Big Band | Michael's Jazz Blog

Inge Brandenburg was “the German jazz singer” of the 1960s. Despite of her incredible talent she was not able to succeed commercially as a Jazz musician. This year would be her 90th birthday but it is also the 20th anniversary of her death.

German film-maker and producer Marc Boettcher released a portrait of Inge Brandenburg in 2011 called “Sing! Inge, Sing!”. The Berlin based label unisono-records edited and remixed 18 unpublished songs out of the material for this film and released them with this album “I Love Jazz” for this anniversary.

Born 1929 in Leipzig, and grown up in difficult circumstances in Nazi-Germany, Inge Brandenburg was used to stand on her own feet. During the German economic miracle, she was suddenly celebrated as the best European jazz singer, compared by Time magazine with Billie Holiday. But the German audience ignored the talent of the outstanding jazz singer and the record industry tried to reduce her (unsuccessfully) to „Schlager“-music. The story of her life became a sad story: after being ignored by record labels she became an alcoholic, she lived from social welfare and she died alone and almost forgotten in 1999 in Munich. The film and now this album are a great reminiscence of Inge Brandenburg and the Jazz orchestras of the radio stations in the 1960s in Germany.

The 18 songs of the album are a colorful mix of Jazz standards, musical and pop songs, sung in German or English, recorded live or in the studio with combos and jazz orchestras and contain illustrious names of the German jazz scene like Paul Kuhn & SFB Big Band, The Klaus Doldinger Quartet, WDR jazz orchestra with Dusko Gojkovich and Erwin Lehn & the SDR big band.

The songs have been carefully revised and remastered by Patrick Römer from unisono-records and they show not only the amazing voice of Inge Brandenburg but also the vitality of the scene in the 1960s in Germany with all those great jazz orchestras and their incredible arrangers.

The album starts with “A Taste of Honey”, recorded in 1970 with Erwin Lehn & SDR big band, straight and easy played and sung.

We hear the same band in the next song “Like A Straw”, a composition by Wolfgang Dauner and lyrics by Inge Brandenburg. A quite challenging melody with big interval jumps that are mastered perfectly.

“Cry Me A River” comes next, again with Erwin Lehn and his orchestra, recorded in 1963. The remarkable arrangement was done by Joki Freund and Inge shows that she is able to interpret this well known song in her own and unique way.

The next song “Zeig Mir Was Liebe Ist (Show Me What Love Is)” is a composition by trombonist Peter Herbolzheimer with lyrics from Inge Brandenburg. This is a pop song from the 1970s, very entertaining with a mad trumpet solo. The lyrics are in typical “Schlager” style, but I like this song a lot, nice harmonies and a great band.

“Summertime” comes next. This song was recorded in 1963 with the Klaus Doldinger Quartet. After a free first verse the band plays the song just easy swinging in an unusual 3/4 meter.

“Was Weisst Du von Liebe (You Don’t Know What Love Is)”, one of my favorite ballads, was recorded in 1964 again with Erwin Lehn and his orchestra and impresses with the sound of that era, sweet saxophones and dampened trumpets.

“Moritat von Mackie Messer (Mack The Knife)” is the next song. The Berlin-based RIAS orchestra plays this classic nice and easy swinging and I enjoy to hear a version with the original German lyrics by Bertolt Brecht.

“Stella by Starlight” from 1959 with the WDR big band (with Dusko Gojkovich on trumpet) is definitely my highlight on the album. Inge Brandenburg always wanted to sing jazz and this song is for me the proof that she really understood this music as good as the great jazz singers from the US and it’s really a shame that she never could make a career with her talent.

“What’s the Matter Daddy” live recorded in 1964 with the Klaus Doldinger Quartet shows the bluesy side of Inge’s singing. Highlight of the song is the last verse where she and Klaus Doldinger on sax have their duet-duel and really push it to a grand finale.

The album continues with the jazz standard “But Not For Me”. A very clean and transparent recording with pianist Klaus Koenig and his trio. The song was live recorded in 1965 in Zurich for the Swiss radio series “Jazz Live”.

“Zähle nicht immer die Stunden (Do Not Always Count The Hours)” by Heinrich Riethmüller (he became famous by writing the German lyrics of Disney’s The Jungle Book) is the next song. This ballad was recorded in 1961 with the NDR big band and impresses with an outstanding arrangement and Inge’s soft but accurate singing.

“Makin’ Whoopee” sung in German with an excellent translation of the lyrics by Paul Kuhn and Inge’s humorous interpretation keep the spirit of this funny song.

“St. Louis Blues” again with Klaus Koenig and his trio is very jazzy and bluesy and right in line with Inge Brandenburg’s favorite kind of music. Great pleasure in this jam-style song.

“Hello Little Boy” is a rock’n’roll tune recorded in 1961. Inge is singing and growling and she and the band have a lot of fun in this up-tempo song that is full of energy.

The next song is the classic Jazz standard “On The Sunny Side of the Street” with the SFB orchestra. A great arrangement by Jerry van Royen and Inge shows her ability to sing in a low pitch. Patrick Römer from unisono records told me that he found out that his father Rolf Römer (sax) plays with the SFB orchestra on this recording. Nice surprise.

“Round Midnight” with the Michael-Naura-Quartet from 1963 comes next. Inge’s voice alone carries us through the song, not much of background is needed and the band plays very discreet and reserved.

The song “Das Riesenrad (The Ferris Wheel)” brings us back to the recording session from 1970 with the SDR big band which we could hear in “Like A Straw” – another composition by Wolfgang Dauner with lyrics from Inge. A nicely swinging medium fast song with a challenging arpeggio-like melody.

