Jazz, DDR, Fakten: Interpreten, Diskographien, Fotos, CD

Jazz in the German Democratic Republic over the 40 years of its real-socialist existence had developed its own distinctive voice. From the beginnings of the Amiga-Star-Bands Werner Josh Sellhorn documents this scene in his book which is mainly a discography of the East German jazz history. No history, then, no story to read, but lists of records, with personnel, place and date of recordings, track listing, track length, release date and notes. The book has six chapters: “Jazz and swing in the post war era as recorded on Amiga”; “recordings of GDR jazz musicians”; “recordings of non-GDR musicians under participation of GDR musicians”; “recordings of jazz and literature projects”; and “Amiga editions”. An name and title index ends the book which will be extremely helpful for further research of the East German jazz history. I would wish for a chronological index (within the chapters the discography is sorted by ensembles / bands), but that might be added in a subsequent edition (or on the internet). Many photos, some of them rare round up this documentation which should be of interest to the collector as well as those interested in European post war jazz history. And the enclosed sampler with recordings from 1962 to 1988, from Manfred Krug with the Jazz-Optimisten to the Fun Horns allows a listening in into the special sounds of this creative scene.