The G. M. of guitar will kick off the International Guitar Festival on August 22nd at the Kunsthalle Kühlungsborn.
G. M. of guitar
Sounds mysterious. G.M. of guitar. No idea what could be behind the letters G.M.?
Quite simple: G.M. equals GermanMasters.
German masters of guitar? A bit over the top? Not really, although the four G.M., Helmut "Joe" Sachse, Uwe Kropinski, Gerhard "Charlie" Eitner and Jürgen Heckel, don't (want to) see themselves as such. And certainly not as THE G.M., because of course there are a few more.
But to be honest, these four names stand for a generation of musicians (born in 1948, 52 and 55) who gave jazz - especially in the GDR - unmistakable, unique musical signatures and still do - now all over Germany and beyond. This is not possible without "mastery" on the instrument.
These four G.M. of guitar are now coming together on stage for the first time in a joint concert! Untold hours of practice, countless broken strings and kilometers driven or flown lie behind them. Small and large concert stages, halls and bars, sometimes large and sometimes small audiences, poorly and well-paid gigs - in short: four lives lived by jazz musicians. Add up over 200 years of jazz.
The influences of other guitarists were many and varied. Charlie Christian, Derek Bailey, Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino, John McLaughlin, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Larry Coryell, Paco de Lucia and many others have left their mark on the playing of "Joe", Uwe, "Charlie" and Jürgen in various ways and ultimately contributed to the development of four very individual musical styles. Blues, rock, flamenco, jazz, pop. Everything is suspended in the playing of the four musicians. These streams often flow into one another or branch out into a large delta. Sometimes the water dominates with raging rapids, sometimes the quiet and peaceful river glides along.
Helmut "Joe" Sachse is the "freest" player of the four G.M., but the freedom of his playing is based on a lively awareness of history, on the intensive study of his masters. Sachse is inconceivable without his love of the written word by Tucholsky, Morgenstern, Kishon ... Not without his screwdriver (which is actually called a turner) and without his guitar case, which becomes a meter, especially in solo concerts.
Gerhard "Charlie" Eitner combines power and energy with sensitivity in his playing. His musical home in the 1970s and 80s was the bands "Fusion", "Unit" and Hannes Zerbe's "Blechband".
His music, which is always committed to the gesture of the song, today moves in the field of tension between blues roots, chamber music, folk, soul and jazz.
Uwe Kropinski is a solitary guitarist. He fuses the jazz guitar with Mediterranean guitar tradition in an often breathtaking way. The body of his guitar becomes a percussion instrument. He plays with such virtuosity that you think you are listening to at least two pieces of music. The spoken word also plays an important role for Uwe. In concerts he not only plays the guitar, he also recites texts by Rilke, Eichendorff and Benn.
Jürgen Heckel was infected with the guitar virus through the music of Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin and Weather Report. Under this influence, he founded the band BAJAZZO in 1978, which was one of the busiest bands in the GDR in the 1980s and is still the playground for Jürgen's musical ideas today. As a producer, he works with musicians of all kinds.
Now the four of them are taking to the stage together:
Helmut "Joe" Sachse, Uwe Kropinski, Gerhard "Charlie" Eitner and Jürgen Heckel.
Each of them will play solo, but there will also be different "old" and "new" duo constellations. And of course a part in a quartet!
A summit meeting of the "G.M. of guitar"!
Ulf Drechsel
