The Sunday Six

Happy Sunday and welcome to another installment of The Sunday Six. Once again, I’d like to invite you to join me on a trip into the amazing world of music. This time, there’s a little twist. All six stops are tunes by artists from Germany, including three sung in German. I hope this won’t deter you from boarding the time machine.

Klaus Graf Quartett/Nature Boy

Let’s kick off today’s trip with contemporary jazz by German alto saxophonist Klaus Graf and his band who are known as Klaus Graf Quartett. If you’re a frequent traveler on The Sunday Six, the name may ring a bell. I included them in a previous installment in October 2021. Borrowing from that post, according to Graf’s website, he started playing the clarinet at the age of 10 but soon thereafter switched to the alto saxophone. Graf found his true love for jazz as a 15-year-old after he had joined a youth music school big band. Following his studies of the saxophone at Cologne University of Music, he mainly played as a sideman in various German and international jazz bands. In 2002, he founded his own quartet and released his debut album Changes in Life. Klaus Graf Quartett is one of various music projects of Graf who also teaches jazz saxophone at Nuremberg University of Music. Nature Boy is a track off his 2007 album titled Moving On. At that time, his band featured Olaf Polziehn (piano), Uli Glaszmann (bass) and Meinhard Obi Jenne (drums). Ah, what a smooth sound!

Kraftwerk/Das Model

Our next stop is the first German-language tune: Das Model (the model) by electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk (power station). Admittedly, this type of music isn’t in my core wheelhouse, but given the group’s huge influence and significant popularity beyond Germany, I felt it was appropriate to include them. Kraftwerk were formed in Düsseldorf, West Germany in 1970 by Ralf Hütter (lead vocals, keyboards, various other instruments) and Florian Schneider (backing vocals, synthesizer, various other instruments). They began as part of West Germany’s experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines and vocoders. Das Model is a track off Kraftwerk’s seventh studio album Die Mensch-Maschine (the man-machine), released in May 1978. At that time, the band’s line-up apart from Hütter and Schneider also included Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür (both electronic drums). Kraftwerk still generates power to this day, with Hütter (now 76 years) remaining as the only original member. Schneider left in 2008 and passed away in April 2020 at the age of 73.

The Rattles/Come On And Sing

Time to pay a visit to the ’60s and, nope, it’s not Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand by The Beatles though it’s beat music, by The Rattles. They were formed in 1960 in Hamburg by Achim Reichel (vocals, guitar), Volker Reinhold (guitar, vocals), Herbert Hildebrandt (bass, vocals) and Dieter Sadlowsky (drums). In 1962, The Rattles on several occasions performed at the same venues in Hamburg as The Beatles, including the famous Star-Club. The band’s 1965 single La La La was their first to chart in Germany, reaching no. 19. The Witch, released in 1970, was their biggest hit, climbing to no. 4 in Germany, no. 8 in the UK and no. 20 in Austria. It even made the U.S. charts, reaching no. 79. The Rattles rattle to this day and still feature their original bassist Hildebrandt. They have various upcoming gigs in Germany in April, June and September. Here’s Come On And Sing, a tune they released in 1966 – not bad!

Niedeckens BAP/Mittlerweile Josephine

No post about German music artists can exclude my all-time favorite band singing in German, more precisely in Kölsch, the regional dialect spoken in the area of Cologne. Niedeckens BAP, formerly known as BAP, are a band around German singer-songwriter Wolfgang Niedecken, founded in Cologne in 1976. Since September 2014, following the departure of two longtime members, the band has performed as Niedeckens BAP. At the time, a seemingly somewhat frustrated Niedecken also declared the group would no longer have a standing line-up. That being said, the core members have remained the same since then: Ulrich Rode (lead guitar), Anne de Wolff (multi-instrumentalist), Werner Kopal (bass), Michael Nass (keyboards) and Sönke Reich (drums). Mittlerweile Josephine (now Josephine) is off the group’s 18th and most recent studio album Alles Fliesst (everything is groovy), which appeared in September 2020. In this ballad, Niedecken reminisces about one of his daughters, Josi, who has since become Josephine, a young woman. I love this tune!

