BERT KAEMPFERT – THE MAN/THE MUSIC/THE MAGIC

PART 5

HAPPY HOURS IN HAMBURG

 

Milt Gabler, Bert’s producer in the States, remembers …….

“When I was in Hamburg, together with Bert and his family, there always was a kind of “happy feeling” – a kind of “hopeful optimism” because Bert would always come up with new musical ideas.  All I had to do was nurture Bert and sustain his momentum as a name artist in the USA and I had to do it instrumentally.  I had no way of realizing how fabulous a talent Bert Kaempfert would turn out to be.  After the success of the single disc (Wonderland by night) I immediately followed with a “Wonderland By Night” LP in November 1960

BERT KAEMPFERT AND HIS WIFE HANNE

Then, two more “Wonderland” albums followed.  After that, I wanted him to switch his style because I was afraid we might be wearing out a good thing.  American bands were copying the fat trumpet style popularized by Ralph Marterie, Louis Prima and others.  So Bert came up with a kind of “reggae rhythm” in African folk style.  I called it “Afrikaan beat” for it reminded me of the melodies I once recorded with Joseph Marais and his South African “Veldt Music”.  I even spelled it that way. Bert was well versed in every kind of musical culture

LOUIS PRIMA ORCHESTRA COVERED "WONDERLAND"

But I soon found out that the Music he really favoured was the swinging sounds of American bands like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and all of the rest that he grew up with.

When “Wonderland by Night” went to number one in the USA, Bert made his First visit to the US to collect his gold record.  His wife Hanne came with him and we met at the award ceremony

GERMAN SINGLE RELEASE OF WONDERLAND BY NIGHT

Later, Bert came to my office to discuss future plans and ideas I might have for him.

I told him that he must keep composing interesting original compositions and arrange tuneful dance standards, six of each for every LP.  The best of them could then be issued as singles.

Bert had hit after hit.  In addition, I was to write English lyrics for any two tunes of my choice for each session of twelve.  He wanted me to come to Hamburg to produce his future sessions and make them more suitable for the American market.  When they happened here, they happened all over the World.  I felt that I could show his engineer how I balanced my band dates in the US and then they could follow through on any dates that I was not able to attend.

Bert Kaempfert was on his way and we all felt like we were on a musical roller coaster that could not be stopped …….

 

BERT KAEMPFERT

THE MAN – THE MUSIC – THE MAGIC - PART 4

THE KAEMPFERT AFRICAN SOUND

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At the end of the 1950’s, with stereo making it’s entry in the World of recorded Music, many musicians were looking for their “own recognizable style” or “sound”.   One of them was a young orchestrator and arranger by the name of Bert Kaempfert.   

After his unexpected World hit “Wonderland by Night” (released initially in the US with the help of his American producer Milt Gabler) in 1961, Bert Kaempfert started to look for a more original sound.    Milt Gabler, having heard some of the initial compositions of Bert Kaempfert (eg “Catalania”, “Cerveza”, “Ducky”, “Explorer” and “Las Vegas”) – was impressed by the “intense bass sound” that could be heard on all of these recordings.   During one of their meetings in the early sixties, he said to Bert : “Bert, give me a bass that is loud and clear, a bass that is prominently present throughout each recording !  We already have enough bands that sound “otherwise” (ie where the bass sound merely was “ one of the instruments making part of the “Total sound package”.

  MILT GABLER

 

With this information in mind, Bert returned to Europe, and – more specifically to his holiday home  in Zug, Switzerland, where he could compose new songs in all tranquillity.   One day, rather incidently, Bert was browsing through some old records in a small local Music shop and found some records with the so called “penny  whistle” sound – a typical South- African style of music. 

Bert was fascinated by these recordings and decided to take them home, i.e. to Hamburg where he would listen and re-listen to them, wondering meanwhile how he could reproduce that typical “penny whistle sound”. 

Bert also had a kind of “refugium” in Hamburg, a small cabin in the woods near the “Brahmsee”, a local lake.  It’s here that some of his worldhits were born.   The start of it all was the master piece “Afrikaan beat” – a song that kinda “defined” the style of albums that would follow soon. 

