Kurt Edelhagen (born 5 June 1920 – 8 February 1982)
was a German
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
leader.
He was born in
Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia
Herne () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area directly between the cities of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen.
History
Like most other cities in the region, Herne (ancient Haranni) was a tiny village until the ...
, Germany.
Edelhagen studied conducting and piano in
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
. In 1945, he started a trio, then a big band a year later. He performed on the radio station in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, then for three years beginning in 1949 led the
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...
in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
. From 1952 to 1957 he led the
Südwestfunk big band. In 1954, he participated in the Concerto for jazz band and orchestra by
Rolf Libermann. Three years later, he began leading the radio station
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the conso ...
(WDR) big band in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
. Members included
Dusko Goykovich and
Jiggs Whigham
Jiggs Whigham (born Oliver Haydn Whigham III; August 20, 1943) is an American jazz trombonist.
Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, he began his professional career at the age of 17, joining the Glenn Miller/Ray McKinley orchestra ...
.
The band toured East Germany, USSR, Czechoslovakia, and several Arab countries during the 1960s.
His radio orchestra played at the opening ceremony of the
1972 Munich Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
.
He died in February 1982 in Cologne, at the age of 61.
References
1920 births
1982 deaths
People from Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
20th-century German musicians
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