A1 You Stepped Out Of A Dream (5:00), Written By Nacio Herb Brown , Gus Kahn
A2 Body And Soul (7:10), Written By Edward Heyman , Johnny Green
A3 Round Midnight (8:30), Written By Thelonious Monk
B1 Hello, Tony! (7:25), Written By Václav Zahradník
B2 Yesterdays (9:00), Written By Jerome Kern
B3 When The Saints Go Marching In (4:05), Traditional

(play all) 

Arranged By – Václav Zahradník
Arranged By, Trombone – Slide Hampton
Artwork By – Josef Zich , Miloslav Žáček
Bass – Klaus Koch
Drums – Billy Brooks
French Horn – Emanuel Hrdina , Vladěna Bouchalová
Guitar – Rudolf Dašek
Photography – Pavel Vácha
Piano – Vince Benedetti
Producer, Recorded By – František Řebíček*
Recorded By – Jan Spálený , Tony Matzner
Saxophone – Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky , Johnny Griffin , Mihály Ráduly , Ozren Depolo , Ronnie Ross
Trombone – Erich Kleinschuster , Jan Hynčica , Lumir Zrucký , Zdeněk Pulec
Trumpet – Dizzy Reece , Jaroslav Lautner , Jiří Izera , Miloslav Bureš
Tuba – Petr Fleischer
Vibraphone – Karel Velebný

Recorded at the Supraphon Studio in Dejvice, Prague, from 18th to 20th october, 1972

The third and final Zahradník-Record I own. This has been posted here before, but I just do it again with more pics and tracks. Slide Hampton came back to the CSSR in 1972 to work with Zahradník on this record and again brought some friends with him, this time Johny Griffin, Ronnie Ross, Dizzy Reece and others. The concept changed abit for this record, no more soloing but a more “balanced BigBand-Sound” the linernotes say. Abit of a downer for me, compared to the other two records this one is abit weaker, but still a great one (and if you have three records one has got to be the “worst”, even if it’s actually great. You get my drift).
Also there is only one track written by Zahradník on this record, B1 “Hello, Tony!”, which is actually the one I like most. But the rest is great too, most notably A1 “You Stepped Out Of A Dream” and A3 “Round Midnight”.

The usual links :

Vaclav Zahradnik – Euro Jazz :
Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm | discogs | google

Vaclav Zahradnik :
Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm | discogs | google

That’s it for my Zahradník records altough I know of atleast one more I would like to have, “Jazz goes Beat“. Let’s hope this one crosses my way sometime in the future.

And in other news, I set up an Eastern-Crates on Myspace-Account, it’s not finished yet, but if you want to be friends with this page then just send me a friendship-request. Would be nice to see who is reading this.

A1 The End Of Love (4:40), Written By Slide Hampton , Václav Zahradník
A2 B&S (Suite In 3 Parts) (7:35), Written By Slide Hampton
A3 Gardener’s Waltz (7:00), Written By Slide Hampton
B1 Jeanette (10:40), Written By Václav Zahradník
B2 Fashank In Blues (8:35), Written By Rudolf Dašek

(play all)

Artwork By – Miloslav Žáček
Bass – Barre Phillips
Clarinet, Saxophone – Dušan Húščava , Jan Václavík , Jaoslav Hájek (tracks: B1, B2) , Miroslav Krýsl , Rudolf Ticháček (tracks: A1 to A3)
Drums – Stu Martin
Flute – Jiří Stivín , Jiří Válek
Guitar – Rudolf Dašek
Photography – Vilém Sochůrek
Piano, Electric Piano – Laco Gerhardt
Recorded By – František Řebíček , Tony Matzner
Saxophone – John Surman
Trombone – Jan Hynčica , Josef Petržilka , Miroslav Koželuh , Slide Hampton , Zdeněk Pulec
Trumpet – Jan Čapoun (tracks: A1 to A3) , Jiří Hlava , Jiří Jelínek (tracks: B1, B2) , Miloslav Bureš , Nikola Janev (tracks: A1 to A3) , Nikola Janev (tracks: B1, B2)
Tuba – Petr Fleischer
Vibraphone – Karel Velebný

Recorded at the Supraphon Studios Prague on March 31, April 1 and 2 1972.

