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Fitz Gore
"Soundmusication" (Sono-115)
Spiritual Jazz LP 1980
July 08, 2022

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Dieter Bihlmaier Selection
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Embryo
"Meets The World" (Sono-117)
Unearthed 1970s Ethno Jazz
Who knows when?

CD & Vinyl-LP: Sonorama C-05/ L-05

VARIOUS ARTISTS – PUPPET JAZZ (Various 1970s German Library Funk)

 

... and only for inclusion in movies, on TV, for advertising or within radio programmes. They featured hidden commercial dancefloor jazz with a deep hint towards the psychedelic funk and soul sounds of the time.., while the German music majors and press were hunting the next "real thing" from the US instead. Commercial German "puppet jazz" simply couldn't compete with a hip and stylish musical forerunner from Overseas. Nevertheless, German publishers increased the recording work for their libraries, employing some of the best German jazz musicians in order to sell their original sounding material solely to the media and not to the consumer - a cheaper possibility for corporate advertising without paying expensive license fees for the big international names from abroad - and the only reason, why most of the presented material "from behind the scenes" was actually recorded.

German jazz did not sell except for some media shopping of cool sounds, while the record industry focused their marketing on the licensing of  megasellers from the US instead of building a solid German catalogue - a dilemma for most of the best German jazz artists who had to search for foreign opportunities to make a career. Most European, especially German recordings were simply undervalued and the timeless and fashionable grooves on this compilation should finally prove the high quality of the former West German scene: From "low brow" organ groovers over small groups and big brass bands, with astounding arrangements and production work, presenting rough bass lines, drums and percussion, funky wah wah guitars, flutes and driving moog sounds by legendary or unjustly forgotten German musicians, composers and arrangers.

On our run through publishers` archives, scientific approaches on the telephone and internet, or prowling around countless piles of old vinyl records at flea markets and stores, we selected our memorable favourites one by one. Sad to realize then, that licensing of many 'lost' gems from record collections will remain impossible in the nearby future, due to the disappearance of rights, and access to composers, authors or musicians. Nevertheless, we are glad to combine these 14 remarkable tracks from our wish list, carefully remastered from the original tapes or corresponding library vinyl, released by kind permission from artists and original publishers. And we are ready for more old German puppets to come down from their shelves in the nearby future. Our deepest respect to all the people involved and to everybody who helped in making this rare selection happen.  


The Artists:

Klaus Weiss:
Klaus Weiss of Sunbirds and Niagara fame belongs to the most respected jazz drummers worldwide and appeared within countless musical combinations of the highest standard. In late 1973, he formed “The Klaus Weiss Percussions & Sounds” to record at Studio 70 Munich with recording engineer Jürgen Koppers. Players of this highly amazing combination include Klaus Weiss on drums, Kristian Schultze on Fender Piano, Siegfried Schwab on guitar and Lothar Meid on Fender Jazzbass. “Don`t Play That Game 1” and “Watch Out 3” are previously unreleased, only to be found on a scarce Conroy Library Lp from the UK, while the latter has been re-edited in December 2004 by Klaus Weiss himself for this first public appearance ever on Sonorama Records.

Joe Haider:
Joe Haider is one of the leading European jazz pianists of the 60s and 70s, highly acclaimed and still performing on highest levels today. His soulful organ sounds of “Last Time” were recorded 1969 at Union Studio, Munich, and first released on a vanished German Intercord Lp with Dusko Goykovich entitled “Jazz In Beat & Soul”. It could also be found within a subsequent “Europarty”compilation on the small German Primaphon label under the band name of “Joe Haider`s Soul Group”. Besides Klaus Weiss, Joe Haider belongs to the few of the “seriously acclaimed” jazz artists on this compilation, with an extensive catalogue and an excellent reputation worldwide. This early track comes from the vaults of producer and publisher O.B. Hartmann and was transfered from the original master tapes.

