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

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

in the 1970s and the early 1980s.

Pöseldorf

Onkel Pö was originally a jazz venue in Mittelweg in the quarter Pöseldorf (in Rotherbaum) 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 in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

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 ...

Wolfgang Dauner Wolfgang Dauner (; 30 December 1935 – 10 January 2020) was a German jazz pianist who co-founded the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble. He worked with Hans Koller, Albert Mangelsdorff, Volker Kriegel and Ack van Rooyen and composed for radio, tele ...

and

Gerd Dudek Gerhard Rochus "Gerd" Dudek (28 September 1938 – 3 November 2022) was a German jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist, clarinetist and flautist. Dudek studied clarinet privately and attended music school in the 1950s, before joining a big band ...

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

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

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, Dollar Brand,

Michael Brecker Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of M ...

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Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role i ...

, Jan Garbarek,

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but a ...

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, Steve Kuhn,

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, Mike Westbrook,

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, 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 U.S., wher ...

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and

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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 Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR; ''Northern German Broadcasting'') is a 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, Mecklenburg-Vorpommer ...

(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 NDR may refer to: Computing * Non delivery report, a return email message to a sender indicating failed message delivery * Network Data Representation, an implementation of the OSI model presentation layer Science and technology * Negative diff ...

, 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 architect and sculptor who is best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, where they were endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. He was made offici ...

in as a guest. New Wave Bands such as the

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

and the Roundheads performed in Onkel Pö.

Closure

In 1979, Marxen left to take over ''Forsthaus Hessenstein'', a restaurant near

Lütjenburg Lütjenburg ( Low German: ''Lüttenborg'') is a town of the district of Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located approximately northeast of Plön, and east of Kiel. History left, Lütjenburg in 1895 Lütjenburg was founded in the 1 ...

. 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'' (german: Legendary), 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, drummer, and composer. 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 mentions this establishment in his song "Atmospherics: Listen to the Radio", which was covered by Toronto's

Pukka Orchestra Pukka Orchestra was a Canadian new wave band based in Toronto, Ontario in the 1980s. The group released two albums, an EP and several singles, and won a CASBY Award in 1985. History The Pukka Orchestra was formed in Toronto in 1979.

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