Vocal - instrumental - international

Vokal - Instrumental - International (also V. I. I. ) was a jazz show in the Ö3 program of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). It was broadcast from the start of the program in 1967 until the end of 1987 (in more than 3000 episodes).

history

The title Vokal - Instrumental - International , conceived by the then radio director Alfred Hartner , was an Ö3 broadcast from the very beginning; it was initially broadcast Monday to Saturday between 10:05 a.m. and 11 a.m., V.I.I. was first heard on October 2, 1967. Until the end of 1971 the program was presented alternately by several presenters: Annemarie Berté , Peter Machac , Hermann Egger and Walter Richard Langer .

From 1972, Langer was the sole creator and presenter of the show. It continued to be broadcast, but only three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (the programs on Tuesday and Thursday were repeated between 1972 and 1974 on the following day between 4:03 pm and 5:00 pm). In 1973, a dispute between Langer and Hartner almost brought the show to an end. V. I. I. remained in the program after some daily newspapers reported about the threatened cancellation of the program. In 1976, during the Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, during which Ö3 broadcast from the Tyrolean capital, the jazz program paused.

The Ö3 program scheme from 1981 brought massive changes for vocal - instrumental - international. Although the Saturday date remained unchanged, the broadcasts on Tuesdays and Thursdays were moved to the evening. They were now part of the new Ö3 jazz list, which was broadcast Monday through Thursday between 9:05 p.m. and 9:55 p.m., but initially retained the name V.I.I. and the characteristic melody.

In 1984 the Ö3 jazz list was changed again, provided with its own, uniform characteristic melody ( Ö3 Jazzhaus ) and halved in time. From now on, a program with the title V. I. I. was only available on Saturdays. However, this date turned out to be increasingly problematic because the programs were repeatedly interrupted by sports broadcasts in winter. During the school holidays Vokal - Instrumental - International was replaced by " Radio Holiday ". At the end of 1987 V. I. I. was renamed "Keep Swinging", in the spirit of the moderator, and moved to Sunday 4:05 pm to 5:00 pm. After only a few episodes under this title, there were disagreements between Langer and Ö3 program director Dieter Dorner regarding the choice of music. The program was initially withdrawn from Langer and (after a brief attempt to continue it as a treadmill program, i.e. without moderation), it was finally discontinued.

Content

When Walter Richard Langer became the sole designer and moderator of V. I. I. in 1972, he changed the keynote. He chose " On the Sunny Side of the Street " in the version by Tommy Dorsey and the Sentimentalists (recorded 1945). From this time on, the program received its content structure that had remained unchanged for many years: Newly released records were presented on Tuesdays, modern jazz or an artist portrait was played on Thursdays, and traditional jazz on Saturdays. In the summer months, Tuesdays were dominated by a multi-part artist portrait. Every last Saturday of the month between 1974 and 1975, V. I. I. produced a series of a detailed portrait of Duke Ellington . From 1978 onwards, Langer occasionally invited record collectors as guests to the Ö3 studio, usually on the last Saturday of the month.

V. I. I. Langer did not describe it as a jazz show, but as an upscale entertainment show. The decisive factor for him was the quality of the selected pieces, which he mostly related to certain events on the edge of the music scene. New releases from the avant-garde from genres related to jazz , such as B. Jazz Fusion , were taken into account. Occasionally he played pieces of music that are not necessarily associated with jazz, for example Macedonian folk music, but also early Austropop ( Wolfgang Ambros , Georg Danzer ). He documented experiments by jazz musicians (such as Keith Jarrett with his 1976 double album Hymns, Spheres , which was recorded on the organ of the Benedictine Abbey of Ottobeuren) as well as the jazz attempts by interpreters such as Marianne Mendt and Gitte Haenning .

On October 16, 1975, Langer celebrated his 1000th V.I.I. broadcast. The music program included the title “My Baby Just Cares For Me” as a specialty, interpreted by a certain Donald Young. No less a person than Langer himself was hiding behind this pseudonym! He had sung the title a few years earlier to a playback accompaniment of the Nelson Riddle Orchestra (from the album "Sing A Song With Riddle", 1959); the tape recording was secretly placed in the Ö3 archive and broadcast unnoticed for years in Ö3 programs such as " Evergreen ". The program was ended by the moderator (almost always) with the words: "Thanks for listening, goodbye and - keep swinging!"