Scorpions/Someone to Touch

Scorpions are among Germany’s bands who are also well known beyond their home country’s borders. This next tune takes us to September 1993 and the rock and pop metal band’s 12th studio album Face the Heat. At that time, Scorpions were in their 28th year since their founding by guitarist Rudolf Schenker in Hanover in 1965. The remaining lineup on the album featured Klaus Meine (lead vocals), Matthias Jabs (lead guitar), Ralph Rieckermann (bass) and Herman Rarebell (drums). After five non-charting albums, Scorpions broke through with Lovedrive in February 1979. They entered my radar screen with Love at First Sting, released in March 1984. Featuring multiple hits, such as Rock You Like a Hurricane, Still Loving You and Big City Nights, their ninth studio album became a major success in Germany (no. 6), as well as many other countries, including France (no. 4), Switzerland (no. 9), the UK (no. 17) and the U.S. (no. 6), among others. Someone to Touch, co-written by Schenker, Meine and Mark Hudson, is a track from the aforementioned Face the Heat. Scorpions continue to rock, with Schenker, Meine and Jabs remaining part of the present line-up.

Ideal/Blaue Augen

And once again, it’s time to wrap things up. Our last stop on this trip is the year 1980 and the eponymous debut album by Ideal, a band from West Berlin that was part of what became known in Germany as Neue Deutsche Welle (German new wave). This music genre was a German version of punk and new wave that emerged during the second half of the ’70s. It reached peak popularity in the early ’80s when seemingly every day, new German music artists and bands seemed to pop up. Ideal were founded in the spring of 1980 by Annette Humpe (lead vocals, keyboards), Frank Jürgen Krüger (guitar, vocals), Ernst Ulrich Deuker (bass) and Hans-Joachim Behrendt (drums). After three years and three studio albums, Ideal called it quits. Here’s Blaue Augen (blue eyes), one of their best-known songs penned by Humpe. I always liked the tune’s cool grove, especially the bass part.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a Spotify playlist featuring the above tracks. As always, I hope there’s something that tickles your fancy.

Sources: Wikipedia; Klaus Graf website; YouTube; Spotify

The Sunday Six

Welcome to another Sunday music mini-excursion. I’m excited this is the first Sunday Six to feature music from my native country Germany, though admittedly you wouldn’t have known it if I hadn’t told you. The trip is going to involve some contemporary jazz, blues rock, rock, blues, psychedelic garage rock and R&B. It’ll be touching the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and the first two decades of the current century. I think it’s another pretty eclectic set of tunes that will hopefully have something for every reader. Hop on board!

Klaus Graf Quartett/Homezone

The first stop on this little journey in Germany and some great contemporary jazz by Klaus Graf Quartett. And, nope, that’s not a typo, “Quartett” is the German word for quartet. I have to give credit to my brother-in-law, who knows much more about jazz than I do and who recently brought the German alto saxophone player Klaus Graf to my attention. According to his website, Graf started playing the clarinet at the age of 10 but soon thereafter switched to the alto saxophone. He found his true love for jazz as a 15-year-old after he had joined a youth music school big band. Following his studies of the saxophone at Cologne University of Music, Graf mainly played as a sideman in various German and international jazz bands. In 2002, he founded his own quartet and released his debut album Changes in Life. In addition to him, the present line-up includes Olaf Polziehn (piano), Axel Kühn (upright bass) and Meinhard Obi Jenne (drums). Klaus Graf Quartett is one of various music projects of Graf who also teaches jazz saxophone at Nuremberg University of Music. Here’s Homezone, a composition by Graf from a 2007 album album titled Moving On. According to the credits listed on Discogs, the recording features all of the quartet’s current members, except for the bassist who on that album was Uli Glaszmann.

The Rolling Stones/Jumpin’ Jack Flash

Next we go back to May 1968 when The Rolling Stones first released their non-album single Jumpin’ Jack Flash in the UK, backed by Child of the Moon. The single also appeared in the U.S. the following month. Credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards only as usual, even though Bill Wyman contributed, this tune has one of the coolest rock guitar riffs I know. I recall reading several years ago that Richards during an interview said he still gets excited when he plays that riff – who can blame him! Speaking of Richards, according to Songfacts, he explained the tune’s title to Rolling Stone in 2010 as follows: “The lyrics came from a gray dawn at Redlands. Mick and I had been up all night, it was raining outside, and there was the sound of these boots near the window, belonging to my gardener, Jack Dyer. It woke Mick up. He said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s Jack. That’s jumping Jack.’ I started to work around the phrase on the guitar, which was in open tuning, singing the phrase ‘Jumping Jack.’ Mick said, ‘Flash,’ and suddenly we had this phrase with a great rhythm and ring to it.” Now you know how to write an iconic rock song! After the Stones’ psychedelic Their Satanic Majesties Request album, Jumpin’ Jack Flash was considered to be a return to their blues roots. It became a major hit, topping the mainstream charts in the UK and Germany, climbing to no. 3 in the U.S., and reaching no. 2 in France, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia, as well as no. 5 in Canada. Man, this just rocks!

