\u201eHe who writes, stays\u201c is the saying in skat. This is also true when it comes to the history of the SABA\/MPS studio and record label. The new 75-minute film \u201eThe legend lives on<\/strong>\u201c (here in the ARD media library<\/a>) by Sascha Schmidt and Micha Bojanowski is available after \u201eJazzin\u2018 The Black Forest<\/strong>\u201c by Elke Baur is already the second documentary about the cult label from the Black Forest and shines through historical footage with Oscar Peterson<\/strong>, the MPS Studio<\/a><\/strong> or the Singers Unlimited<\/strong>. Toward the end, the entertaining documentary takes a melancholic turn: Marlies Brunner-Schwer (d. April 1, 2023) sits alone in the living room where the legendary house concerts once took place, reminiscing about those bygone days when her husband Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer<\/strong> (HGBS) wrote jazz history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One can begin to sense just how incredibly diverse and multifaceted the body of work released by the SABA\/MPS record label has been over the years. After all, Brunner-Schwer released not only jazz, but also pop songs, so-called \u201esophisticated light music,\u201c and classical music. In addition, the label licensed productions from overseas, including those from \u201cPrestige Records,\u201d ranging from Miles Davis to Thelonious Monk. In total, we\u2019re talking about well over 1,000 productions. Some of these records are highly sought after today, which is why these vinyl rarities are often available only at steep prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Were employed in the advertising department at MPS in the early 70s: Sitting Achim Frey, standing Dieter Hahne, visiting the MPS studio in September 2023 (Photo \u00a9MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this film, however, the veil of oblivion shrouds those who played a key role at MPS\/SABA. For example,\u00a0Rolf Donner<\/strong>, the mere mention of which brings tears to the eyes of many former MPS employees. The fact that MPS will soon also stand for \u201eThe Most Perfect Sound<\/strong>\u201c was certainly due in large part to Donner, who had learned the ins and outs of sound engineering from the ground up. In the film, however, he isn\u2019t mentioned at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boss, on the other hand, Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer<\/strong>, though he was said to have perfect pitch. He was certainly a highly ambitious audio enthusiast, a skilled technical tinker, and a great enabler with very high standards of quality. However, he had no formal training as a sound engineer. As a self-taught expert, he therefore relied on seasoned professionals such as Rolf Donner<\/strong> or Christa Gugeler<\/strong> instructed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, one gets the impression that even the music\u2014on which the label has, for good reason, built its outstanding global reputation\u2014is somewhat neglected in the documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Shure company advertised with Rolf Donner\/MPS in the 1975 Funkschau (Archive Harald Greilich \/ MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n It's a shame that Joachim-Ernst Berendt<\/strong> (JEB) is discussed in \u201eMPS \u2013 The Legend Lives On\u201c\u2014without truly acknowledging his contributions. The bassist Eberhard Weber<\/strong> claims with a grin and in a classic\u00a0Muckety-muck attitude<\/em>: \u201eBerendt was, after all, unmusical,\u201c and contradicts himself in the same sentence when he says, \u201eBerendt knew exactly who played with whom, when, and in what key.\u201c Yet Joachim-Ernst Berendt<\/strong> He was anything but an unknown figure in the postwar music world, and his name practically jumps out at you when exploring MPS\/SABA. Particularly fascinating is the ambivalent relationship between HGBS and JEB, which was likely shaped by vanity and a certain degree of alpha-male posturing. \u201eCompetition is good for business,\u201c as the saying goes\u2014and that may well have been true here as well. In any case, it\u2019s worth taking a closer look at the two very different biographies of these men, who, each in their own way, gave their all to jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like HGBS, the young Berendt had learned to play the piano in his youth. Later, he published numerous books on music, sound, and listening. He was certainly not unmusical. For MPS, he launched the \u201eJazz Meets the World\u201c series, thereby establishing the genre known as world music and repeatedly proving that he was far ahead of his time. At the same time, these recordings are among the central pillars on which the record label\u2019s international reputation rests. Virtually all of the progressive and avant-garde productions on SABA\/MPS were initiated by Berendt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I made my first world music production in 1962 - a trio of Japanese koto players and the leading Japanese jazz ensemble at the time ... I tried something similar in Djakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bombay, New Delphi, Tunisia, Africa and Brazil. A whole series of records was created...the first world music series ever.