The Jankowski Debut (1964)

pt1 & pt2

This is the real stuff: 18 young students from Stuttgart, i.e. 10 boys and 8 girls joined the Erwin Lehn SWF Studio Orchestra in 1964. That was the birth of the Jankowski Singers. It took place almost 11 years after Horst went for his first contract as a pianist for Caterina Valente on tour, 1953.

The second public appearence of the Jankowski Singers was in 1965 when Horst presented his own orchestra for the first time. This was also the birth of the Crystal Clear Piano Sound to go for a string of Jankowski compositions such as the famous Walk in the Black Forest.

Its all in here and it's unbelievable: Genuine Ray Conniff Orchestra & Chorus Sound from Germany by Erwin Lehn and The Jankowski Singers in 1964, and the "Pluck 'n Play" by The Jankowski Orchestra in 1965, comprising

• the Jankowski Piano,
  
• a guitar (Guenter Leimstoll),
  
• a bass (Peter Witte),
  
• drums (Charly Antolini),
  
• a couple of (plucked) strings,
  
• and a few "tinklemakers".

And now, enjoy Jankowski in unexpected awful nice sound quality @320kbps.

Jankowski Re-Up'd

I wasn't very happy with my recent restauration of Horst Jankowski's We Got Love. And I figured out something was wrong with the stylus or the pick-up system. B.t.w., its an Ortofon VMS 15E, circa 8 years old, roughly 300 hours of operation. That's not too old.

In order to get information about the stylus I removed it for the first time from the pick-up and then I re-assembled the system. I thought it might be a good idea to check operational status again while waiting for the new stylus to come. But now, I noticed a significant improvement of the signal.

The only thing which had happened two weeks ago was that I had left my turnable alone for some 20 minutes, and let it play a record. When I came back I noticed that some massive cracks in the grooves caused the stylus to skip the groove again and again. Maybe, that had caused the malfunction in series.

So, my advice to those of you who frequently rip their vinyl, check out the stylus for right position from time to time. And don't keep away from your turnable.

Happy to present You a slightly improved vinyl-rip here.

The Crystal Clear Piano (1967-68)

Let's stay for a while in the Black Forest. This is Stuttgart calling, where Horst Jankowski made his way before leaving for the RIAS Berlin in 1975. His wonderful creations of Sound and Singers climed the charts between 1964 and 1970. Jankowski convinced the German audience of the existence of a musical style beyond Schlager and Classics but actually, he succeeded in the US where people called him the Crystal Clear Piano from the Black Forrest.

These recordings go back to 1967/68 and the unusual and brilliant blending of piano, orchestra and chorus are still uniquely and singularly pure Jankowski. In my early ages when listening to Radio Hamburg (NDR) they used to play his version of Tony Hatch' Don't Sleep in the Subway almost once a week. I loved this one especially when doing my schoolwork in the afternoon ...

And now! From the Jankowski-Studio GmbH, Stuttgart:

The Crystal Clear Piano from the Black Forest. Sound Engineer - Klaus Reiser.

[01] That's Life
[02] What Now My Love
[03] Serenata Romantica (J)
[04] The Spy with a Cold Nose
[05] Shne-Boo-Bedee-Bop (J)
[06] The More I See You
[07] Theme from The Sand Pebbles
[08] Beautiful Hong Kong Girl
[09] Lost Love (J)
[10] Big Big River (J)
[11] The Glory of Love
[12] Black Eyes (J)
[13] The last Waltz
[14] A Banda
[15] Casino Royale
[16] Zabadak
[17] The Happening
[18] It Must Be Him
[19] I Wonder (J)
[20] Don't Sleep in the Subway
[21] And We Got Love (J)

[12] thru [15] are not as clean as usual. If someone in outer space owns a more perfect vinyl copy I would be very pleased upon your help improving the quality of this share.