Label: Jazzwerkstatt
Format: CD
Barcode: 4250317420510
Catalog number: JW 202
Releasedate:
Format: CD
Barcode: 4250317420510
Releasedate:
A legend - an institution – a creation - a species of jazz poetry.
The story of the exact origin of the band name will not be disclosed here - it is and remains legendary, as is the band itself.
1989: the wall falls – freedom at last!
What could be more obvious than a German/ German jazz band. The musicians claim it as the first German/ German jazz band, as contact among them already existed before the wall came down.
Invitations from the Artists' Agency of the GDR on behalf of Ulli Blobel and counter-invitations to festivals in west Germany.
1992 – the founding
There are people who play soul or blues - the quartet plays RUF DER HEIMAT.
Not the form, but the musicians and their being are the quintessence - the form adapts.
Every note, a statement. It's about creativity and improvisation. 1992 is the time.
Thomas Borgmann - saxophones / Willi Kellers - drums & percussion /
Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky - saxophones, clarinet, flute & piano / Christoph Winckel - double bass
"A piano, joy, humor and the police. Having fun with improvisation. Jazz is an art form, let's not forget that", Petrowsky indroduces the band like a conférencier. And then the four of them play: deafening, quick-tempered, wavelike and also again quiet, soft and reserved. It works, and everything appears simple:
Petrowsky plays and speaks, Kellers drums and sings, Borgmann plays avant-garde and Christoph Winckel does what he wants - for the audience the most amusing bass player they know. Every performance is an experience. Mystical - coming from deep inside - just like the band name.
Innumerable concerts, like a pop band the musicians tour the country, play at festivals all over the world. The audience and the press are thrilled. American critics ask if the music is not a bit odd. For them, this kind of jazz improvisation is new.
The sounds, poems and performances of the band hit directly into the heart and the zeitgeist: awakening, searching, as well as disruption, depression, wildness, opposition and freedom.
The musical interaction succeeds without words or scores, solely through the ingenious musicians.
The CD 'Erste Heimat' is released in 1995, a complete success. It is as if they have always known each other, despite the wall that has separated them for decades and the resulting difference in upbringings. Why is that so?
Jazz, as a language of freedom, is their home. Home is calling!
1996 - the new home
In 1994, Peter Brötzmann hears RUF DER HEIMAT in the Nickelsdorf Confrontations and from then on sits in increasingly often for Luten Petrowsky, who is busy in a myriad of other projects. The rest of the band remains in place, as well as their music. Brötzmann's saxophone screams and blends with the sounds of the others. Always giving space to new feelings, rhythms and melodies. No experiments!
In 1995, the band appears at the Mulhouse Festival at midnight, a performance celebrated on the front page of 'Le Monde'.
Jazz music, without composition, free - just get on stage and off you go. Well received, the second CD is released: 'Machine kaput'
"Jazz ...was a repeatedly effective means of resistance ... Resistance of the German post-war youth against their fascist upbringing, and 'Machine kaput' against the degeneration of free jazz into an empty stylistic shell... The group Ruf der Heimat ... shows with amazing melodic unity: free jazz is not a style, but an attitude." Frankfurter Rundschau, 22. September 1999
The style of playing spills over to others, performances with Charles Gayle, Roy Campbell, Heinz Sauer, Johannes Bauer and Olaf Rupp follow. Home knows no borders!
Suddenly it becomes quiet. Homeland sounds become rare. It is as if someone has flipped the switch.
2003 – Ruf der Heimat is calling
In 2003 the quartet is back on stage in its original line-up: Borgmann, Kellers, Petrowsky and Winckel. All of them a little older and more mature, but the music is as if nothing had ever happened: just as powerful as ever. The audience missed the Heimat, their performances explosive:
"... a ravishing, anthemic free jazz not played but rather celebrated by the Berliner quartet." Stadt Revue, Cologne, March, 2003
The third CD 'Sehnsucht nach Theo' was released in 2006, again convincing the critics:
"On stage, a dachshund named Theo makes himself comfortable next to the drums. This proves what people in Berlin have always known and happily repressed this year: Free jazz is not merely cacophony (german Katzenmusik)."
Joseph Engels, Die Welt, November 5, 2013.
2018 – Ruf der Heimat reforms
30 years after the fall of the wall, much has changed in Germany. The mood is completely different. It is no longer a time of change and exploration, and now uncertainty and radicalisation dominate. What has remained of the Heimat? Of its original idea. Two members are no longer there - a new line-up is playing.
Thomas Borgmann - saxophones / Willi Kellers - drums & percussion /
Jan Roder - double bass / Christof Thewes - trombone
The music sounds different, but remains just as brilliant. Polyphonic melodies and rhythms characterize the sound. Jazz becomes even more of a home. The metamorphosis succeeds! The music fits into the new era.
"Thewes is not merely a replacement for the free-jazz veteran, but infuses the music with a completely new dynamic with his trombone." Wolf Kampmann, Jazzthing 2018
"The men have the groove and the blues." Fränkische Nachrichten
What could be more obvious now than a new CD. It's time.
