Jürgen Wölfer (25 December 1944 – 24 July 2015) was a German music writer and historian with focus on

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 ...

Life

Born in

Eisleben Eisleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is famous as both the hometown of the influential theologian Martin Luther and the place where he died; hence, its official name is Lutherstadt Eisleben. First mentioned in the late 10th century, E ...

, Wölfer studied education, graduated with a diploma and worked for a long time in the record industry, where he was most recently at BMG, where he was product manager for jazz and classical music. He is known as the author of several jazz encyclopaedias, wrote an encyclopaedia of popular music (excluding Schlager, rock music, folk music) and film composers. He also wrote a biography of Dizzy Gillespie and wrote discographies of

Anita O'Day Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band app ...

Pérez Prado Dámaso Pérez Prado (December 11, 1916 – September 14, 1989) was a Cuban bandleader, pianist, composer and arranger who popularized the mambo in the 1950s.''On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture'' Louis A. Pérez Jr. - 2012 ...

and

Johnny Richards Johnny Richards (born Juan Manuel Cascales, November 2, 1911 – October 7, 1968) was an American jazz arranger and composer. He was a pivotal arranger for some of the more adventurous performances by Stan Kenton's big band in the 1950s and e ...

(bio-discography).

Publications

* ''Lexikon des Jazz''.Lexikon des Jazz.
2nd edition. Hannibal Verlag, St. Andrä 1999, (EA 1993). * ''Jazz in Deutschland. Das Lexikon. Alle Musiker und Plattenfirmen von 1920 bis heute''. Hannibal Verlag, St. Höfen 2008, (with over 100 pages of Amiga discography in the appendix) * with Jack Hartley: ''Johnny Richards. The Definite Bio-Discography''. Balboa Books, Lake Geneva, WI 1999, . * ''Das Große Lexikon der Unterhaltungsmusik. Die populäre Musik vom 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart; vom Wiener Walzer bis zu Swing, Latin Music und Easy Listening''. Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, . * with Roland Löper: ''Das große Lexikon der Filmkomponisten. Die Magier der cineastischen Akustik; von Ennio Morricone bis Hans Zimmer''. Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2003, . * ''Handbuch des Jazz''. 2nd edition Heyne Verlag, Munich 1980, (EA Munich 1979). * ''Die Rock- und Popmusik. Eine umfassende Darstellung ihrer Geschichte und Funktion''. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1980, . * ''Dizzy Gillespie. Sein Leben, seine Musik, seine Schallplatten'' (Collection Jazz;Vol. 9). Oreos, Schaftlach 1987, . * with Raymond D. Hair: ''Thinking of You. The Story of

Kay Kyser James Kern Kyser (June 18, 1905 – July 23, 1985), known as Kay Kyser, was an American bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s. Early years James Kern Kyser was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Emily ...

''. Bear Manor Media, Albany, GA 2012, . * ''

Gerald Wilson Gerald Stanley Wilson (September 4, 1918 – September 8, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. In addition to being a ...

. A Discography''. Almere, NL 2012, .

References

External links

* * Jazz writers 1944 births 2015 deaths People from Eisleben {{nonfiction-writer-stub