blues. Musical role models include Muddy Waters , Willie Dixon , John Mayall and Alexis Korner . Due to her musical direction, Mama Basuto differs significantly from the Berlin representatives of the East German blues scene, who feel committed to blues rock . The band's domicile at that time was the “Central-Halle” in Gaschwitz near Leipzig.
The band, which has been on tour almost continuously since 1970, has remained a decidedly live band up to the present day. With the exception of founding member Malditz, who played temporarily with Freygang in the 1980s , the line-up of the band changed frequently. The band included: Jörg Wolf (violoncello), Christoph Winckel (bass), Reinhard Daisy Kehl (guitar), Gerhard Pachsteffel (drums, vocals), Lutz Rhömus (drums), Andreas Schrödter (bass), Frank Fischer (drums), Jürgen Wiedwald (bass), Dieter Pampel (guitar, bass), Eberhard Stolle (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Silvio "Whiskey" Haike (vocals, harmonica), Wolfram Dix (drums), Frieder Bergner (trombone), Willi Scheerbaum (harmonica ), Ralf Stolle (trombone), Frank Steußloff (guitar), Hartmut Köllner (bassoon, saxophone, vocals), Thilo Blondie Klemm (guitar), Hans-Jörg Erbse Moser († 2006 / bass), Phillip Baley (drums), Robin Hemingway (vocals), Michael Großwig (piano, saxophone) and Andre Greiner-Pol († 2008 / vocals, violin).
At the end of the 1980s, after the band members left for the Federal Republic of Germany, the band broke up and was re - founded in West Berlin in May 1989 by Erbse Moser, who was bassist for Mama Basuto from 1979 to 1982 . Today the band is based in Leipzig again and plays in the classic triple line-up, occasionally complemented by guest musicians, authentic blues, powerful boogie shuffle and jump jive . The highlights in the band's history include appearances with champion Jack Dupree in West Berlin and with BB King in Leipzig.
Last occupation
- Michael Codse Malditz (guitar, vocals; † 2019)
- Frank Träger (drums)
- Frank Täubert (bass guitar)
See also
literature
- Michael Rauhut, Thomas Kochan: Bye, Bye Lübben City . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-602-X .