RUF DER HEIMAT is and remains the state of art!!!!
The story of the exact origin of the band name will not be disclosed here - it is and remains legendary, as is the band itself.
1989: the wall falls – freedom at last!
What could be more obvious than a German/ German jazz band. The musicians claim it as the first German/ German jazz band, as contact among them already existed before the wall came down.
Invitations from the Artists' Agency of the GDR on behalf of Ulli Blobel and counter-invitations to festivals in west Germany.
1992 – the founding
There are people who play soul or blues - the quartet plays RUF DER HEIMAT.
Not the form, but the musicians and their being are the quintessence - the form adapts.
Every note, a statement. It's about creativity and improvisation. 1992 is the time.
Thomas Borgmann - saxophones / Willi Kellers - drums & percussion /
Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky - saxophones, clarinet, flute & piano / Christoph Winckel - double bass
"A piano, joy, humor and the police. Having fun with improvisation. Jazz is an art form, let's not forget that", Petrowsky indroduces the band like a conférencier. And then the four of them play: deafening, quick-tempered, wavelike and also again quiet, soft and reserved. It works, and everything appears simple:
Petrowsky plays and speaks, Kellers drums and sings, Borgmann plays avant-garde and Christoph Winckel does what he wants - for the audience the most amusing bass player they know. Every performance is an experience. Mystical - coming from deep inside - just like the band name.
Innumerable concerts, like a pop band the musicians tour the country, play at festivals all over the world. The audience and the press are thrilled. American critics ask if the music is not a bit odd. For them, this kind of jazz improvisation is new.
The sounds, poems and performances of the band hit directly into the heart and the zeitgeist: awakening, searching, as well as disruption, depression, wildness, opposition and freedom.
The musical interaction succeeds without words or scores, solely through the ingenious musicians.
The CD 'Erste Heimat' is released in 1995, a complete success. It is as if they have always known each other, despite the wall that has separated them for decades and the resulting difference in upbringings. Why is that so?
Jazz, as a language of freedom, is their home. Home is calling!
1996 - the new home
In 1994, Peter Brötzmann hears RUF DER HEIMAT in the Nickelsdorf Confrontations and from then on sits in increasingly often for Luten Petrowsky, who is busy in a myriad of other projects. The rest of the band remains in place, as well as their music. Brötzmann's saxophone screams and blends with the sounds of the others. Always giving space to new feelings, rhythms and melodies. No experiments!
In 1995, the band appears at the Mulhouse Festival at midnight, a performance celebrated on the front page of 'Le Monde'.
Jazz music, without composition, free - just get on stage and off you go. Well received, the second CD is released: 'Machine kaput'
"Jazz ...was a repeatedly effective means of resistance ... Resistance of the German post-war youth against their fascist upbringing, and 'Machine kaput' against the degeneration of free jazz into an empty stylistic shell... The group Ruf der Heimat ... shows with amazing melodic unity: free jazz is not a style, but an attitude." Frankfurter Rundschau, 22. September 1999
The style of playing spills over to others, performances with Charles Gayle, Roy Campbell, Heinz Sauer, Johannes Bauer and Olaf Rupp follow. Home knows no borders!
Suddenly it becomes quiet. Homeland sounds become rare. It is as if someone has flipped the switch.
2003 – Ruf der Heimat is calling
In 2003 the quartet is back on stage in its original line-up: Borgmann, Kellers, Petrowsky and Winckel. All of them a little older and more mature, but the music is as if nothing had ever happened: just as powerful as ever. The audience missed the Heimat, their performances explosive:
"... a ravishing, anthemic free jazz not played but rather celebrated by the Berliner quartet." Stadt Revue, Cologne, March, 2003
The third CD 'Sehnsucht nach Theo' was released in 2006, again convincing the critics:
"On stage, a dachshund named Theo makes himself comfortable next to the drums. This proves what people in Berlin have always known and happily repressed this year: Free jazz is not merely cacophony (german Katzenmusik)."
Joseph Engels, Die Welt, November 5, 2013.
2018 – Ruf der Heimat reforms
30 years after the fall of the wall, much has changed in Germany. The mood is completely different. It is no longer a time of change and exploration, and now uncertainty and radicalisation dominate. What has remained of the Heimat? Of its original idea. Two members are no longer there - a new line-up is playing.
Thomas Borgmann - saxophones / Willi Kellers - drums & percussion /
Jan Roder - double bass / Christof Thewes - trombone
The music sounds different, but remains just as brilliant. Polyphonic melodies and rhythms characterize the sound. Jazz becomes even more of a home. The metamorphosis succeeds! The music fits into the new era.
"Thewes is not merely a replacement for the free-jazz veteran, but infuses the music with a completely new dynamic with his trombone." Wolf Kampmann, Jazzthing 2018
"The men have the groove and the blues." Fränkische Nachrichten
What could be more obvious now than a new CD. It's time.
RUF DER HEIMAT is and remains the state of art!!!!