Mladen Gutesha

Mladen "Bobby" Gutesha (born December 16, 1923 in Sarajevo ) is an orchestra conductor, composer and arranger of Yugoslav origin who lives in Germany and Switzerland . Under his real name, but also under the pseudonyms Gert Bauer , Sonny Steffen and Chris Halmon , he composed pieces for jazz and dance orchestras and films.

Live and act

Gutesha learned from 1941 self-taught trumpet and studied five years from 1945 to 1949 conducting at the Conservatory of Belgrade . During his studies he was already employed as a trombonist with the Belgrade Radio Orchestra (1943) and also in Vienna and Trieste. In 1947 he founded the large jazz and dance orchestra of Radio Belgrade , which he directed until 1953. Then he emigrated to Germany, where he played as a trombonist with a jazz combo in US officers' clubs in the Frankfurt am Main area . Here he came into contact with Benny Goodman and arranged several pieces for him. Gutesha worked as a trombonist for Kurt Edelhagen and was also a sought-after arranger for German radio stations , where he also wrote the arrangements (“Walkin '” and “ Round Midnight ”) for productions with Miles Davis in 1957 . He also arranged for the Modern Jazz Quartet and Lee Konitz . From 1955 to 1958 he was arranger for Erwin Lehn's Südfunk-Tanzorchester . The Süddeutsche Rundfunk gave him the leadership of his studio orchestra. Among other things, he conducted several recordings that Terje Rypdal , Naná Vasconcelos , Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek made for the ECM label between 1974 and 1979.

In the 1960s he was also active as a film composer (e.g. the Commissioner X films Commissioner X - The Hunt for Unknown and Commissioner X - In the Claws of the Golden Dragon by director Gianfranco Parolini ); he wrote the music for 60 feature films in total. He also presented records such as The Balkan in My Soul ( SABA ) and Rockin 'Bach Dimensions ( MPS 1973). In the Trixi recording studio in Munich he recorded three productions with the same rhythm section : Sigi Schwab , Eberhard Weber and Lala Kovacev worked with Chris Hinze , Benny Bailey and Charlie Mariano / Ack van Rooyen ; Gutesha mainly had compositions recorded by his hand. In 1986 he received a teaching position for music theory at the Swiss Jazz School . In 1988 he retired from active musical life.

Discographic notes

• Islands with Benny Bailey, Sigi Schwab, Eberhard Weber, Lala Kovacev ( Enja )
• Wide and Blue with Chris Hinze, Sigi Schwab, Eberhard Weber, Lala Kovacev (EMI)
• Some Kind of Changes with Charlie Mariano, Ack van Rooyen, Sigi Schwab, Eberhard Weber, Lala Kovacev (Calig)
• Metropolitan Sounds (1984) with Thomas Stabenow , Joe Gallardo , Don Rader , Johannes Faber
• Strictly Instrumental (1989) with Thomas Stabenow, Klaus Wagenleiter , Joe Gallardo, Johannes Faber

Works (selection)

• Dalmatian pastels for orchestra, 1964
• Three bagatelles for bassoon or tenor saxophone and orchestra (jazz), 1964
• Slavistica , Divertimento No. 1 for orchestra, 1965
• Le Coeur de ma Mie based on a Romance folk song for orchestra, 1966
• Special Delivery for dance orchestra (Ps. Gert Bauer), 1966
• Lemon Cream for dance orchestra (Ps. Gert Bauer), 1966
• Blue Millie for dance orchestra (Ps. Gert Bauer), 1966
• Ciello Argentato for dance orchestra (Ps. Gert Bauer), 1966
• Sweet Millie for dance orchestra, 1966
• Dreamy Boulevard for dance orchestra, 1966
• It wasn't for dance orchestras yesterday , 1966
• A small radio music suite for orchestra, 1967
• Phantasia Rustica for orchestra, 1967
• Capricci Notturni , Suite for large orchestra, 1968
• Concertino Balkanese for orchestra, 1968
• Balaton , Hungarian Fantasy for Orchestra, 1971
• Bitolka , Macedonian Song and Dance for Orchestra, 1971
• Mostar , Dance-Phantasy for orchestra, 1971
• Gipsy's California Romance for orchestra, 1972
• Hora Allegro , based loosely on Hava Nageela for orchestra

Lexical entries

• 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 .

Web links

• Information about the composer (English page)
• Mladen Gutesha in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Mladen Gutesha at Discogs (English)