Louis Armstrong came streaming from the radio of a US army truck (1945) in the backyard of Gunter Hampel’s home in Germany, and young Gunter, already immersed in European classical music, became intrigued with this new sound.
A variety of instruments began to occupy his hands including clarinet, vibes, saxophone, accordion and flute. Soon he was composing. He toured Europe with many groups, including his own, and worked with Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Steve McCall, Marion Brown, Lester Bowie, and his wife Jeanne Lee, to name just a few.
In 1969, he moved to New York, where Gunter founded his own recording label — BIRTH RECORDS
Photo Credit: Hans Kumpf
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Marion Brown: Three For Shepp To Gesprachsfetzen Revisited
by Mark Corroto
It’s not too late to catch up with alto saxophonist and composer Marion Brown. Thanks to this excellent reissue and remaster series, you can hear the innovative recordings from this master musician. This release follows his 1965/66 discs Capricorn Moon To Juba Lee Revisited (ezz-thetics, 2019) and 1966/67 discs Why Not? Porto Novo! Revisited (ezz-thetics, 2020). Chris May’s excellent liner notes posit an answer to Brown’s relative obscurity. He essentially lays the blame on marketing. Record labels and …
Marion Brown: Three For Shepp To Gesprachsfetzen Revisited
by Chris May
“It is often those we hear the least that we should listen to the most.” So wrote the Guadeloupean pianist Jonathan Jurion on the release of his album Le Temps Fou: The Music Of Marion Brown (Komos, 2019). Just why Marion Brown has become such a rarely acknowledged figure is unclear. He possessed all the qualifications needed to go large plus a few extras for good measure. He was a good-looking man. He dressed well (telling Dave …
Gunter Hampel: Vibes Vibes (Vibrafon Solos 2008)
by Marc Medwin
Glass, shimmer, impressionism and cool all vie for prominence throughout these excursions into the multiplicitous world multi-instrumentalist Gunter Hampel creates on every solo . Logical proportions are exposed only to disappear; tones glisten, swell and fade, either in rapid succession or in glacial dance. This is only the second solo release from the prolific improviser on his own label, a company which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and a more fitting one would be hard to imagine.
Gunter Hampel Group: Music From Europe
by Jerry D’Souza
Gunter Hampel (vibraphone, bass clarinet and flute) grew up studying German folk and European classical music. When he was eight he heard Louis Armstrong and jazz for the first time. Though he did not understand a word of English, he felt Armstrong communicating with him. This had an indelible influence and Hampel went on to win several jazz competitions. Hampel became a professional jazz musician in 1958 when he was 21. His ideas moved in a different direction …
Gunter Hampel Group: Music From Europe
by Raul d’Gama Rose
Although it is simply called Music From Europe, the Gunter Hampel Group’s first foray into America in 1966, could well have joined the ranks of several early (1950s) recordings by MJQ or John Lewis and Dizzy Gillespie’s Perceptions (Verve, 1961) as one of those earliest examples of where the musical cultures of classical Europe and jazz USA collide. Perhaps the title is even deliberate; a tongue-in-cheek reminder that jazz–although, in its absolute form a musical idiom evolved …
Dances; On Fire Hierseins-Erfahrungen; Emission
by Javier AQ Ortiz
Musical vanguardist and multi-instrumentalist Gunter Hampel has been under the spell of jazz since the end of WWII. By the end of the ’50s, he was already a full-fledged European professional jazz musician and by the ’60s, he had made lasting inroads into the North American jazz scene. Operating out of Germany and the USA, after living in New York and several European cities throughout his life, Hampel continues to be active at jazz’ leading edge. His notable career involves …
Gunter Hampel: Bringing Music to the People
by AAJ Staff
Submitted on behalf of Gunter Hampel. As a composer, arranger, bandleader and now the owner of BIRTH Records, I have been undergoing changes in publishing my music on LPs, CDs, cassettes and video. As a new carrier, the DVD has arrived and seems to be the new way of bringing music to the people. Actually, in the ’80s, when CDs were coming out, I didn’t believe it as the successor to the the LP. The …
Gunter Hampel Vibes-BCL-Flute & Haitian Vodou Percussions Poets Club Bowery -New York
Source:
All About Jazz
GUNTER HAMPEL IN NEW YORK march 1-april 7th performance update upcoming live performances
march 1st 5 pm Hunter College -black box-Room HN 543 performing SOLO on vibes, bassclarinet, flute in VARIETY , free admission hunter college 68 str betw par and lexington, northside
march 13 6 pm Hunter College -lang theatre 4th floor -MOVING IMAGES by ruomi lee hampel + father&son performance + many acts from hunter college-free admission
march 17 th 1o pm bowery poets club ESP-disk presents:GUNTER HAMPEL …
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“Musical vanguardist and multi-instrumentalist (bass clarinet, flute, and vibes), Gunter Hampel has been under the spell of jazz since the end of WWII. By the end of the ‘50s, he was already a full-fledged European professional jazz musician and by the ‘60s, he had made lasting inroads into the North American jazz scene. Operating out of Germany and the USA, after living in New York and several European cities throughout his life, Hampel continues to be active at jazz’ leading edge. His notable career involves encyclopedic collaboration with North American and continental jazz legends, as well as a much younger generation of players.” ~~~ Javier Antonio Quiñones Ortiz, AAJ