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