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July 25, 2005
Albert Mangelsdorff, 1928-2005
German TV is reporting that Albert Mangelsdorff has died. It's a sad day -- but I'll accentuate the positive by recalling that he was one of the most creative, different trombonists ever.
Mangelsdorff gave a recital in Boston -- I think it was at BU's Marsh Chapel -- in 1978. I was in attendance, and since I'd never heard him before, it took a couple of tunes to get used to what he was doing. It was great stuff, though, and made a strong impression on me. I started fooling around with multiphonics (playing one note while singing another note, usually higher) the next day, and began to incorporate them into my daily routine. Although I've never done much with multiphonics in performance, outside of using them in blues bands (notably a famous cable-TV duo concert with guitar/vocalist Rob Carlson), the technique has always fascinated me. Mangelsdorff was a clinician at an International Trombone Workshop I attended in the '80s, and he spent a lot of time demonstrating and answering questions about multiphonics. He also handed out a couple of charts to his own compositions -- I've still got them on my music stand.
Mangelsdorff was not widely imitated -- probably because he was so different from everyone else and therefore hard to imitate -- but he was one of the most important jazz musicians of the past 50 years or so.
Posted by Urbie at July 25, 2005 02:46 PM