Milan Šamko (27 July 1946 – 28 December 2019) was a German pianist and keyboardist. In the 1980s, he became a sought-after studio musician of the GDR.

Biography

Šamko studied piano and

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. From the mid-1960s, jazz and blues became more and more a passion for him. He was primarily devoted to playing the music and listening to his favorite classics of

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

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, or

Keith Jarrett Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also be ...

. Samko then advanced through his very own style of writing and improvising as a jazz musician. He has worked as a soloist on the

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

as well as in the radio big band. In addition to his appearances in bands, since GDR-times to this day, he has frequently accompanied the

diseuse A monologist (), or interchangeably monologuist (), is a solo artist who recites or gives dramatic readings from a monologue, soliloquy, poetry, or work of literature, for the entertainment of an audience. The term can also refer to a person w ...

Sonja Kehler - both on stage and on record - for a CD with a new Else Lasker-Schüler setting. Samko, who now lives near Potsdam and teaches piano lessons, has been part of the blues band Passover Blues since the mid-1990s. He also played in the Honky Tonk Duo, with whom he was also to be heard at the Umbria Jazz FestivalPotsdamer Musiker in Perugia
/ref> and he performed with old friends like , , Harro Hübner or Horst "Verti" Melzer.

References

External links

Porträt (Pass over Blues)

Milan Samko
on Discogs

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samko, Milan German jazz pianists German jazz composers German male jazz composers Musicians from Leipzig 1946 births 2019 deaths German male pianists 21st-century German pianists 21st-century German male musicians French male jazz pianists