Volker Kriegel

Guitarist Volker Kriegel was widely considered the daddy of Western jazz-rock because of his influential stint using the Dave Pike Collection and a subsequent group of pioneering single LPs for the MPS label. Given birth to in Darmstadt, Germany, on Dec 24, 1943, Kriegel was learning sociology beneath the famed philosopher Theodor W. Adorno when he started playing inside a Frankfurt-based group with German jazz legends Albert and Emil Mangelsdorff, ultimately abandoning his education to go after a full-time profession in music. Kriegel authorized on with expatriate American vibraphonist Pike in 1968, becoming a member of what would quickly emerge among the most widely used and important jazz fusion combos in Traditional western European countries via the acclaimed 1969 recording Noisy Silence — Mild Noise. While carrying on his association with Pike, Kriegel also founded his personal group, the Mild Maniac Orchestra, and in 1970 collaborated with violinist Don “Sugarcane” Harris within the MPS day Keep on Traveling. The guitarist after that signed his personal cope with the label to concern the 1971 jazz-rock landmark Range, the to begin ten MPS produces including such traditional times as 1973’s Lift! and 1975’s Topical Harvest. In 1976 Kriegel co-founded the United Jazz and Rock and roll Ensemble with a bunch of international music artists including Albert Mangelsdorff, American altoist Charlie Mariano, English saxophonist Barbara Thompson, and Dutch trumpeter Ack vehicle Rooyen, amongst others. This sprawling, ever-rotating collective was the guitarist’s main vehicle through the entire remainder of his carrying out career, which dropped by the wayside within the years to check out as he changed his focus on other innovative pursuits, especially writing some well-received children’s books including Der Rock and roll ‘n’ Move Konig (The Rock and roll ‘n’ Roll Ruler) and Olaf dem Elch (Olaf the Moose). The UJ+RE’s 2002 farewell tour also demonstrated Kriegel’s final minute in the limelight. After battling cancers, he passed away June 15, 2003.