Another record by Václav Zahradník, this time with Slide Hampton. Zahradník and Hampton had been performing together at the International Jazz Festival Prague in 1969 and Hampton was so impressed by Zahradník that he came back in March 1971 with a few friends. Most known might be Stu Martin who was the drummer for Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones for some time. And the drumming is one of the best parts of this record.

This record is definately in my Overall-Top5. The unique approach of Zahradník I refered to earlier is extremely well done on this record, it is amazing how he manages to combine BigBand-Sound with raw Jazz. Especially noteworthy is A2 – B&S (Suite in 3 parts), an absolute masterpiece in my book. Have fun with this. Also noteworthy is that Tony Matzner obviously experimented with Cutting-Tape-Technics, B2 – “Fashank in Blues” contains a rather audible cut at 7:36, probably done with the Master-Tape (no computers back then, remember).
A funny sidenote is also that A3 – Gardener’s Waltz (written by Slide Hampton) is actually a hommage to Václav Zahradník because “Zahradník” means “Gardener” in czech.

The usual links :

Vaclav Zahradnik and Slide Hampton – B&S :
Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm | discogs | google

Vaclav Zahradnik :
Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm | discogs | google

A1 Blow I (7:15), Written By Rudolf Dašek
A2 Jaumeau (12:45), Written By Václav Zahradník
B1 Intima (5:05), Written By Milienko Prohaska
B2 Ritual (5:20) Written By Andrei Tovmosian
B3 Autumn Sun (9:35) Written By Milcho Leviev

(play all)

Arranged By – Václav Zahradník
Bass – Klaus Koch
Drums – Andrzej Dabrowski
Flute, Saxophone – Simeon Shtierev
Guitar, Sitar – Rudolf Dašek
Percussion – Petr Šprunk
Piano – Laco Gerhardt
Produced By, Recorded By – Tony Matzner
Recorded By – František Řebíček , Jan Chalupský
Saxophone – Dan Mindrila , Mihály Ráduly , Ozren Depolo , Raimond Raubischko , Václav Maňas
Trombone – Andrzej Brzeski , Hubert Katzenbeier , Zdeněk Pulec
Trumpet – Jiří Izera , Miloslav Bureš , Václav Týfa
Tuba – Petr Fleischer

Recorded At The Supraphon Studios Prague In October 1970

I couldn’t get too much info together. Václav Zahradník was born 1942 and died 2001 in Prague. During his short life (61 years, really a shame) he had alot of different orchestras (or more probably always the same one with different personell and names) apart from an acting career in movies and television. I personally own three records from him that I consider to be true gems in my collection.

The great thing on all these records is that he managed to mix the typical BigBand-Sound with a more freejazz-inspired, raw approach. Imagine a musician soloing off accompanied by a huge band playing the rhythmical/tonal background. Check the tunes to get what I mean.

This record features exclusively musicians from eastern countries (as the title says) aswell as only compositions from eastern composers/jazzers. It was a present from a very dear friend, thanx again for that !

The usual links :

Vaclav Zahradnik – Interjazz :
Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm | discogs | google

Vaclav Zahradnik :
Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm | discogs | google

BTW, I got myself a discogs-account to add the info from this site onto discogs or vice versa. You can check my discogs-userpage here.

