Leipzig Radio Dance Orchestra

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The orchestra performed in Markkleeberg in 1951

The Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Leipzig was founded in 1947 as a dance orchestra for the Leipzig broadcaster . It appeared with its director Kurt Henkels for the first time on January 3, 1948 in a program broadcast by the Leipzig radio station. After a public appearance by the large formation at Whitsun 1948 in Berlin's Friedrichstadtpalast , there was a record deal. In July 1948, the orchestra in Berlin recorded its first six records for the AMIGA label . These included the "Special Delivery Stomp", "Eager Beaver", "Dorsey's Boogie Woogie" and "American Patrol."

The founding members of the Leipzig broadcaster's dance orchestra included renowned musicians such as Rolf Kühn (clarinet, saxophone), Walter Eichenberg (trumpet), Günter Oppenheimer (piano) and Fips Fleischer (drums); For a few years the trumpeter Horst "Hackel" Fischer and Werner Baumgart (tenor saxophone) were also members of the orchestra. It was a leader in the GDR in the 1950s. 1951 saw the first major international success. With their inclusion of Cherokee in Werner Baumgart's arrangement in the style of progressive jazz , the formation took third place in the French disc competition behind Ellington and Basie . The orchestra also gave guest appearances in Moscow, Budapest and Prague in the 1950s. As far as jazz was played, the orchestra now moved in a stylistically narrower framework, as marked by orchestras such as Glenn Miller , Tommy Dorsey , Les Brown and Ray Anthony .

After Henkel moved to the West, Gerhard Kneifel led the orchestra for a while. In 1961 Walter Eichenberg took over the management of the orchestra and worked as its chief conductor. In 1989 the orchestra's former pianist, Eberhard Weise , succeeded him. As a producer, the formation has been supervised by Harry Nicolai since 1973 . The Leipzig Radio Dance Orchestra also took part in numerous GDR television shows for decades. In 1992 the orchestra was dissolved.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Conrad Werner Baumgart: An already forgotten German jazz musician? Jazz Podium 3/2012: 38–41. The version was re-released on the album Deutscher Musikrat Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000: Big Bands 1950-2000
  2. ↑ A. Möllenkamp Orchester und Rundfunk: History, structure and function of the German radio orchestra (seminar paper 2002; PDF; 272 kB)

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