Berry Lipman:
Berry Lipman produced his very own easy “wall of sound” concept in the 70s and 80s after being succesful as a pop producer in the 60s under his real name Friedel Berlipp. As a highly demanded composer, arranger and producer, Lipman was responsible for over 5000 productions in various fields, among them many easy listening tunes but also carefully produced soundtracks and amazing soul dancers for selected sound publishing - “so not all were bad”, as he recalls today. For this compilation, Berry drops the unreleased soul beat “BL Special” from his personal archive, while the jungle funk-like “Exotic Drums”, actually an alternative version of “Hot Track” released on his Star Maidens Soundtrack, can only be found on a promotional Lp pressed for the shower soap “Fa”. “Very Berry” – of course.

Gus Brendel:
Gustav Brendel is a fine German jazz musician, who worked with many of the big artists but never went to recording fame under his own name. Well  known within the scene, he recorded the memorable version of Peter Look`s “Sax On The Rocks” with Kai Rautenberg on organ, Dai Bowen on drums, Juergen Ehlers on bass guitar, Ingo Kramer on guitar and the stomping brass band of the “Rias Tanzorchester” in 1968 at Audio Studio Berlin. This track is  previously unreleased and soon got lost in the archives of  Europhon publishing, only to be found on a scarce German library Lp of the same origin. A second lost track from another occasion, recorded 1966 at Meistersaal/ Potsdamer Platz in Berlin feat. Sigfried Schwab on guitar, will see the light of day within a second volume of  this compilation series.

Ambros Seelos:
Ambros Seelos founded his international entertainment orchestra as early as 1960, soon building up an international reputation and still playing the venues today within his unique group of musical fellows. Over the years, he got involved in numerous productions with entertainment stars, played with many of the big names in the international jazz circuit and toured Asia. Most of his recordings were produced for library use aswell as for the Saba and MPS label. Recently, the amazing version of “Mabusso” rose to fame among the blaxploitation followers and collectors of European Rare Groove. The philly soundtrack-like “Brass Glitter” was composed by fellow artist Horst Michalke and differs from the remastered version of the commonly known “Groove Collection”-CD by Ambros Seelos. This raw original take of “Brass Glitter” comes from the vaults of Europhon library and is previously unreleased.

Fred Rabold:
Fred Rabold founded his Orchestra after World War II and was immediately booked to AFN Radio or French and American officer`s clubs in Germany. The musicians travelled France in the 50s, accompanying stars like Josephine Baker and soon played hugely successful tv-shows or gala evenings after their return to Germany in the 60s. The highly effectful “Intercity” was recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, right after the orchestra had successfully revived its former Big Band sound, spicing it up here with funky and psychedelic guitar work up to the max. “Intercity” was only included on the long deleted Lp “Tanzparty mit Fred Rabold” on his very own and seldom seen Fred Rabold imprint. After Fred Rabold passed away in 1993, his son Dominique appeared in his place for arranging the orchestra`s excellent activities and affairs until today.

Eugen Illin:
Eugen Illin composed and arranged many movie scores for Czech, Polish or German television and cinema from the 60s until his death in the late 80s. Music legend and producer Hans Wewerka took notice of Illin`s unique sound and included many outstanding tracks into the “Musikverlage Hans Wewerka”-library based in Munich. Included here is the funky and accoustic guitar led “Madison Square “, that was conceived for the German tv-serial “Lerchenpark” and can only be found on the very seldom seen “Studies For Guitar And Drama Beat”-Lp, pressed in small amounts on the Brull library-label from the UK. To our surprise, a completely unknown second part of “Madison Square” was recently found in the Wewerka archives to be included into the follow-up of this first compilation volume.

Bob Elger:
Bob Elger was an early Alias for library legend Dr. Roland Kovac, who frequently recorded for Selected Sound Publishing in Hamburg. Besides being a classical trained musician on various instruments and doing a musical dissertation plus doctorate, Roland Kovac started extensive touring with his own orchestra through the American zone of Germany as early as 1945. Later on, the former “Sängerknabe” from Vienna worked as a pianist for the outstanding “Hans Koller New Jazz Stars” and for many well known jazz artists like Kurt Edelhagen or Erwin Lehn before turning into an independent music producer in 1963, mainly composing for tv and radio from then on. His deep and funk orientated jazz tunes within the Selected Sound library of the mid 70s secured him a cult following among collectors and DJs, while the included track “Beach Buggy” stands for his lighter but steamy soul beat from the early period of Selected Sound Publishing.

