Matthias Winckelmann (1941-2022)

[clifford_thornton]

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.

[Chuck Nessa]

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".

[soulpope]

R.I.P ....

[mjzee]

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.

[mjazzg]

Lots to be thankful for in the Enja catalogue 

[HutchFan]

R.I.P.

Sad news. ... But I'm grateful for the music he helped bring to light.

 

[Peter Friedman]

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.

[JSngry]

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.

[clifford_thornton]

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.