The last tune on the album is the title song “I Love Jazz”. This dixie-style tune was recorded in 1961 with the NDR big band, that plays here more like a marching band then as a swing orchestra. A funny closing song for this album and another perfect example of the versatility of Inge Brandenburg singing.

The 18 songs on this album are a great reminiscence of Inge Brandenburg and an entertaining and impressive compilation of an almost forgotten incredible Jazz singer from Germany. The bands and the arrangers are the best you could find at this period and so this album is also a great retrospective of German big band music.

Also, special thanks to Marc Boettcher and Patrick Römer for collecting, analyzing and selecting the material and for polishing it in a way that the spirit of this era and the sound expectation of today blend well with each other.

This album is a perfect combination of vocal jazz and big band music and if you enjoy this you will not be disappointed. For all non German-speaking readers it is a great opportunity to discover that it is possible to swing and groove in German.

This is the English press info PDF file with all the details about the album: I Love Jazz – Press Info

Here is the (German) trailer of the movie “Sing! Inge, Sing!”:

I added the press info PDF for the movie (in English) which contains a great biography: Movie – Press Info

And finally a playlist on Spotify:

Mathias Heise is a 25 year old harmonica player, pianist and composer from Denmark. He released a fantastic album of his original compositions arranged for The Danish Radio Big Band last September. The album is called ‘The Beast’ and it refers to Mathias impression of a big band: “A big band has incredible musical powers – almost like a beast that has to be tamed. But once you’ve tamed it, it can do incredible things”.

Fascinated by the sound and the possibilities of a big band it is a dream that became reality with this album. Some of the band members have been Mathias’ teachers and so we also see here the passing of the torch to the next generation of jazz musicians.

The album starts with ‘Para Mi Madre’ a soft and relaxed latin-style song Mathias has written for his mother. The tune has a great melody and a very easy groove that shows the excellence of this band. The soloists are Gerard Presencer on flugelhorn and Nicolai Schultz on flute and these two instruments emphasize the soft character. This tune is one of my favorites on the album.

Para Mi Madre (With English subtitles)

‘Brain Soup’ is the second song and this song is much more serious stuff. Beginning with a heavy groove the brass sections play an almost improvisational melody in what Mathis Heise called ‘bombastical block harmonization’. The solo is based on modal harmonic sequences but handled perfectly by Mathias Heise. The song has a second part where Jakob Munck Mortensen sings some strange lyrics, accompanied initially by the rhythm section but ending with the brass section playing long notes and Peter Fuglsang on soprano sax improvising over these sound layers. An ambitious sound collage but performed excellently.

The album continues with the title song ‘The Beast’. It starts with the piano playing dissonant seconds over a steady pulse pushed by bass and drums. Tenor sax and a distorted guitar play the melody of the A part, the flugelhorn plays long notes in the B part of the song. The first solo goes to Per Gade on guitar followed by Karl-Martin Almqvist on tenor sax, Kaspar Vadsholt on electric bass and pianist Nikolaj Bentzon. This song features the incredible rhythm section of this big band.

Mathias Heise on harmonica returns with the next song ‘Repetition’, an ambitious composition. Mathias says about this tune: “The melodic DNA of ‘Repetition’ is made up of eight notes/intervals that are repeated over and over, but in new ways. The composition is inspired by the principles of the fugue, by Arnold Schönberg’s tone rows and also by Per Nørgård’s infinity series, which enabled me to construct an infinite – in principle – series of notes from the eight original ones”. And he continues: “I see the composition as a representation of the eternal repetition of life in new and beautiful ways”.

‘Evening Coffee’, dedicated to Mathias’ grandparents, is a beautiful ballad, starting with harmonica, guitar, bass and drums and the big band focusing on long notes creating harmonic layers. The first solo goes to Nicolai Schultz on flute followed by duets of flute/harmonica and guitar/harmonica.

‘One Man Army’ was written in honor of Mathias’ philosophical hero, Karl Popper. The song features Nikloaj Bentzon on piano. Bass and drums produce again a steady pulse on which harmonica and piano can rather freely improvise. The big band gets a chance to play an ‘a cappella’ interlude without rhythm section before we hear the main theme again.

One Man Army (Unfortunately Danish subtitles only)

‘Sudden Ascent’ is already the last song of Mathias Heise with the Danish Radio Big Band. Mathias says: “Sudden Ascent is one of my oldest pieces of music, which I composed back in 2013, and I’ve always dreamed of being able to arrange it for big band”. Again, drums, bass and piano provide a pushing groove, the arrangement gives all sections one more chance to shine and we hear excellent solos by Hans Ulrik on tenor sax, Søren Frost on drums in dialog with Mathias Heise on harmonica. This song ends with a great trumpet finale.

The last song on the album is like an encore: ‘Kærlighedsmusik til Anne (Love Song)’ with Mathias Heise playing piano and harmonica. A beautiful ballad in a nice ‘blue’ mood, the harmonies modulate between major and minor and the harmonica got some extra reverb creating additional space.

The songs from the album have been performed live with Mathias Heise as headliner when The Danish Radio Big Band toured Denmark last September. Every single concert received standing ovations from the audience as well as outstanding reviews. ‘The Beast’ even managed to get a full page review in one of Denmark’s biggest broadsheet newspapers ‘Politiken’, which is very rarely seen when it comes to jazz.

To sum it up: An ambitious album with a fantastic big band and a great young artist who earned to be featured this way. Mathias Heise got the chance to materialize his dream and he took this opportunity and created a masterpiece. Please listen!

And finally the album on Spotify:

Michael's Jazz Blog

Tag Archives: Big Band

Inge Brandenburg: I Love Jazz

Mathias Heise & The Danish Radio Big Band: The Beast

Jazz Music – Jazz Concerts