clifford_thornton Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 According to London Jazz News and other sources online, German producer and co-founder of ENJA Records Matthias Winckelmann has died: https://londonjazznews.com/2022/06/20/rip-matthias-winckelmann-1941-2022/ Horst Weber, the other co-founder, died in 2012. Unfortunate news, interesting label for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 Sorry to hear this. We met decades ago in Chicago. I took him to dinner in a local Mexican restaurant. Later I assisted him getting a distribution/marketing deal for the label. He wrote to tell me he owed me "more than all the margaritas I could drink". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulpope Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 R.I.P .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 RIP. Enja had a nice run. I first encountered them through the Inner City releases, then I think they were distributed by Polygram in the U.S. (could be wrong about that). Wonder what will happen to the catalog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjazzg Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 Lots to be thankful for in the Enja catalogue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HutchFan Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 R.I.P. Sad news. ... But I'm grateful for the music he helped bring to light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Friedman Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 R.I.P. There are a number of Enja CDs on my shelf that I enjoy. Special favorites would especially include albums by Pepper Adams, Tommy Flanagan and Abdullah Ibrahim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 Enja & Steeplechase have both always struck me as lables who came out of the gate strong with a lot of records either by or involving expatiated Americans who carpe-diemed like a mo on the ability to make unfiltered recordings, but then sorta became a pale shadow of themselves as time went on, those people died, and they started having to get people who didn't have that real-time edge in order to continue to create product. No different than the rest of jazz, really, but lord there was a time when both Enja & Steeplechase were dealin'. Inner City was really doing us over here a service by putting their catalogues out. Now, it's kinda like, oh, THEM again. Every so often, one has a little spark to it. Once in a while. Still, getting it going in the first place was a most honorable feat. RIP and much thanks to all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted June 21, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 yeah, I don't have too many later ENJAs. One I wrote liner notes to was Holger Scheidt's Schwimmende Elefanten, which is a handsome and under-the-radar slice of contemporary jazz. The Steeplechase CDs of recent note for me were with Kirk Knuffke, Jesse Stacken, Ted Brown, Rich Perry, and Stephen Riley... but I guess those aren't even all that new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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