Gerhard Narholz:
Gerhard Narholz became famous as one of the biggest German music publishers. Starting with his company in the 70s, he soon established one of the biggest German libraries for popular music under the name of “Sonoton”. Only little is known about his personal musical output of the time, except for some occasional appearances on various international library recordings of the 70s and 80s. His fuzzy guitar work and funky moog beats of the previously unknown “Ufo Invasion” can be found on a long gone Studio One Library Lp entitled “The Pierre Lavin Pop Band”, played by Narholz and the Munich Studio Group. This track stands out as a surprising find compared to his light orchestral or minimal electronic compositions of the times.

Edgar Schlepper:
Edgar Schlepper is an independent music producer and pianist from Northern Germany, who was a keen worker behind the production and publishing scenes of the early 70s. In terms of odd music history, his unreleased “Wake Up In The Morning” is the most exotic track on this compilation. It was found on the second volume of an instructional gymnastics Lp for the women´s magazine “Brigitte”, a follow-up to the completely failed first volume produced by “sax god” Max Greger. These original tracks were recorded and shelved in 1973 and recently stripped down by the producer to the pure musical background without instructional voicings, finally showing great skills of a tight funk band built on heavy drum and bass, funky guitar and awesome flute playing. Watch out for more tracks from this raw and unreleased session material coming soon.

Klaus Esser:
Klaus Esser regularly assembled a 24 piece Big Band in his private Duesseldorf basement entitled “Studio Fis”. His formation originally started as a trio in the 60s and quickly expanded to the smaller combination “Ladykillers”. After people from all kinds of professions decided to meet every thursday at eight for the joy of a common hobby, they soon developed a fine repertoire of 170 titles under the name of “Klaus Esser Big Band”. The unique and sought after version of Don Sebesky`s “Soul Lady” remains the only cover version on this compilation, injecting the original with fresh funky treatments and a surprisingly tight rhythm,  taken from their fourth and privately pressed original Lp “Treffpunkt Studio Fis”. The Big Band is still going strong today, led by son Rainer Esser on a strictly non-commercial level, donating all fees for the orchestra to charitable organizations as “A Tribute to Klaus”. 

Ady Zehnpfennig:
Ady Zehnpfennig started his carreer on the accordion in 1958 and was infected by the fresh sounds of a new hammond organ while hanging out in a Cologne music store in the late 60s. Being attracted to the electronic organ as an instrument of infinite sound possibilities, he soon got an exclusive contract from the manufacturers of “Dr. Boehm”-organs in Minden as a solo artist for the recording of several demonstration discs with a bunch of musical fragments presenting  all instruments of Dr. Boehm as “state of the art”. The funky dope beat of “Easter Afternoon” was conceived as an “electronic-play-back” on the “Dr. Boehm Panorama-Sound”-organ with Dr. Boehm drums & Boehmat and remains to be a rare original gem from the faded Lp of the same name.


Compilation & liner notes by Ekkehart Fleischhammer, tracks digged by E.F. (A1, A3-7, B1-3) and Sellout aka Sebastian Dumjahn (A2, B4-7), puppet photo courtesy of Silke Binder, photos of Klaus Weiss and Joe Haider courtesy of Josef Werkmeister, final mastering by Jury Lutz, artwork by Patrick Haase & Ekkehart Fleischhammer, design by rab.bit.

Thanks to: Klaus Weiss, Berry Lipman, Gus & Klaus Brendel, Gerhard Narholz, Margit & Ambros Seelos, Edgar Schlepper, Dominique Rabold, Rainer Esser, Hans Wewerka, Siegi Pleyer, O.B. Hartmann, Matthias Bosch at Europaton, Sabine Luehring at Selected Sound, Erika Oltmanns & Sabine Burns at Sonoton, Tino Stoschek and Henry Storch at Unique, Dirk Brück & Ina Lübke at Groove Attack, Ben Addison, m. Prove, Agnes Lorenz, Silke Binder, Hauke Schmidt, Angela Caran and Josef Werkmeister.