A1 Du bist heute wie neu (You seem like someone else today)
A2 Alles vorbei (All over)
A3 Verdammt (Damn it)
A4 Sie (You)

B1 Als der Opa von uns ging (When Grandpa passed away)
B2 Damals, weißt du noch (Back then, do you remember)
B3 Wenn der Urlaub kommt (When Holiday is coming)
B4 In einem Regen (In a rain)
B5 Das geht mir ans Herz (That’s moving my hard)

(play all tracks)

with Manfred Krug, Günther Fischer (he is the left one on the cover, btw), Christiane Wunder, the Gerd-Michaelis-Choir, Gerhard Pabst, Friedrich Schlegel, Heinz Becker, Joachim Graswurm, Hubert Katzenbeier, Freddy Lehmann, Horst Schmidt, Götz Geitner, Werner Schmidt, Helmut Wenzel, Klaus Smesny, the string-orchestra Otto-Karl Beck

Okay, so let’s have the last one and I can call it a night.

This is the fourth and final record of Manfred Krug and Günther Fischer, one year after the release of this record Manfred Krug left the GDR for good.

The music on this one is (ofcourse) great and again (as on most other Günther Fischer records) greatly due to one man : Wolfgang “Zicke” Schneider. He was the drummer in (as far as I know) every Günther-Fischer-Band and his drumstyle is really amazing and if you are into making music you probably even know him although you never heard his name because his drumming got sampled quite some time. More on that later.

As I wrote he was the drummer on most Günther Fischer records (for example also on both Uschi Brüning records (1, 2) I posted so far) and he got recognized for it up to a point that beat-diggers actually started collecting specifically his records. Which is probably the reason why he got his own Discogs-Page. And actually he his still playing in a band called “Jazzin the Blues”, you can try to make some sense of this automatic translation of his bio on their webpage.

And one final funny sidenote on all records: the labels say “lyrics written by Clemens Kerber” which is actually a pseudonym for Manfred Krug himself. As is “Isa Karfunkelstein”, the interviewer on the backside of this record.

But off to the tracks :

A1 Du bist heute wie neu (You seem like someone else today) is yet another bomb. Say what you want, but Günther Fischer got the concept of a great opener nailed. The song is about a guy not realizing that it’s the anniversary day with his wife, despite all her efforts. The buildup of the song is great, an amazing mix of disco, funk and pop. Also it is a great example of the progress Krug made, compare that to the first record, he actually got a tight rhythm and really starts to express his voice. And that amazing sax-solo by Günther Fischer in the middlepart just fits.

A4 Sie (You) is a song about him helping a woman with her lovesickness, and no, not that way. Great ballad, but really listen to the drumming, blows me away totally.

B3 Wenn der Urlaub kommt (When Holiday is coming) contains the drumloop which is for example part of the dnbmassive collection and a few commercial sample-cds possibly known to some people. The song is about the problem planning a holiday (with the special problems of east-germans regarding that matter) with the conclusion of just staying at home. The music is just a wild ride, again with a sax-solo (they were coming back in popular music in the late 70s).

B4 In einem Regen (In a rain) is a song about him and his wife which he first met in a rain long ago and about them still loving to go for a walk when it rains. Just listen to that guitar funking off at the side, the amazing drumming or his vocals. Great track aswell.

Check this records discogs-entry here.

And again the links to the CD-ReIssues: This record (together with the unposted third LP) is avaiable on CD at Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com, the other CD with the first and second LP here : Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com. Or try gemm for the vinyl.

This concludes the series of Manfred Krug as I don’t have any other vinyl from him. But I do have one other, last gem that will appear some time later.
But there is more Günther Fischer in my crates, although the next records will most probably be some hungarian funk or some czech or russian jazz.

A1 Du sagtest leider nur “Gut Nacht” (You only said “good night”, unfortunately)
A2 Frag mich, warum (Ask me why)
A3 Der Tag beginnt (The day begins)
A4 Gestern war der Ball (Yesterday was a dance)
A5 Unser Abend war wunderbar (Our evening was great)
A6 Das war nur ein Moment (It was just a moment)

B1 Hör auf! (Stop it!)
B2 Du gehst (You leave)
B3 Nacht, ich träumte düster (At night, I had nightmares)
B4 Als ich rief nach dir (When I called for you)
B5 Ende der Platte (End of Record)

