Onkel Pös Carnegie Hall, better known as Onkel Pö, was a music venue in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

in the 1970s and the early 1980s.

Pöseldorf

Onkel Pö was originally a jazz venue in Mittelweg in the quarter Pöseldorf (in

Rotherbaum Rotherbaum () is a quarter of Eimsbüttel, a borough of Hamburg, Germany. In 2020, the population was 17,114. In German, "roter Baum" means ''red tree''. The "th", which in general was abolished in the spelling reform of 1900, was preserved in na ...

) in Hamburg, and was opened by Bernd Cordua and Peter Marxen, who had previously opened the ''Jazzhouse'', another jazz venue, in Brandstwiete. The name was chosen as a reference to

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

in New York. The original venue has been occupied by the music pub ''Zwick'' since Onkel Pö moved to Eppendorf.

Eppendorf

Soon after opening, on 1 October 1970, Onkel Pö moved to Lehmweg 44 in Eppendorf, where ''Ballhouse Eppendorf'' had been. Bernd Cordua left, and it was run by Peter Marxen on his own. From 1975, Onkel Pö was one of the venues of the Jazz Festival in Hamburg, which was called New Jazz Festival at the time. To make the festival a success, the musicians, including

Albert Mangelsdorff Albert Mangelsdorff (September 5, 1928 – July 25, 2005) was a German jazz trombonist. Working mainly in free jazz, he was an innovator in multiphonics. Early life Mangelsdorff was born in Frankfurt on September 5, 1928, as the son of the book ...

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and Gerd Dudek played for reduced remuneration. Among the jazz musicians who played at Onkel Pö were John Abercrombie,

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, Joanne Brackeen,

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, Don Cherry,

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, Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson, Tom Shaka,

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, Yōsuke Yamashita, and

Attila Zoller Attila Cornelius Zoller (June 13, 1927 – January 25, 1998) was a Hungarian jazz guitarist. After World War II, he escaped the Soviet takeover of Hungary by fleeing through the mountains on foot into Austria. In 1959, he moved to the United Sta ...

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and Helen Schneider started their international careers there. On 12 March 1976,

played for the first of three evenings in Onkel Pö. The concert on the second evening was broadcast live on

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (; "North German Broadcasting"), commonly shortened to NDR (), is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, ...

(NDR) radio, and Al Jarreau was signed up for a television show, ''The Al Jarreau Show''. The television talk show in NDR, NDR Talk Show, was recorded in Onkel Pö, but moved back to the studios because Peter Marxen refused to allow

Arno Breker Arno Breker (19 July 1900 – 13 February 1991) was a German sculptor who is best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, where he was endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. He was made official state sculptor, ...

in as a guest. New Wave Bands such as

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

and the Roundheads performed in Onkel Pö.

Closure

In 1979, Marxen left to take over ''Forsthaus Hessenstein'', a restaurant near Lütjenburg. His successor, Holger Jass, changed Onkel Pö from the ''Corner of Jazz'' to a ''Corner of Jazz and Rock''. Andreas Kiel was responsible for the programme until Onkel Pö closed at 8 a.m. on 1 January 1986. The restaurant which took over the venue was called ''Legendär'' (), but since 1 November 2006, it is used by the Schweinske chain of restaurants. Bernd Cordua tried without much success to open various venues with the name Onkel Pö.

Cultural references

The German singer

Udo Lindenberg Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, composer, and painter. Career Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969, he founded his first band Free Orbit, and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Micha ...

mentioned the venue in his album ''Alles klar auf der Andrea Doria'' with the lines ''Im Onkel Pö spielt ´ne Rentnerband seit zwanzig Jahren Dixieland...'' in the song ''Alles klar auf der Andrea Doria''. British singer

Tom Robinson Living people Thomas Giles Robinson (born 1 June 1950) is a British singer, bassist, radio presenter and long-time LGBT rights activist, best known for the hits " Glad to Be Gay", " 2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with hi ...

mentions this establishment in his song "Atmospherics: Listen to the Radio", which was covered by Toronto's Pukka Orchestra on their self-titled debut album. A 60-minute documentary film ''Eppendorf’s Cavern – The Legendary Onkel Pö'' (original German title ''Die Höhle von Eppendorf - Das legendäre Onkel Pö'') was directed by Oliver Schwabe and featured in the

Filmfest Hamburg FILMFEST HAMBURG is an international film festival in Hamburg, the third-largest of its kind in Germany (after Berlin and Munich). It shows national and international feature and documentary films in eleven sections. The range of the program stret ...

in 2016.

References

External links