I started listening to jazz back in 1964 — just in time before my classmates devided into either Beatles or Rolling Stones fans. Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Paul Desmond, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson, and the top players of the UK jazz scene at that time had been the first impressions listening to some recordings of one of my parents' friends. Miles Davis became my first hero very soon after listening to Kind Of Blue. He'd been my hero to his death. Over the years I saw him live at five of his concerts in Europe, and got a pretty complete collection of his recordings. In the '70s I started listening to Pat Metheny from the very beginning of his career. He became my second hero due to the fact that he's such a complete musician. One of the best guitarists, a great composer, leader of the Pat Metheny Group, one of the best jazz groups being on the scene for more than 30 years now, composer of some great soundtracks, clinician, musician in residence, etc.
In the mid '90s I started my own website titled Miles & More , mainly dedicated to Miles Davis and Pat Metheny. Later I started collecting and publishing two indexes musicians' and bands' URLs which provide links to more than 5,000 websites of musicians, and more than 1,500 websites dedicated to bands.
In February of 2006 I met bassist Joe Fonda from NYC at the Jazzkeller in Esslingen. He played with Conference Call, and I actually wanted to meet drummer George Schuller in person whom I had contacted before via email only. Finally I also met pianist Michael Jefry Stevens and reeds player Gebhard Ullmann . Joe Fonda asked me for some help with his website. Finally I published a completely revised website which I continue to maintain.
After my 1982 move to Stuttgart, home of the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble , I saw Charlie Mariano again. I'd been familiar with his music having listened to Pork Pie (with Jasper van't Hof and Philip Catherine), his own recordings (e.g. Helen 12 Trees and Plum Island), and his performance with Sangam at the Jazz Fest in Berlin, 1983. I've always loved his playing, his beautiful sound on the alto saxophone and his great sense of melodical improvisation. When I noticed that Charlie Mariano seemed to be almost forgotten in his homeland and the fact that there was no website dedicated to this great musician I decided to investigate and finally published the Charlie Mariano Tribute website in October of 2007.
