Sonorama

[mikeweil]

As it turned out I will meet Ekkehart Fleischhammer of Sonorama Records in Berlin this upcoming Saturday. A mutual friend there recently made his acquaintance.

Any questions that I might ask him?

http://sonorama.de/

[mikeweil]

No questions?

[optatio]

I would like to have a release as LP/CD of the recording 'Karl Berger: Total Music Ensemble, 1968'

https://inconstantsol.blogspot.com/2009/01/karl-berger-total-music-ensemble.html 

https://www.discogs.com/release/33418631-Karl-Berger-Total-Music-Ensemble-Hamburg-1968?srsltid=AfmBOoqAmYZDPOB4sDigXh7-r_5DnKIq_nQzWjRKo12CZuFQlVKk6wYF 

[Big Beat Steve]

2 hours ago, mikeweil said:

No questions?

O.K., so here goes: 

A wisecracking question or hint about Sonorama C-100/L-100 (Cool Europa):
Isn't a cover photo dating from 1949 (Fred Bunge blowing a lone trumpet to some kid onlookers in war-ridden Hamburg, photo by Susanne Schapowalow) a bit out of tune (literally ) with a record covering the 1959 to 1963 ("Wirtschaftswunder"!!) period? 

More seriously, a question about some rarities and obscurities that should fit the release program of the label:

1) As Sonorama has released or reissued a couple of items on SWEDISH jazz from the 50s and 60s, are there any more plans for reissues of other Swedish artists/groups that have consistently been overlooked by labels such as Dragon or Caprice?

2) LPs were released back in the day with music from the German Amateur Jazz Festivals of 1958 and 1959 (on Metronome) and 1962 and 1963 (on Columbia). But nothing ever for the 1960 and 1961 festivals. Neither for the very first Amateur Jazz Festivals in 1955, 1956 and 1957. Does Sonorama know anything about the existence of recordings/tapes from these festivals and if so, any plans for future release projects? 

3) A real, total, absolute obscurity: The July 1962 issue of the short-lived German jazz mag "JAZZER" carried the below brief news item. Does Sonorama have any knowledge of the existence of any such recordings and if so, any leads as to where to track down the music for a belated release?

Edited November 29 by Big Beat Steve

[mikeweil]

Meeting with my old friend from schooldays, yours truly (far left), and Ekkehart Fleischhammer (far right)

[mikeweil]

11 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

O.K., so here goes: 

A wisecracking question or hint about Sonorama C-100/L-100 (Cool Europa):
Isn't a cover photo dating from 1949 (Fred Bunge blowing a lone trumpet to some kid onlookers in war-ridden Hamburg, photo by Susanne Schapowalow) a bit out of tune (literally ) with a record covering the 1959 to 1963 ("Wirtschaftswunder"!!) period? 

He simply loved Schapowalow's photo for its symbolic meaning. So much for cover art esthetics.   

11 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

1) As Sonorama has released or reissued a couple of items on SWEDISH jazz from the 50s and 60s, are there any more plans for reissues of other Swedish artists/groups that have consistently been overlooked by labels such as Dragon or Caprice?

No.

11 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

2) LPs were released back in the day with music from the German Amateur Jazz Festivals of 1958 and 1959 (on Metronome) and 1962 and 1963 (on Columbia). But nothing ever for the 1960 and 1961 festivals. Neither for the very first Amateur Jazz Festivals in 1955, 1956 and 1957. Does Sonorama know anything about the existence of recordings/tapes from these festivals and if so, any plans for future release projects? 

He does not see a potential buying audience for any of those you mentioned.

11 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

3) A real, total, absolute obscurity: The July 1962 issue of the short-lived German jazz mag "JAZZER" carried the below brief news item. Does Sonorama have any knowledge of the existence of any such recordings and if so, any leads as to where to track down the music for a belated release?

This is really obscure. He confessed it is the first time he ever heard of that musician, group, and the magazine.

[mikeweil]

He told it is really unpredictable how sales develop. Some items printed in one thousand copies still are in stock after twenty years and he has no idea if they ever will sell. Others sold so fast he had them re-pressed immediately. He has to be careful with investing and always looks for top quality original source material.

Anybody looking for items marked as sold out on his website are encouraged to contact him directly. Chances are he still has a handful of copies in stock.

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks very much, Mike.

To reply briefly to Mr Fleischhammer's comments:

1) Pity about the Swedish jazz, as there still is quite a bit of territory that is uncharted reissue-wise. But I'll agree that this is a niche market probably not easily exploitable if you are not that close to the Swedish market.

2) Understandable but still regrettable. Provided that recordings remain at all, the 1960 festival, for example, might have yielded the very first documented recordings by Gunter Hampel, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Joe Viera, among many others; each one of them had applied for participation with their own groups. 

3) Yes, a real obscurity, that "Modern Jazz Group 60" from Pforzheim. After I had discoved this news item in the JAZZER mag I wrote to Wolfram Knauer of the Darmstadt Jazz Institute but he had no knowledge whatsoever of this either. But since Sonorama seems to have a knack of unearthing unreleased tapes off the beaten tracks of the "usual suspect" artists I figured a question might be worth it. 
BTW, the list of applications for the 1960 German Amateur Jazz Festival lists a "Hard Bop Group Pforzheim". This might well be them.