The combination of the famous “knack bass” with the “penny whistle sound” proved to be a big success with his friends and relatives but it had not been a “smooth and easy ride” to reach the “final” sound.   On the topic of these main elements (knack bass and penny whistle sound) guitarist Ladi Geisler remembers :  “ Fips tried to imitate the penny whistles by means of the piccolo’s but that wasn’t easy at all ; it took a lot of practice before the “good sound” was reached.  Eventually, Fips was happy with the result and was glad that the “charm” of the penny whistles could be reproduced by the piccolo’s.

   

 

When Milt Gabler heard the song for the first time, he was  flabbergasted. 

“This has to become the title track of a new album” he shouted, and he added  “and we’ll bring it on the market as a single too” (45 rpm). 

Gabler’s instinct for “success” is right again and within a couple of weeks, the song is a big radio hit in the US but it also conquers the German market, where it will be in the hitparades for several weeks in a row.  It becomes  the first hit that Bert scores in his home country…. 

Many radio and TV stations used  the song as a “theme tune” for their programs and broadcasts and this obviously made  the song more widely known… 

…….. 

But Bert is even more happy when he hears that the song is a huge success in South Africa as well. 

His “Afrikaan Beat” can be heard contineously on the South African radio station(s).    

US Producer Milt Gabler, having a “nose” for successful songs, feels and “smells” that this World wide success leaves a taste “for more”.  He sends a music sheet to Bert Kaempfert with the melody of another African song, a song “modified” somewhat by the American Guy Warren. 

 

Gabler writes to Kaempfert : “ Dear Bert, enclosed please find a sample of a melody arranged by Guy Warren… I’m convinced you can do better, when it comes to (re-) arranging this piece !” 

And yes, just a few weeks later, a package is dropped in Milt Gabler’s post box : it’s a “test” recording of Bert’s new arrangement for the “Warren” song. 

“Fantastic!” Gabler shouts and having heard Bert’s version, he immediately adds a new (commercially fine tuned) title to the piece : “ That happy feeling “

Another Kaempfert World hit has been born.

Then, one thing follows after another very quickly.  Bert Kaempfert becomes inspired by “That happy feeling” and writes “A Swingin’ Safari”, “Happy trumpeter” and “Market day” as well as a couple of other “African sounding” titles, which enables Gabler to compile an entire album. 

All titles are then recorded in the German “Rahlstedt” studio, in Hamburg, and Bert is quite pleased with the fact that he is allowed to record the album in the (then) “one of the most technically advanced studios in the World”.   

By adding  violins, voices and brass to the “basic frame” of the knack bass and the piccolo flutes, Bert creates a very recognizable “sound of his own”. 

Finally, different album versions  are released on the American and European markets, i.e. the album titles are different and the track list will differ a bit, but, in the end, it’s the same fabulous music  that is contained in these releases. 

 

In Europe, Polydor releases “A Swinging Safari” while in the US, “That happy feeling” is launched into the American market.    The albums become huge sales successes both in Europe and in America. 

Asked about the “why” and “how” related to the sales success of this style of music, ‘Ladi Geisler, in a 1976 interview stated : “The instrument that finally made a difference, was the so called “E Bass’. 

But that instrument  had only be released recently by the American Gibson company. 

Before, it simply was impossible to bring the bass sound to the foreground…  If you listen to some of the first Glenn Miller recordings, you will notice that it only is “during the more quiet periods in the song” that one can clearly hear the bass. 

Bert was very enthusiastic when he first heard the E-Bass.  He told me to put emphasis on the higher notes – the lower notes should be “tackled by” the contrabass.

It worked !  And then,  I added “the final touch” by implementing  a so called “plektrum”, a special little plate that can be used to intensify the string tension.  A great new sound hence had been created and we all knew that more “African sound” music would follow soon…… 

And it would follow soon but …. There also was a time gap between the two albums that would contain the most “African sound” Music.  “A Swinging Safari” was released in 1962 and fifteen years later, in 1977, Bert came up with a “follow up” album on that huge  success album, with an album called “Safari Swings Again”.

 

And once more , history repeated itself : some of the tracks were regularly used  by Radio and TV Broadcast companies (eg “Limbo Lady” was often used as background music in several radioshows of the early 80s period..)  and thus, fans and music lovers alike were “alarmed” by a fabulous new Kaempfert “Safari” album that, like it’s predecessor, would conquer the World swiftly as well. 