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Joachim Ernst Berendt \/ Life is a sound)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joachim Ernst Berendt with Nathan Davies 1965 in the MPS-Studio (Photo \u00a9German Hasenfratz\/MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Berendt, born in Berlin in 1922, was a descendant of assimilated Jews. His mother left the family home when he was three years old, so he spent part of his childhood at a boarding school. His strict father Ernst Berendt<\/strong> He was a Protestant pastor and initially served in Berlin-Wei\u00dfensee. Due to increasing problems and arrests by the Nazis, the family moved to Baden-Baden. Eventually, Ernst Berendt was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was murdered. Joachim-Ernst Berendt visited his father at the concentration camp in 1942\u2014a life-changing experience. Later, he was deployed to Russia, among other places, where he served in the Leningrad area. As a member of the class of 1922, he was among the few who survived their wartime service, since about one in three soldiers of that generation died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the war Joachim-Ernst Berendt<\/strong> the first employee of the Southwest radio<\/strong>. As a politically minded journalist, energetic festival organizer, writer, and producer\u2014and above all as a staunch anti-fascist\u2014he played a key role in introducing a generation of Germans to jazz after twelve years of military marches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n We were not only successful. We felt the resistance. S\u00fcdwestfunk received letters of protest. One told me to be careful when I went home in the evening, otherwise \u201ea few good German men's fists would teach me the right rhythm.\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What actually characterizes jazz - the personality of improvisation and phrasing, the play with different time levels in the phenomenon of swing, the renunciation of binding standards of tone formation - carries a message that cannot be misunderstood. It means tolerance, openness, freedom, individuality, self-responsibility. My sentence \u201eDictators don't swing\u201c made the rounds.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Joachim Ernst Berendt \/ Life is a sound)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Books by Berendt (selection) \u00a9 Archive MPS-Studio e.V.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He travelled the USA and found friends there, where jazz and blues have their roots, and he brought them to the stages of the festivals he organized. With John Coltrane<\/strong> and many other greats of the scene. Berendt is still held in high esteem in the jazz world today. His television series \u201eJazz heard and seen<\/strong>\u201c was groundbreaking. His \u201eJazz book<\/strong>\u201c is considered a standard work and has been translated into several languages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n ...my plus was always the overview of all jazz - from ragtime to free. That was probably also what made my \u201ejazz book\u201c the \u201etextbook on jazz\u201c in the USA ... strangely enough, a book by a German about this most American of all arts, which for American sensibilities is the complete antithesis of the world status of \u201eGerman music\u201c.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Joachim Ernst Berendt \/ Life is a sound)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Berendt, known for his outspoken views and also dubbed the \u201ePope of Jazz,\u201c founded the Berlin Jazz Days<\/strong> and the New Jazz Meeting Baden-Baden<\/strong> or organized the jazz section of the Donaueschingen Music Days<\/strong>. There, thanks to Berendt, the audience was treated to, among other things, a concert by Sun Ra<\/strong>. Now, take a guess\u2014where was the recording of this concert later released?<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a musical free spirit, Berendt wasn\u2019t always well-liked at MPS, but as a jack-of-all-trades, he was an absolute asset to Brunner-Schwer and his label. HGBS quickly recognized the sales potential of the productions Berendt initiated. Although Brunner-Schwer would sometimes deliberately avoid Berendt\u2019s studio days\u2014for example, by scheduling lengthy hair appointments in Zurich\u2014the global contacts of the avant-garde sound artist HGBS enabled him to build an exceptionally broad repertoire for his label. However, there were some artists HGBS did not want to release on his label:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Br\u00f6tzmann<\/strong>\u00a0(\u201eHe\u2019s not coming into my studio\u201c),\u00a0Herbie Hancock<\/strong>,\u00a0Ornette Coleman<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0Wayne Shorter<\/strong>. Berendt has produced more than 130 recordings for SABA\/MPS, as well as numerous liner notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It became clear relatively quickly that HGBS and Berendt had rather different musical interests. While HGBS devoted himself to old-school swing and, above all, piano recordings\u2014with great recordings of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Milt Buckner, Horst Jankowski<\/strong> or Monty Alexander<\/strong> \u2013, Berendt was a modern jazz musician who drew inspiration from free jazz, psychedelic jazz, and world music and brought those influences to SABA\/MPS. Many prominent pianists were recorded in the studio or in his home studio. It was the perfect