Herb Geller with...Bert Kaempfert?!?!?!?!?!

[JSngry]

Just found out about a 1972 Bert Kaempfert album w/Herb Geller as a soloist & was wondering if featuring this level of jazzman was common for Bert Kaempfert, if this level of surrounding was common for Herb Geller, or if maybe this was a hoped-for Bud Shank/Michelle moment for all concerned.

[Big Beat Steve]

I've never dug that kind of music but you got to admit that Bert Keampfert had a certain kind of artistic integrity that you got to admire. Even in his rather commercial settings, Bert Kaempfert had high artistic ambitions so I am not surprised that Herb Geller played with him.

Herb Geller has been residing in Germany for much more than 40 years, and apart from his regular work in leading radio orchestras that had a considerable jazz content he has also participated in countless other settings (some of them in the popular field), including some that must appear rather incongruous to jazz-minded listeners. I am not going to quote names - the featured artists would not mean much to Stateside people anyway (but check his German Wikipedia entry if you feel like it). So his work in the Kaempfert band is far from the oddest.

OTOH, why would this be so surprising anyway? How many (formerly) famous U.S. jazzmen have played it safe and let themselves be buried as anonymous but well-paid studio hacks for decades (which seems to have been accepted as something quite natural by very, very many)? Herb Geller kept a much higher profile than that through the decades.

Edited August 11, 2008 by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

I've always appreciated, and at times actually enjoyed, Kaempfert, That trumpet soloist he always featured had a gorgeous tone and very nice phrasing on the "swinging" material. In it's own world, his was prime quality material.

I'm not surprised that Geller did the gig, I'm just surprised that he was "featured". Then again, I'm pretty much unaware of his activities in Germany, so this might well have not been unusual for him at all.