Peter Meyer (musician, 1944)

Heinz-Peter "Banjo" Meyer (born March 28, 1944 in Hamburg ) is a German jazz musician ( banjo , guitar , vocals ), music producer and racing driver . According to Jürgen Wölfer , he is a "legend among German musicians of traditional jazz ."

Live and act

Meyer received accordion lessons at the age of nine . In 1958 he switched to the banjo and the guitar, which he learned self-taught . In 1959 he had his first public appearance with a jazz band. From 1961 he played with Sister Kate's Jazzmen , then with the Jailhouse Jazzmen , before founding the New Orleans Hot Owls in 1963 with trombonist Gerd Goldenbow . In 1964 he went to Abbi Huebner's Low Down Wizards ; he continued to play in various Hamburg jazz and rhythm & blues bands such as the Steamboat Stompers or the St. John's jazz band . For a short time he was also a racing driver in Formula Veeactive; In 1969 he won the North German Championship.

In 1970 he was one of the founders of the Hamburg Jazz Lips , which still exists today, and became a professional musician and producer. In 1973 he toured with Ikey Robinson . In the following year he put Meyer's steam band together; Hans Scheibner and he had a hit with the steam band with the song “I like to stand on the assembly line” . After appearances in New Orleans and Chicago, he toured Germany with Thomas Jefferson, Paul Barnes and Clyde Bernhardts Harlem Blues & Jazz Band and recorded various records with them. In 1979 he played with the Old Merry Tale Jazz Band and Reiner Regels Airmail. Further stations in his long career included live and television appearances and recordings with Gottfried Böttger , the Bremen Symphony Orchestra in the production of Porgy & Bess and solo engagements at banjo festivals in America and at Jazz Ascona . He was also one of the Hamburg Jazz All Stars and founded the European Jazz Giants in 1994 , with whom, like Lillian Boutté , he toured several times. Between 1996 and 2006 he was one of the Euro Top 8 by clarinetist Andy Cooper. The Hanseatic City of Hamburg sent him as a musical ambassador to festivals in Marseille and Prague.

He also worked as a freelance arranger, producer, studio musician and composer for the television series Sesame Street and the NDR children's radio.

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

• Web presence
• Entry on Jazzindex
• Race track instead of stage: Peter "Banjo" Meyer accelerates