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Horst
Jankowski
was born in Berlin, Germany on January 30th
1936. Horst
lost his father when he was eight. When heavy bombing raids
started on Berlin, Horst and his mother moved away from the
city, but because of their joint ambition for him to become
a prominent musician they returned to the devastated capital
in 1947 to take advantage of the facilities for a music
education. After
leaving High School, he attended the Berlin Music
Conservatory and was awarded a degree for his skill as a
concert pianist but only, he says, “because of the
financial difficulties my mother overcame in those post war
years.” |
| Horst,
who also played tenor saxophone, trumpet and double bass, was
leading his own jazz combo at an American club in West Berlin when
he impressed Kurt Kohenberger , a talent buyer for the for the Roman
Bar in Berlin, who arranged for him to tour Germany and other
European countries.
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of the people he met was the famous singer Caterina Valente, who
invited him to become her accompanist on a Special Service
Assignment through Europe and Africa. It was whilst they were flying
in a military transport plane over Africa that Horst thought his
career was about to come to a sudden end. “We were caught in a
tornado and the plane was expected to crash. We were given
parachutes and instructions to jump but it was impossible to open
the hatch. We thought the end had come - but suddenly the plane
straightened out and the danger had passed” he recalls.
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On
that tour critics were already hailing Horst as a star of
the future and in 1955, at the age of just 19,
a stint as featured pianist with the outstanding German Erwin
Lehn Orchestra further contributed to Horst’s growing
eminence in continental musical circles. From
1957 Horst was voted top jazz pianist by German jazz fans
and
from 1960 he
served as orchestral director for numerous leading European
and American artists visiting Germany.
Among them were Ella Fitzgerald , Benny Goodman, Miles
Davis, Michel Legrand, and Oscar Peterson.
To this list of accomplishments,
Horst had a career as a best-selling recording artist, with numerous
hits to his credit in Germany and America. |
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At the mere mention of Horst Jankowski’s name, one
immediately thinks of his famous hit record “ A Walk in the Black
Forest” (Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt). And yet this is only the best
known of a vast number of songs recorded by this singularly unique
artist .
Phil
Kent.
(Click
pictures to see larger images)
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