1986 - 1987: Appelation Jazz with Regina Carter
Some time in 1986 two guitar players, Achim Sünnemann from Kassel and Oliver Waitze from Holzminden were looking for a bass player to build a group playing in the style of New Acoustic, a combination of guitar, banjo and mandolin sounds in a mixture of jazz and bluegrass. The group named itself Appelation Jazz. After a good deal of practicing a number of concerts followed.
Here are the three of them:
- Achim Sünnemann: Mandolin, Guitar
- Oliver Waitze: Guitar, Banjo
- Ernst Schröder: Bass
It is always a good move for musicians to get together and produce some recordings of their music. So we did. The recording session took place near Hannover in the home of sound engineer Gregor Szöke, who also did the technical work and produced the cassettes.
It was pure luck that at that time we made the acquaintance of a young and very talented violinist from Detroit. It was delighting to see and hear how easily she joined in and helped us finalize the recordings. When you closed your eyes you meant to hear Stephane Grappelli, better even. Her name was Regina Carter and she really made a career when she returned home just shortly after our recordings. Just ask Google.com, You'll get over 200.000 hits for her name.
Here now you have all four of them, Oliver, Achim, Regina, and Ernst (for some unknown reason holding a mandolin):
These 10 tunes have been recorded at the turn of 1986/1987:
- Dawgma
- 16/16
- Sweet Georgia Brown
- Dawgmatism
- Flexibility
- Black Mountain Rag
- Janice
- Minor Swing
- Swing 51
- Foggy Mountain Breakdown