(play all tracks)

with Manfred Krug, Günther Fischer, Ulrich Gumpert, Fred Baumert, Günter Dobrowolsky, Wolfgang “Eddie” Greiser, Wolfgang “Zicke” Schneider, Gerhard Pabst, Wolfgang Domschke, Hans-Joachim Graswurm, Heinz Becker, Horst Schmidt, Götz Geithner, Hubert Katzenbeier, Fredi Lehmann, Michaelis Choir, String Ensemble Kurt Beck

Manfred Krug is a real icon in Germany. He actually grew up in Westgermany but his father moved to Eastgermany in 1949 when he was ten. Soon after becoming an adult he started acting in theatres and in the movies. Later he also started singing, mostly jazz and recorded quite a few records.
Due to alot of political troubles (which seem to be hard to judge from my informations, Reinhard Lakomy for example wrote a few harsh words about Krug and those troubles in his autobigraphy and I tend to believe him) he left the GDR in 1977 and went to Westgermany where he continued acting and recording music.
For some strange reason though his acting career excelled there (he played in a few very successful and long-seasoned TV-Series) while his musical career came to a grinding halt which actually leads to the funny situation that people from west-germany are very astonished if they hear the music he made back in the GDR, because to people from western germany he is mainly known as “the singing detective” from “Tatort”. The fact that he is a real icon is backed up by the simple fact that he actually got his own english wikipedia page.

But back to this record. It’s called “No.1″ and is actually the first of four he made with the help of Günther Fischer, but it’s not his real first, he had a few singles, tracks on compilations and even a full LP on Amiga before that one. The first LP called “Manfred Krug und die Modern Jazz Big Band” (1965) which is a recording of a live-gig and is amazingly raw, jazzy, great and extremely rare. I have seen that LP physically about three times in the past years, two times in shops for 80 and 120 Euro and one time a completely banged up version in a library.

But as I said, this is the first one with Günther Fischer and this is nearly all you need to know. It’s filled with fast funky tracks and slow jazzy ballads and there are the best instrumentalists of the GDR from that time on this one, it is just amazing.
On this first record the singing of Manfred Krug is not yet completey “tight”, but his sloppy style of hitting the notes and rhythm does actually add a lot of character to this record. It’s filled with songs about love and it is one of those rare records that you can listen trough from start to end.

About the tracks :

A1 Du sagtest leider nur “Gut Nacht” (You only said “good night”, unfortunately) is a story about him unsuccessfully trying to seduce a woman he brought home (yeah, he was a real playboy although his songs are quite romantic), most funny thing is a small reference to the cathedral in cologne (a city in western germany). Also all the small breaks troughout the song are very notable.

A3 Der Tag beginnt (The day begins) is a song about him falling in love with a girl he is seeing every morning on the train and him trying to gather the courage to talk to her. Especially noteworthy is the arrangement and the way this song builds up over time aswell the phaser-effect instead of a proper first chorus, sounds great.

A6 Das war nur ein Moment (It was just a moment) is a song about searching for love, starts very ballad-like, breaks down to a small amazing middlepart (wait for this, some downtempo-acts would make an entire tune out of this sample) and gets balladesk again. Very notably is also the doubling of his voice, he is basically singing his own background.

B3 Nacht, ich träumte düster (At night, I had nightmares) is a song about him losing his wife to a friend of his (and getting over it) and this song actually means alot to me because I experienced exactly the same thing some years ago. The whole arrangement of this song is amazing, a storyteller (him) is talking to the singer (him too), commenting on and asking about the lyrics. Also the song breaks down a few times, not unlike modern dancetracks. Best quote is the rather untranslatable “So mancher Freund ist nur ein Busenfreund”, meaning something like “sometimes a friend is just a friend of breasts” (though much more stylish in german).