mix for a label with such a broad scope as MPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would MPS be without the productions initiated by Berendt featuring the Dave Pike Set<\/strong>, the \u201eJazz meets the World<\/strong>\u201c-recordings, Archie Shepp, Baden Powell, Nathan Davis, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor<\/strong> or the great Albert Mangelsdorff<\/strong>-LPs? With the Gunter Hampel Quintet<\/strong> With the album \u201eHeartplants,\u201c Berendt produced one of the earliest European free-jazz records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you look at the many groundbreaking productions and liner notes that Berendt initiated and wrote for SABA\/MPS, one can only regret that this man was given no more than 80 seconds in the current film. Berendt\u2019s creative drive for jazz would actually be worth a documentary of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oscar Peterson, Willy Fruth and HGBS over a glass of beer in the Villa Brunner-Schwer (Photo \u00a9MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In stark contrast to JEB, HGBS was, even from a biographical perspective, a rather conservative man who was born in Villingen in 1927 as a descendant of the SABA founding family\u2014literally \u201eborn with a silver spoon in his mouth.\u201c Founded as early as 1835 by Josef Benedikt Schwer in nearby Triberg, SABA was, alongside Kienzle, the largest industrial employer in the city of Z\u00e4hringen and employed more than 3,500 people in the mid-1960s. The company had built its fortune on radios and, later, on television sets and refrigerators. The appliances \u201eMade in the Black Forest\u201c enjoyed an excellent reputation for their quality, sound, and craftsmanship. It is said that Max Grundig was reportedly almost pathologically jealous of his Black Forest competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But SABA\u2019s glorious history also had its dark side: During the Nazi era, the company profited from arms contracts and manufactured the infamous \u201eVolksempf\u00e4nger\u201c radio. A forced-labor camp was located right on the company grounds. And as a family of great industrial importance, HGBS, his brother Hermann, and their mother also visited the \u201cF\u00fchrer\u201d at Obersalzberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HGBS, Hitler and Hermann Brunner-Schwer on the Obersalzberg (from the out-of-print book \u201eSABA - Bilanz einer Aufgabe\u201c by Hermann Brunner-Schwer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The young Hans-Georg first heard jazz in 1944, during the war, while illegally eavesdropping on American bomber formations. The pilots were kept on course during their missions with jazz music broadcast over the radio. The 17-year-old HGBS picked up these signals and thus discovered, in an unusual way, \u201eMoonlight Serenade\u201c by Glenn Miller<\/strong>. This experience had a profound impact on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the war and the economic miracle, HGBS, together with his brother Hermann, was set to take over the management of SABA-Werke in 1961. Having already made his first recordings in the late 1950s, including with Hans Koller<\/strong> and Wolfgang Dauner<\/strong>, which he had recorded in his home studio, he founded the SABA Studio<\/strong>. After World War II and well into the 1950s, the Brunner-Schwer family temporarily lived in the premises on Richthofenstra\u00dfe after their own villa had been confiscated by the French army. Just a few years later, they housed one of the most modern recording studios of its time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When SABA was founded in 1968 by the American GTE Group<\/strong> HGBS operated independently of SABA and under the new name MPS<\/strong> (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald). With millions in his bank account and, as always, plenty of ambition and a passion for the perfect sound, he was able to pursue his passion: music productions, record releases, and licensing deals brought him recognition, attention, and created jobs. By the late 1960s, he had become one of Europe\u2019s most prominent jazz producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Front left HGBS, 1999 at the press conference for the book release \u201eJazzin The Black Forest\u201c in the Neue Villinger Tonhalle (Photo: Andreas Rottmann\/MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1999, during the production of the book \u201eJazzin\u2018 the Black Forest<\/strong>\u201c, which I published, gave me the opportunity to have several phone conversations with Berendt. Since author Klaus-Gotthard Fischer had also devoted only a few sentences to Berendt, I arranged an interview with JEB for the book. I mailed him my list of questions, and his answers arrived quickly; he had even formulated and answered some questions of his own. We then fine-tuned some details over the phone. It almost seemed as if he had never received enough recognition and appreciation for his work during his lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He almost even came to Villingen for the book launch in June 1999. After all, we had Lee Konitz<\/strong>, Wolfgang Dauner<\/strong> and the Gunter Hampel Quartet<\/strong> with Alexander von Schlippenbach<\/strong>, Manfred Schoof<\/strong>and Pierre Courbois<\/strong> committed\u2014all of them longtime companions of Berendt's. Mike