 

As for the sales or non-sales of Sonorama records, is there any indication which ones, for example, are particularly slow movers? I have bought several new Sonorama vinyls at our preferred local record shop through the years, but Lars Gullin's comparatively recent "Liquid Moves" CD, for example, already showed up there in the 1 EUR "secondhand odds and ends" special offer bin (and, needless to say, is on my shelf now ).

 

Edited November 30 by Big Beat Steve

[mikeweil]

Fleischhammer told he had to put the stock of his former distributor on sellout when this partnership ended. Maybe the Gullin was among them. It is the retailer who decides to put an album in the sales bin.

He has to be careful not to risk his savings for retirement. Sonorama is not his only source of income and he puts out what he likes and considers overlooked and worth hearing.

He has good connections to some radio archive people.

On 11/29/2025 at 10:57 AM, optatio said:

I would like to have a release as LP/CD of the recording 'Karl Berger: Total Music Ensemble, 1968'

https://inconstantsol.blogspot.com/2009/01/karl-berger-total-music-ensemble.html 

https://www.discogs.com/release/33418631-Karl-Berger-Total-Music-Ensemble-Hamburg-1968?srsltid=AfmBOoqAmYZDPOB4sDigXh7-r_5DnKIq_nQzWjRKo12CZuFQlVKk6wYF 

I will pass this on.

[Big Beat Steve]

I must have expressed myself badly. What I meant about the Gullin CD was that apparently things had already come full circle for this CD - though it looked brand new it must have been part of a collection this shop bought up and then sold off that way. Which surprised me as it seems to have been a comparatively recent production on a collector/collectible label that does not normally finish in the "sale" bins yet. This shop does stock certain new Sonorama vinyls too, BTW. 

[jazzcorner]

SONORAMA recordings in my stock:

CD    Brandt,Helmut    "Berlin Calling" - The Helmut Brandt Combo    1956-58    Sonorama Records # 75

CD    Brandt,Helmut    Spree Coast Jazz - H. Brandt Orchestra    1963    Sonorama # 101

CD    Koller,Hans    Big Sound Koller    1981    Sonorama # 97

CD    Van Royen,Jerry    Explosion! The Festival Bigband    1971    Sonorama #43

A German based and worldwide distributed independent label run by Ekkehart Fleischhammer, focusing on impossible to find or previously unreleased recordings from the sought after vaults of jazz, funk, soul or latin music history.
Label Code: LC 13415

Kantstrasse 125
10625 Berlin
Germany

Edited December 2 by jazzcorner
more text

[mikeweil]

On 11/29/2025 at 12:10 PM, Big Beat Steve said:

1) As Sonorama has released or reissued a couple of items on SWEDISH jazz from the 50s and 60s, are there any more plans for reissues of other Swedish artists/groups that have consistently been overlooked by labels such as Dragon or Caprice?

Freshsoundrecords.com just released a box set of 1950's Swedish jazz.

https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/swedish-cool-and-modern-jazz-albums/57573-swedish-cool-and-modern-jazz-1949-1959-the-golden-years-4-cd-box-set.html

[jazzbo]

I have and enjoy all nine volumes in this series:

https://www.discogs.com/label/441012-Svensk-Jazzhistoria

[Big Beat Steve]

44 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

Freshsoundrecords.com just released a box set of 1950's Swedish jazz.

https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/swedish-cool-and-modern-jazz-albums/57573-swedish-cool-and-modern-jazz-1949-1959-the-golden-years-4-cd-box-set.html

Yes. Mike, I had seen that. But thanks for bringing it up again. I had had relatively high hopes when I first saw it, but they were dampened fairly quickly. At least half of its contents are well present on the reissue market, either on Metronome itself or on Dragon, or in the series mentioned by Jazzbo (of which I have parts 1 to 8 as well  ). Particularly little new in the reissue field of Gullin, Hallberg, Domnérus, Theselius and Ericson there. And very litle at all by the likes of Simon Brehm, Reinhold Svensson, Carl-Henrik Norin a.o. As if it was wellnigh impossible for any compiler to look beyond the obvious items for artists like these, for fear of not rounding enough sales.

But hey, you reissuers, you are not so much going to sell compilations like these off the beaten tracks to the newbies wanting to expand into this area for the first time but to a not so small degree to seasoned collectors who already have most of the previous reissues and are looking to fil their gaps! Seems like reissues in niche fields of jazz that went out of their way not to duplicate previous reissues but specifically tried to fill gaps died out with the compilers of oldtime jazz or early blues.   When did you all last see a reissue that specifically stated on its back cover something like "Additional recordings found on ... No duplications between these!" ?  Yes I know - demands like these should not (necessarily) be adressed to Fresh Sounds!  (Though they did dare to cover their share of ultra-obscure 50s jazz (U.S., though ...) ).