And I do have some amazing news : This record (and the three follow-ups which will be posted later here) are actually avaiable worldwide as CD-ReIssues for an insanely low price (two records on one CD, used prices at under 3 Euro, Pounds and Dollar). The easiest way to get some of the best and original eastern funk. Check Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com for the CD containing this and the second record from Manfred Krug/Günther Fischer. If you don’t want to wait for the eastern-crates.com posts about the other records you can get the second ReIssue of the third and fourth LP also on Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. But ofcourse you can also hit gemm for the vinyl.

As always, you can also have a google search for Manfred Krug or Günther Fischer.

Tracklist :

A1 – O cyzm marza zakochani (what the lovers dream of)
A2 – Walc katarynek (barrel-organ waltz)
A3 – Gdzie szumiace topole (two rustling poplars)
A4 – Listki brzozy polnej (leaves of a birch-tree)
A5 – Jada wozy kolorow (painted wagons are coming)

B1 – Zapiszemy nasza milosc (we shall write down our love)
B2 – Nie zmogla go kula (bullet couldn’t fell him)
B3 – Dialog o polnocy (midnight dialogue)
B4 – Kwiat jedney nocy (flower of one night)
B5 – Plasy pod pegazem (dancing in the pegasus bar)

(play all tracks)

with Janusz Hojan, Waclaw Lesicki, Jan Kuzio and “Zespol Instrumentalny Jerzego Miliana” (his band, presumably), songs by Jerzy Milian, Pjotr Figiel, Wladimir Nahorny, S. Rembowski, Katarzyna Gärtner, J. Loranc

Anyone looking into polish jazz will very soon stumble over Jerzy Milian. His amazing style playing the vibraphone (vibes) and the fact the he recorded loads of records (classics like “Bazaar”, “Ashkabad Girl” or his record with the Katowiche Orchestra) made him one of the most known jazz-musicians from poland, even back in times of the cold war.

This record is a very rare one which I didn’t even know about until I found it at the closing-sale of a local record-shop. The great thing is that this record is extremely versatile, you get anything from slow, easy songs to incredibly fast and energetic bursts of music, but each song containing the amazing vibes (or xylophone) from Jerzy Milian.

There is a (home-?) page for Jerzy Milian in polish which contains an extensive discography, but as always you can also search on google.

Links :
Jerzy Milian – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm | discogs

Tracklist :

A1 – Ohne Lieder leben (living without songs)
A2 – An H.E. (for H.E. (H.E. being Hanns Eisler)) (snippet)
A3 – Vielleicht (maybe)

B1 – Einen Tag lang (for one day)
B2 – Gestern abend (yesterday evening) (snippet)
B3 – Er verließ mich vor dem Morgen (he left me before dawn)

(play all tracks)

Uschi Brüning (voc), Günther Fischer (ld, fl, ss, as, synth), Mario Peters (voc, el-p), Fred Baumert (g), Wolfgang “Eddie” Greiser (b, bg), Wolfgang “Zicke” Schneider (d), Streichergruppe Otto Karl Beck.

This is a live recording of a show done in east berlin and it rocks. I really love the music here, the full song for today is A1 – “Ohne Lieder leben” and its one of my own personal hymns, the lyrics basically point out that a life without music is impossible – exactly what I think. One a more funny sidenote, the one thing that really annoys on this record is the audience because whenever there is more than one second silence they begin to applaud, even if its only a small break in the song. Sometimes they start clapping three times troughout a song, I don’t know whats up with that. But atleast they dont clap along with the songs – thats something that happens on a few russian and czecheslovakian live-records and tends to go an my nerves very fast. Guess thats what they called “having a good time”.

However, as I said, this is one of my personal all-time favourate records.

Some biography stuff that I happen to know :

Uschi Brüning was one of the big female vocalists from the GDR. She could release some records and worked with alot of the major composers and players from the GDR. She is still producing records and touring Germany, I have to say that I am kind of frustrated because I missed every concert she gave in my hometown for the past 5 years, somehow it was never meant to be.

Günther Fischer was a multi-talent and workaholic. He toured all the time, wrote loads of music, worked with all big vocalists from the GDR, played major jazz-festivals, did soundtracks and so on and so forth. The best thing about him is that almost anything he did was somehow jazz-oriented. I have about 10 records from or featuring him and every single one is great in some way. I don’t know what he is up to at the moment, unfortunately.