Steve Miller Band/Rock’n Me

On October 5, Steve Miller turned 78. Amazingly, the man still fronts the Steve Miller Band, the group he founded in 1966 as the Steve Miller Blues Band. And had it not been because of this dreadful pandemic, he would probably be out on the road. As he told Billboard earlier this year, the group had to cancel a planned 55-city tour with Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives that was supposed to kick off in June 2020. On the upside, Miller put the downtime to good use and dug into his archives. Out came a concert film, Breaking Ground concert, and a companion album, Steve Miller Band Live! Breaking Ground: August 3, 1977, which were released on May 14 this year. You can watch a trailer of the film here. And here’s Rock’n Me from the companion album. Originally, the tune was recorded for the Steve Miller Band’s ninth studio album Fly Like an Eagle released in May 1976. It also appeared separately as a single in August 1976 and became the group’s second no. 1 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. It topped the charts in Canada as well. This is neat rock & roll!

Buddy Guy/Stay Around a Little Longer (feat. B.B. King)

Next, let’s slow it down for some great blues by two of the best electric blues guitarists: Buddy Guy and B.B. King. Guy at age 85 thankfully is still with us and still playing, while King sadly passed away in May 2015 at the age of 89. This beautiful recording is from Guy’s 15th studio album Living Proof that came out in October 2010. The tune was co-written by producer Tom Hambridge and country and blues singer-songwriter Gary Nicholson, who both have become frequent collaborators ever since. It’s just great to hear B.B. King sing on this tune, in addition to playing guitar. His voice sounds so good. He was 85 years at the time, Guy’s current age. I can’t deny I find this tune and clip quite emotional. That’s what great music does – it touches you!

The Fuzztones/Cinderella

After some emotional blues, it’s time to step on the gas again with a terrific tune by American garage rockers The Fuzztones. According to their profile on Apple Music, the New York City-based psychedelic/garage rock combo played a large role in the mostly underground ’60s revival during the 1980s. Led by the enigmatic Rudi Protrudi, the Fuzztones were one of the major “successes” (particularly in Europe) of the revival that flourished in 1984 and that also boasted the Chesterfield Kings, the Cynics, the Miracle Workers, and Plasticland. Their debut studio LP, Lysergic Emanations, was released in 1985. Thanks to praise from Ian Astbury of the Cult, the newly refitted Los Angeles-based Fuzztones were one of the few to get a major-label deal, and a second album, In Heat, was released by Beggars Banquet in 1989. Due to the album’s lackluster sales performance, the Fuzztones went back to the indies. That might have been the end of the story, but it wasn’t. Thanks to a hugely successful tour of Europe in 1985, the group built a loyal and dedicated fan base there, and one version or another of the Fuzztones has toured there regularly ever since. Here’s Cinderella from the band’s above noted 1985 debut album, which mostly featured covers, including this tune that originally was recorded by The Sonics in 1965. With that cool organ, the rendition reminds me a bit of The Animals. Founding member Rudi Protrudi (vocals, guitar, harmonica) remains with the band’s current line-up.

Ray Charles/Hit the Road Jack

Let’s conclude this mini-excursion with a tune that randomly popped up in my head the other day. When it did, I immediately thought it would be a terrific song to feature: Hit the Road Jack by the great Ray Charles. They didn’t call the singer-songwriter and pianist “The Genius” for nothing. Frank Sinatra reportedly said Charles was the “only true genius in show business.” Charles identified Nat King Cole as a primary influence. Others included Louis Jordan and Charles Brown. Hit the Road Jack, written by R&B artist Percy Mayfield and first recorded as an a cappella demo in 1960, was Charles’ second of three no. 1 mainstream hits in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. The other two were Georgia on My Mind and I Can’t Stop Loving You. Any of them would have been great picks as would have many other tunes by Charles, but I felt like finishing with a more up-tempo song like Hit the Road Jack.

Sources: Wikipedia; Klaus Graf website; Discogs; Songfacts; YouTube