Today still, Bert’s “Afrikaan Beat” is used as the theme Music for a display shown in the Dutch Efteling amusement park entitled “the fairy tale of the dancing water lillies” – fairytale written by the former Belgian Queen, Queen Fabiola (who was married to the beloved King Baudouin). 

It proves how innovative and creative Bert’s “Afrikaan Beat” was (and is). 

Millions of people will recognize the “tune” after the first two or three notes. 

“Afrikaan Beat” is a musical treasure, a superbly composed and arranged instrumental, that will be in our hearts forever. 

And so are all the other Kaempfert African sound songs : gems to be cherished forever.

 

PART 5 OF THIS SERIES IS SCHEDULED TO BE PUBLISHED BY END NOVEMBER 2015

 

 

 

BERT KAEMPFERT –

THE MAN .. THE MUSIC ..  THE MAGIC – 3

PART 3 / FIPS FINDS THE BEATLES I

A small number of music fans actually know who discovered the Beatles.  What a contrast it was : the fame and fortune looking “Fab Four” coming into contact with – of all people – “the invisible Mr Hitmaker” = Bert Kaempfert. 

But, seen from a certain angle, there duly IS some logic to be found in the meeting of Mr Kaempfert with the Beatles (or Beat Boys) .

 

Hamburg is the key word here : the city was Bert Kaempfert’s hometown, and if one knows that Hamburg actually is a harbour city, things become a bit more clear already.

The Liverpool based boys must have heard somewhere that “talented people” could “rise” quickly on the ladder of success if they went to perform in – for example – ‘the Top Ten club” located at the infamous “Reeperbahn”. 

Then, fate brought the two together : Bert Kaempfert, one night, probably during “a night on the town” and “by accident”  stumbled upon the four seemingly talented boys….

Bert – working as a talent scout for Polydor (or so called “A&R man” (Artist and Repertoire man) – at that time (1951-1960) brought the 4 illustrious “pop idols” (not yet then but…) to the Polydor recording studios where another English based artist, Tony Sheridan, was looking for some new material in order to make some money “for the trip home” …..

Actually, (it is very difficult to imagine this today, but it was the actual truth)-  the Beatles were in the exact same position : they had to find a way to “make money” because otherwise …. Well, who knows what might have happened …..?  Polydor proposed the 2 different artists (Sheridan and the Beatles) to make one single record, thus hoping that the income of such a “mixed” single would generate enough money for “everyone” to go where ever they wanted to go.

The “experiment” failed however and neither Sheridan, nor The Beatles made any profit from the recording in question(entitled : “My Bonnie…”)

Kaempfert, Sheridan and the Beatles worked together in the studio then for some time (a couple of weeks at the most) when, one day, the “redeeming” Phone call came from a certain Mr Brian Epstein.

He asked Bert Kaempfert “under which circumstances he could hire the Beatles and how the contract could be changed/adjusted with ref to their “release”…)  Bert Kaempfert replied : “no circumstances, no special arrangements : just “take them” !

All this  was possible because Bert’s record company “Polydor” didn’t have great confidence in these “four "long haired" beat boys” …. They (Polydor) saw no “great future” for the band, at least not in Germany.

The rest is history.   The “Fab Four” returned to England and soon, the true talent of these “kids” would become known to the whole World.

Bert Kaempfert, in an interview taken much later, said :

“Later, I was happy with the success of the Beatles, because it showed that I had been right from the very start.  I DID discover their unbelievable talent and it kinda re-inforced my position of A&R man with Polydor).

Soon after, Bert Kaempfert’s own talents became more and more obvious.

His arrangements of songs, his  new compositions, his new musical ideas …   It all pointed in one direction : that of a “man of Music” on his way to “A Musical Maestro” – a “Maestro” that would create a completely knew orchestral style/sound – a sound that would become known the World over as “The Kaempfert Sound”.

Between 1959 and 1973 alone, Kaempfert recorded and released some 30 albums on the Decca USA label.  For those interested in “the details of history” : in total The Beatles recorded 9 songs together with Bert Kaempfert – all of which were released on the Polydor label.