Wolfgang “Zicke” Schneider (“Zicke” means goat) was one of the best drummers from the GDR. He is featured on alot of records and had a very sophisticated drumming style. He is the drummer on the (lesser known) “Wenn der Urlaub kommt”-Break (from a record from Manfred Krug, will appear here soon).

You can search the web for Uschi Brüning and Günther Fischer.

Shopping Links :
Uschi Brüning – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm.com : here, here and here.
Günther Fischer – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm.com : here, here and here.

Tracklist :

A1 – Borodin suite (Alexander Borodin) – 13:20
A2 – Bach ‘75 (Johann Sebastian Bach) – 6:25 (snippet)

B1 – Säbeltanz (Sabledance, Aram Chatschaturjan) – 6.05
B2 – Prelude cis-moll op3. Nr.2 (Sergej Rachmaninov) – 4:40 (snippet)
B3 – In der Halle des Bergkönigs (In the Hall of the Mountain King, Edvard Grieg) – 3:05
B4 – Türkischer Marsch (Turkish March, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) – 3:53

(play all tracks)

Rainer Uebel (synthesizer, hammond), Wolfgang Riedel (bassguitar), Peter Ludewig (drums), Gisbert Koreng (guitar), Bernd Aust (sax, flute)

Electra was one of the major rockbands in the GDR, playing jazz-influenced rockmusic mostly. They released several records with german lyrics and had quite some success. This is their second which I wasn’t aware of until I found it at a backyard sale. It’s filled with jazz-adaptions of classical pieces from Bach, Mozart, Rachmaninov aswell as my favourate piece of music : B3 – “In der Halle des Bergkönigs” (“In the hall of the mountain king” by Edvard Grieg). I have to say that “Peer Gynt” by Grieg really started my interest in music. Someone played it for me at the age of eight and I remember that I was totally stunned by the sound of all those instruments playing the same melody. Before that I never cared much about music, but this opened my eyes and ears. And 14 years later I discovered this version by Electra.
This record means really much to me.

I also found a video on youtube which features the Turkish March played by Electra at a concert in 1999, have fun. Unfortunately Embedding is disabled, so click here to watch it.

This record is avaiable as Cd-ReIssue (together with “Sixtinische Madonna”, another Electra Record) on Amazon.de, unfortunately not on Amazon.co.uk or .com. But you can try to look on gemm.com for this record or look on google for more information.

Another “a la carte” record, this time it’s jazz (and its in stereo too, but has nothing to do with the “Stereo a la carte” record).
This is a compilation giving an overview about parts of the czecheslovakian jazz-scene at that time. This is really a great record, filled with very energetic and smooth Jazz, one of the records I pop on my turntable quite often. For someone totally new to chzecheslovakian jazz this might be a good record to begin with, but it seems to be rare. Bands featured include Hot Breath, Combo FH, Jazz Q and Jazz Sanatorium.

The Song I chose for today is B1 SHQ-”morning of a faun”, one of the best songs on this record. Altough the record itself was done in 1980 this song is from 1977.

It’s actually quite hard to find exactly this “Jazz a la carte” on gemm.com, maybe just take a look for records from SHQ, there are some for sale there.

This is one of those “technical demonstration” records about the effects possible with stereo recording, however it’s a little bit different from other records I heard where it’s basically one instrument being panned from left to right and back. Each song tells a story, and its quite a crazy record with lots of styles and little ideas about “stereo” in general. The song I chose is A7 – “All die schönen Tage”. The story of this song is about a small jazzband playing a song in a room while outside the window a big brass-band comes along playing the same song. Use headphones for this one or make sure to have a good stereoimage from your speakers, you will enjoy that.

As always, you can try your luck with this one on gemm.com but it seems to be quite rare. (When looking, be aware that the label is Amiga, not Decca).