by Hans Kumpf

How is it with the jazz in Germany? Let's take the "Internationale Theaterhaus Jazztage Stuttgart" at Easter 1997. Stuttgart, 250 km (e.g. 150 miles) north of Munich, isn't exactly a great capitol for jazz in Germany (Cologne, Munich and Berlin are usually more interesting). Two decades ago Stuttgart had several jazz clubs, but no annual festival. Now Stuttgart has got the Easter Festival and "JazzOpen" with worldwide TV transmissions in summer.

In the Theaterhaus, pianist Wolfgang Dauner, the first Stuttgart jazz musician, and trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, known as the most important jazz player in Germany, having performed together already in a variety of settings -- in the Big Band "United Jazz + Rock Ensemble", in common combos, in a duo and as guest soloists.

Now these "old friends" have joined together with saxophonist Klaus Doldinger, who is famous as a composer for TV series and movies ("The Boat"), bassist Eberhard Weber (who played in Dauner's experimental trio in the sixties) and the young rock inspired drummer Wolfgang Haffner (from Nuremberg). In Stuttgart, they played good old mainstream jazz with high energy. Typical for Mangelsdorff were his multiphonic "interference tones", produced by synchron playing and singing. When Doldinger as "Paul Nero" played rock oriented dance music thirty years ago, the "real" jazz musicians were quite angry. Dauner (after a Bill Evans period) and Mangelsdorff (after a "cool" period even with MJQ's John Lewis) were exponents for free jazz. Born in 1928 in Frankfurt, Mangelsdorff has also been the artistic director of the JazzFest Berlin the past three years.

Even the German youngsters seem to play in conventional manners: In 1996, there was a jazz contest sponsored by Daimler-Benz. These Mercedes winners have got good technical capabilities, but they are missing individuality. Many German conservatories teach jazz, and almost all states of the Federal Republic have an own youth jazz orchestra. Anyway since the Boston based Berklee School of Music is a synonym for the best jazz education in the world, many German musicians are proud to be students there -- like pianist / vibraphonist Wolf Kerschek, from Hamburg. He played with his quintet "Die Studenten".

More information on jazz in Germany is available on the net through "The JazzPages" made in the historical Heidelberg. Frank Schindelbeck has made some sites even in English language, such as http://www.jazzpages.com.

Hans Kumpf is clarinetist, contributor to the German magazines "Jazz Podium" and "Jazzthetik."