Hennessey<\/strong> hosted the evening at the new Tonhalle. In addition to the concert, there was an exhibition featuring MPS album covers and objects such as the Sabamobile<\/strong>, while various DJs spun MPS rare groove jazz. The entire arts and culture press had announced their attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HGBS<\/strong> was also in attendance and enjoyed this special evening to the fullest\u2014after all, it was his life's work that was being celebrated here. The moment when\u2026 was particularly moving for him. Wolfgang Dauner<\/strong> played one of the first pieces he had recorded in the late 1950s at HGBS's home, when HGBS was still in his phase of technical experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HGBS signs \u201eJazzin The Black Forest\u201c for a former Saba employee in the Villingen Tonhalle (Photo: Andreas Rottmann\/MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, JEB flatly refused to come to the Black Forest for the presentation. He no longer wanted to have anything to do with MPS and had since turned his attention to other areas of interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I explained my point of view to him: The collaboration between HGBS and JEB had been important for MPS\u2019s reputation\u2014perhaps even a stroke of luck. After so many years, we could meet again over a glass of wine and some good music. At first, there was silence on the other end of the line. Then Berendt flipped through his calendar and seemed to gradually warm up to the idea. In the end, however, he had to decline\u2014he already had a lecture in Stuttgart that evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February 2000, just half a year after our last contact, Berendt was struck by a car on a street in Hamburg. He succumbed to his serious injuries shortly thereafter. Four years later, HGBS also died: He was struck by a car while crossing a crosswalk, right near his studio. Actually, another house concert had been in the works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goodbye, Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer<\/strong> and Joachim-Ernst Berendt<\/strong>. And if there's a studio up there, you've surely already worked with them to achieve the \u201eMost Perfect Sound\u201c Rolf Donner<\/strong> spoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n T\u00f6ni Schifer<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goodbye - Blurred, like the memories: HGBS and Wolfgang Dauner, 1999, book presentation Villingen (Photo \u00a9 Andreas Rottmann\/MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n MPS exhibition June 1999 organized by Crippled Dick Hot Wax! in the Villingen Tonhalle, book presentation \u201eJazzin\u2018 The Black Forest\u201c (Photo \u00a9Andreas Rottmann \/ MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Group picture with MPS cake: from left to right: Klaus Gotthard Fischer, T\u00f6ni Schifer and Hans-Georg Brunner.-Schwer, 1999 Neue Tonhalle Villingen (Photo \u00a9Andreas Rottmann \/ MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soundcheck with the Gunter Hampel Quintett, Neue Tonhalle Villingen, book presentation \u201eJazzin\u2018 The Black Forest\u201c 1999 (Photo \u00a9Andreas Rottmann \/ MPS-Studio e.V.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whoever writes stays! About the forgotten at MPS.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","iawp_total_views":505,"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[593,53,176,138,607,173,608,38,81],"dipi_cpt_category":[],"class_list":["post-3555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-eberhard-weber","tag-hgbs","tag-jazz-meets-the-world","tag-jazzin-the-black-forest","tag-jazzpapst","tag-joachim-ernst-berendt","tag-max-grundig","tag-mps-studio","tag-toeni-schifer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3555"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6257,"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions\/6257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3555"},{"taxonomy":"dipi_cpt_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dipi_cpt_category?post=3555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dieter-Hahne-Achim-frey-MPS-Studio-2023-web-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Rolf-Donner-Werbung_web-712x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nTHE JAZZ POPE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Joachim-Ernst-Berendt-Nathan-Davis-Kopie-945x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Berendt-Books-1024x470.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Oscar-Peterson-Willi-Fruth-HGBS_klein-1024x845.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nTHE ENABLER<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Hitler-HGBS-HBS-1024x727.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PIC00018-1024x819.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nJAZZIN\u2018 THE BLACK FOREST 1999<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PIC00029-1024x819.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/11-1024x819.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PIC00015-1024x819.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PIC00032-1024x819.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mps-studio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PIC00021-1024x819.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n