Jazzwerkstatt, as a label, is descended from Jazzwerkstatt Peitz, at one time the biggest jazz festival in Germany outside of Berlin. It was organized by Ulli Blobel and Peter Metag, in the then East Germany. In 1984, Blobel left East Germany to concentrate on other endeavors. In 1999, he returned to jazz, founding Jazzwerkstatt Berlin-Brandenburg eV, alongside Berlin musicians like Uschi Bruning, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Friedhelm Schonfeld, Uwe Kropinski and Ernst Bier. Their stated aim was to support jazz in the German state of Brandenburg and the capital city Berlin. After the successful presentation of many concerts in Berlin, Blobel founded the Jazzwerkstatt label. The label had a tripartite aim, to release older recordings from Jazzwerkstatt Peitz (to document the history of free and improvised jazz), to release new recordings from its recent concerts here in Berlin, and to document the newer scene of free and improvised jazz and recordings of Berlin artists, mostly younger artists like Rudi Mahall, Johannes Fink, Oliver Steidle, and Silke Eberhard, but also established performers such as Uschi Broning, Rolf Kuhn, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Ulrich Gumpert. (Excerpt from All About Jazz: New York) |
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