Volker Kriegel Band live at Jazzfest Berlin 1981

Photo © 2009 Michael Scheiner

Volker Kriegel, guitar
Wolfgang Schlüter, vibraphone
Thomas Bettermann, keyboards
Eberhard Weber, bass
Ralf Hübner, drums

recorded live at Metropol, Berlin, November 5, 1981

1. Calcador/ Schwebebahn/ Chateu Sentimental/ Eberhard´s Solo
2. Naura

A self-taught guitarist, Volker Kriegel (24 December 1943–14 June 2003) began playing when he was fifteen and formed a trio three years later that won an award at a 1963 amateur jazz festival. In 1973 he founded Spectrum, a quartet that included Eberhard Weber, among others. In 1975 Kriegel spent a month teaching for the Goethe Institute, an organization he had worked for at various points throughout his career. In 1976 Spectrum broke up, and Kriegel started another band called the Mild Maniac Orchestra which stayed together in to the 1980s.
Kriegel was widely considered the father of European jazz-rock thanks to his influential stint with the Dave Pike Set as well as a subsequent series of pioneering solo LPs for the MPS label.
In 1977 Kriegel became the partial owner of a label called Mood Records. He has also done sideman work for various musicians, including Klaus Doldinger. In addition to music, Kriegel was also a cartoonist who appeared in several German newspapers, a radio broadcaster, and a director of films and author of books related to music.
In 1981 he released his album "Journal" on Mood records.