Joachim-Ernst Berendt

Joachim -Ernst Berendt ( born July 20, 1922 in Berlin -Weissensee, † February 4, 2000 in Hamburg ) was a German music journalist and producer in the music genre jazz. He was about forty years editor of the then South-West Radio in Baden -Baden, and thus the longest-serving editor of the jazz world. With the (at times) weekly television broadcast with jazz concerts and a transmitted time still daily radio program on jazz, he made great pioneer work for the promotion and dissemination of jazz in postwar Germany.

Life

His father, Ernst Berendt (1878-1942) was a Protestant pastor and director of the Social Service Agency works in Berlin-Weissensee (now Stephanus Foundation). His father, Ernst Gottlieb Georg Berendt (1842-1919), the founder of this diaconal works, converted from Judaism to Protestantism, but he could successfully conceal and hide from the public. Ernst Berendt was a member of the Confessing Church and was arrested eight times before he died in 1942 in the Dachau concentration camp.

That same year, Joachim -Ernst Berendt was drafted into the army and had to cancel his just started studying physics at the University of Karlsruhe. During the Third Reich he was interested in the then abgedrängten underground jazz. After the war, he was among the founders of the Southwest Radio (SWF), the first employee of the SWF he worked there since August 1, 1945., Where he managed from 1947 until his ( early ) retirement in 1987, the jazz department of the SWF. His mentor was Heinrich Strobel, from whom he learned to work with the radio, television, the record production and with the press. 1953 was first published in The Jazz Book ( Fischer Paperback ), which was translated into many languages ​​for standard work on the subject of jazz and still repeatedly appear in updated editions. In 1947 he organized the concert series Jazz Time Baden -Baden, which he 1954-1972 as the basis for its transmitted the ARD TV series Jazz - heard and used saw that even more jazz productions of the SWF ( such as the NOWJazz session since 1954 on the Donaueschingen Music Days ) contained. In addition, he also worked as a press officer for the German Jazz Federation.

Later he was also involved in world music and was also among the early supporters. Already in the 1960s, he brought with the support of the Goethe Institute German jazz musician on Asia tours with local musicians, in 1983 he organized in New York, the Festival Jazz and World Music.

Berendt was the initiator and partly also the artistic director of many jazz festivals ( American Folk and Blues Festival, the Berlin Jazz Days, Free Jazz Meeting Baden -Baden, World Expo in Osaka, 1972 Olympics in Munich), also producer of many records (especially for MPS). In the 1950s, Berendt also initiated Jazz & Poetry productions that shoot with the "King of the speakers ," Gert Westphal, set standards. Internationally, he enjoyed - despite the dual role as critic and producer - very high reputation.

On November 28, 1981 sent the Südwestfunk Berendt's two-part Hörsoiree Nada Brahma. The world is sound. As one of the few radio shows in the cultural program this radio feature reached a large audience and sparked over a thousand letters from. 1983 Berendt was following the radio broadcast the books Nada Brahma - the world is sound and the third ear. From listening to the world out. Here he is generally concerned with hearing, that is, for example, medical, historical, physical, cultural, meditative and philosophical aspects ( cf. Nadabrahma meditation ).

With Nada Brahma - the world is sound Berendt wrote about the world of the audible and the magnetic, electrostatic and other physical vibrations. His work is often classified as part of the New Age, even if the former physics student Berendt cites a number of renowned scientist for his theses. Peter Sloterdijk has appreciated the philosophical depth of the work and both its metaphysical thesis ( universe as a musical instrument ) as well as its epistemological thesis ( individual as a manifestation of the universe ) are discussed in detail: Even if Berendt was following in the footsteps of Pythagoras, he had to be " Ptolemies " endeavor to avoid the individual- hostile implications and would fill the excavated from other philosophies and ideologies divide between the individual and the world. Berendt turned away from Jazz to explore music in a broader sense. Music, he knew in his later years rather as an expression of human existence in itself, each understandable in the context of the social and religious context.

His turning to the philosophical and spiritual with his meditations among other things, the Japanese Zen Buddhism and the Indian mystic Osho is regretted by some of his readers, on the other hand has been very welcomed by others. Also controversial was Berendt's late tilt, " exceed " the jazz. He did not turn thus against the Jazz in itself, but wished for a further development in other directions:

" Exceeding does not mean to let the Jazz behind; it means even take another step. Many jazz fans have resented me these steps, they wanted the pure ( a questionable concept, which I discuss in the chapter on World Music ) Jazz. "

Joachim -Ernst Berendt died on 4 February 2000 at the age of 77 years following a traffic accident he had caused as a pedestrian. He crossed a street while the traffic light was switched to red, on the way to a presentation of his book There's no way. Just go. His estate (including records, books, magazines, photographs) is located in the archive of the Jazz Institute Darmstadt.

Berendt was married in fourth marriage with Jadranka Marijan - Berendt. The U.S. musician Ry Cooder named his son Joachim Cooder by Joachim -Ernst Berendt.

Awards

Berendt awards include the Order of Merit 1st class (1984 ), an honorary professorship (1979 ), the Polish Cultural Prize (1970), the Critics' Prize of the German television ( 1962 ) and twice the German Film Prize ( 1961).

Since 2012, the city of Baden- Baden gives the " Joachim -Ernst Berendt Honorary Award of the city of Baden -Baden " in the context of Mr. M's Jazz Festival (2012 Klaus Doldinger, 2013 Paul Kuhn, 2014 Till Bronner ).

Works

• The Jazz: A time-critical study. Stuttgart 1950
• The jazz book. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 7th edition, 2005; revised and expanded by Günther Huesmann Overall, there were the following editions / revisions: 1st edition, 1953 ( The Jazz Book), Fischer TB, 2nd edition, 1959 ( The New Jazz Book), Fischer TB, 3rd edition, 1968 ( The Jazz Book from New Orleans to free jazz ), 4. edition 1973 ( the Jazz Book by Rag and rock ), 5th edition, Kruger 1981, Fischer TB 1982 ( the great jazz book: from New Orleans to Jazz Rock ), 6th edition, 1989 ( the jazz book: from New Orleans to the eighties ), 7th edition, 2005 S. Fischer ( The Jazz Book, continued by Günther Huesmann )