Volker Kriegel with Mild Maniac Orchestra – Octember Variations (1977/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Volker Kriegel with Mild Maniac Orchestra – Octember Variations (1977/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 35:37 minutes | 657 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS

This first album of Volker Kriegel’s Mild Maniac Orchestra, one of Europe’s most influential and successful fusion groups. Keyboardist Thomas Bettermann would go on to record 8 albums with Kiegel, and bassist Hans Peter Ströer and Dutch drummer Evert Fraterman would continue to work with Kriegel for close to a decade. They were Kriegel’s rhythm section for all four of the Orchestra’s MPS dates. Funk You Very Much drives with a shake-your-booty beat and a powerful solo by renowned English saxophonist Allen Skidmore. There’s the warmth and fantasy of Ballad Garden and Palm Dreams with percussionist Nippi Noya, and Octember Variation continues the ethereal feel with Kriegel’s sitar sound and guest Wolfgang Dauner on synth. On Und Schön Ist Die Fahrt (And It’s a Beautiful Trip), outstanding guitar and keyboard solos resound over a relaxed funk groove, while Dora tells a story with a country flair, and Flugsteig B (Boarding Gate B) continues in country-funk fashion. Spiral Crackers is simply funkadelic. An album to sit back and snap your fingers and tap your feet to – better yet – get up and dance!

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Volker Kriegel – Volker Kriegel: Mainz Studio Recordings (1963-1969) [Remastered Extended Version] (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Volker Kriegel – Volker Kriegel: Mainz Studio Recordings (1963-1969) [Remastered Extended Version] (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 03:08:04 minutes | 1,95 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SWR Jazzhaus

When the Darmstadt teenager Volker Kriegel (1943-2003) officially debuted his first chords in the late 1950s, the guitar was still an outsider instrument in jazz. It could boast a few luminaries, but actually everything was still open when, in 1963 and 1964, the autodidact from Hessen won first prizes as guitarist and soloist at the amateur jazz festival in Düsseldorf. The debut recordings in 1963, which Südwestfunk (SWF) recorded with the nineteen-year-old guitarist in trio at the Deutschhaus in Mainz, and the 1969 studio sessions in the Kammersaal Studio, are worlds apart. For one thing, the guitar itself had carved out a career. On top of this, Kriegel had gained in self-confidence. But above all, he had found a counterpart in Claudio Szenkar, who opened up perspectives not only in terms of communication and composition but also through Kriegel’s own instrument. The combination of vibraphone and guitar was then still fairly new. In 1968, Kriegel decided to make music his main profession. Thanks to “With A Little Help from My Friends” and an appearance at the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, he achieved the breakthrough into public recognition. Together with the vibraphonist Dave Pike, the bassist Hans Rettenbacher and the drummer Peter Baumeister, he founded the Dave Pike Set, which became for four years his artistic center and a beacon combo of European jazz rock. And for the SWF (Südwestfunk, today SWR) he went twice into the sound studio. With the exceptions of The Beatles’s anthem “Norwegian Wood” and “Mother People” by the young guitar berserker Frank Zappa, hardly any pieces by other musicians are still to be heard in these recordings.

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Volker Kriegel – Lift! (1973/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Volker Kriegel – Lift! (1973/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 42:33 minutes | 881 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS

What a group Volker Kriegel assembled for this album! Polish Violinist Zbignew Seiferts was a player who worked with the jazz world’s elite and is still talked about with a sense of awe. Saxophonist Stan Sulzman has worked with musicians ranging from Paul McCartney to Gil Evans. John Taylor rates as one of the most important jazz pianists to come out of England; bassist Eberhard Weber and drummer John Marshall rank as two of the major European players on their respective instruments. On Kriegel’s Lift, short, pregnant solos weave through the pageantry of the piece, and Two or Three in One once again illustrates Kriegel’s compositional strength in this fusion fest with its affective violin and soprano solos. Weber’s ballad Forty Colors features Kriegel’s poignant acoustic guitar solo, whereas A piece With a Chord… is an up-tempo modal masterpiece in 3/4. Electric Blue shines in a quasi-Irish rock light with a powerful melodic riff and counter-melody as shadow. Seifert plays with devilish heat, followed by burning guitar and soprano solos. The Lame Donkey has the slow-tempo pictorial feel of an imagined movie score; with its beautifully arranged theme, Between the Seasons maintains a mellow rock grove, and Blue Titmouse takes wing with a rhythm track straight out of Shaft. Impressive compositions and arrangements coupled with standout solos by some of Europe’s premier jazz musicians.

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Volker Kriegel – Inside: Missing Link (1972/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Volker Kriegel – Inside: Missing Link (1972/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:22:59 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS

Volker Kriegel assembled a band of some of the leading musical visionaries on the European jazz scene for this 1972 double album. The first album contains four extended pieces in a hip mix of rock & jazz with pulsating arrangements and distinctive solos. Take a listen to Kriegel’s classy play on Slums on Wheels, with trombone icon Albert Mangelsdorff’s flashy solo followed by English saxophone giant Alan Skidmore’s scintillating soprano. The piece moves into an up-tempo jazz feel and German saxophone master Heinz Sauer’s passionate solo. The “E” Again features English keyboard legend John Taylor’s electrifying play, and Kriegel’s majestic solo. The Afro-jazz-rock of Zanzibar features powerful solos from the entire band. Freely interpreted ethno influences on Missing Link move into an English pop-rock mode with a mellow-toned trombone and intense guitar and sax solos. The horns take a seat on the last six pieces as Kriegel and Taylor shine in the spotlight. Für Hector is a jazzy up-tempo romp, and Remis hints of something south of the border. The exotic warmth of India pervades German bass great Eberhard Weber’s Tarang as he picks up the Indian instrument of the same name and then takes an expressive bass solo. Kriegel catches the melancholy ambiance of Brazillian icon Caetano Veloso’s poignant ballad Janellas Abertas. Plonk Whenever swings fast and furiously into the realm of free jazz, whereas on Kriegel’s Definitely Suspicious, an unaccompanied acoustic guitar bookends propulsive electric guitar and keyboard solos. On Finale Kriegel plays a filigree 14-second melodic strain. Exciting top-flight fusion!

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