Walter Jakob "Joki" Freund (September 5, 1926, Höchst, Frankfurt am MainFebruary 15, 2012,

Schwalbach am Taunus Schwalbach am Taunus, a town in the Main-Taunus-Kreis district, in Hesse, Germany, population about 14,000, is a dormitory town to Frankfurt, situated some 11 km east of Schwalbach. There is evidence of human habitation dating back to Neolithi ...

) was a German

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...

. Freund began playing the accordion as a child, switching to

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

ended. Early in the postwar era, he played with Joe Quitter, Carlo Bohlander, Gerry Weinkopf, Joe Klimm, and

Jutta Hipp Jutta Hipp (February 4, 1925 – April 7, 2003) was a jazz pianist and composer. Born in Leipzig during the Weimar Republic, Hipp initially listened to jazz in secret, as it was not approved of by the Nazi authorities. After World War II, she bec ...

, then formed his own ensemble. He began performing with American musicians, including Donald Byrd, Art Taylor, and

Doug Watkins Douglas Watkins (March 2, 1934 – February 5, 1962) was an American jazz double bassist. He was best known for being an accompanist to various hard bop artists in the Detroit area, including Donald Byrd and Jackie McLean. Biography Watkins ...

, during their European festival appearances. He played with, and arranged for, Albert Mangelsdorff in the jazz orchestra of

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ARD. Studios Do ...

and

Erwin Lehn Erwin Lehn (8 June 1919, Grünstadt Grünstadt ( pfl, Grinnschdadt) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective ...

in the Süddeutscher Rundfunk orchestra. He played with the Frankfurt Jazz Ensemble on soprano saxophone in the 1970s, also performing as a leader around this time.

References

*Heidi Boulton, "Joki Freund". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd edn.

External links

Freund's works
catalogued in the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...

* * 1926 births 2012 deaths German jazz saxophonists Male saxophonists 20th-century saxophonists 20th-century German musicians Musicians from Frankfurt 20th-century German male musicians German male jazz musicians {{Germany-musician-stub