Uzzi forester

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Uzzi Förster (born March 2, 1930 as Ulrich Christoph Ludwig Förster in Vienna , † June 22, 1995 ibid) was an Austrian jazz musician . The all-rounder, inspired by Dadaism , was also an acrobat, welder, landlord, antique dealer, painter and protagonist of Viennese Actionism . He was the younger brother of the physicist Heinz von Foerster, who had emigrated to the USA .

Live and act

Ulrich was the son of Emil (von) Förster, an engineer , and his wife Lilith. He was the grandson of the Austrian architect Emil Ritter von Förster (1838–1909).

Förster began his musical training at the age of seven with piano and recorder, clarinet and saxophone. The "difficult" student attended some high schools in Vienna between 1941 and 1946 and refused to join the Hitler Youth. He went into hiding in Germany during the last months of the war and hid in a cellar in Vienna towards the end of the war.

In 1947 he began studying at the Vienna Music Academy . As a clarinetist, he founded his first jazz band. Several engagements for Wien-Film followed, as well as weekly appearances in the basement room of the Kärntner Bar , Vienna-Innere Stadt, known as the Strohkoffer or Artclub . In 1948 he made his first recordings (Body and Soul, How High the Moon) with a quintet for Viennaphon; certainly the first bebop- style recording in Austria. The following year he led a combo with Alexander Jenner, Hans Koller and Roland Kovac .

After studying at the University of Illinois , he established himself as a freelance artist in 1953, performing in the German-speaking area; he played with Lionel Hampton , the Modern Jazz Quartet and Ella Fitzgerald , Fatty George , Bill Grah , Oscar Klein , Willy Meerwald , Joe Zawinul and Friedrich Gulda . Förster had a stylistic influence on many jazz musicians. In 1955 he leased the Domino pub in Vienna's Krugerstraße , where he performed regularly. In 1964 he moved to the basement of Chattanooga am Graben in Vienna, with which he temporarily formed the meeting point for the Viennese action scene . In 1968 he received an order from the City of Vienna to provide background music for the opening of the pedestrian zone Kärntner Straße - Graben .

In 1969 Infant Sound was recorded . On this LP all instruments (vocals, piano, saxophone, drums, bass, bongos and flute) were played by himself and then copied together. In 1970 the second long-playing record Udrilitten followed in the same technique (on which, however, Albert Mair and Fritz Ocmec participated) and in 1971 Es ist ein gute Land (with Helmut Qualtinger , who read satirical texts by Peter Turrini ). After appearances at the Wiener Festwochen and projects with Wolfgang Ambros , Peter Turrini and Dolores Schmidinger , he founded the Jazz-Cafe Einhorn in 1977 in Joanelligasse in Vienna's 6th district of Mariahilf .

On October 10, 1979, the Viennese original Uzzi Förster gave his last major concert in the Mozart Hall of the Wiener Konzerthaus with Kirk Lightsey and Joe Nay ; In 1984 he finally ended his musical career. A cirrhosis forced him in 1989 to withdraw from its hospitality operations.

Grave plaque

His urn is in an honorary grave dedicated  - in a mausoleum of the architect Mathias Wisgrill , a relative of the family Foerster - on the grounds of Grinzinger cemetery in Vienna (grave site: Group MA, number 69).

In 2002 the Uzzi-Förster-Weg in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after him.

Awards, honors, prizes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grave sites dedicated to honor or taken into custody in the Grinzing cemetery. Status: July 19, 2011. - PDF online ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 22, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.friedhoefewien.at
  2. ↑ District head of the 6th district of the city of Vienna: Minutes of the meeting of the Mariahilf district council on September 21, 2006 at 5 p.m. (...) 3.4. Report from the Culture Commission (...) Request from the Green Alternative regarding the installation of a memorial plaque for Uzzi Förster (...) The request is to be implemented, but remains in the Culture Commission. (...) . In: wien.gv.at . - Text online (PDF; 39 kB) , accessed on June 11, 2011.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Forester, Uzzi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Förster, Ulrich Christoph Ludwig von (name at birth)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1995
Place of death Vienna