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Mit:
Ken Rhodes † , Matt Kendrick , John Wilson , Scott Adair , Larry Carman , Greg Hyslop , Orihuela ,
Benny Bailey , Al Porcino , Howard Katz , Hermann Breuer , Mike Baron , Frank St. Peter † ,
Bobby Stern , Leszek Zadlo , Hanusz Berka , Gary Todd , Allen Blairman , George Greene †
The real story of the "Peace Chant"-CD:
I had a fire in my house in 1995.
The house burnt down in such way, that the ground and upper floor had to be distroyed by bulldozer. The basement, in which my recording control room and all my vinyl record stocks were located, did not burn, but suffered severe damage by the fire fighting water.
What I didn't know at that time is that the water, which the fire brigade was using, contains some chemics. There was around 30 cm of water, which means, the albums and even mastertapes stored on the basement's floor were totally wet. I had to throw away hundreds of my produced albums with covers soaked with water and chemics. The mastertapes, some of which were located in the upper floor, were totally wet too and developed over time, when drying, some mold and fungus on it.
So far the fire story.
Ken Rhodes had returned to USA several years earlier. I lost contact with him.
The bigband-production, which I had produced with
Ken 1976 before he left back to US, I delayed the publishing of that bigband-album because of the much restauration work involved and not having contact with Ken. It wasn't even clear if that mastertapes could be restored/recovered at all.
One day he/or I contacted again and Ken demanded a cassette copy of
the recordings so he can hear it while driving car, so he said. He knew about the fire and damages but said I
should make that cassette for him anyway. He accepted that the quality would be bad. So I did.
I immigrated to US in 2005 (Denver, Colorado), got my greencard, and working successfully as an IT expert.
In 2010 I drove 2 days with my car from Denver to North Carolina, to meet Ken. I stayed a couple days at his house. He had a brain stroke years before. He wasn't the guy anymore I had worked
with in Germany. In Winston-Salem, NC, I saw club gigs of him which made me cry...
So the story of 'he can hear it while driving car' wasn't quite true: I found out that his brother Chris had a studio and they both took the cassette and 'pimped' it up; remastered titles and what else, and he finally had his CD "Peace Chant" produced, actually without my permission nor letting me know before hand.
He had a very nice booklet made with photos and even my fire story on it; actually I couldn't be angry with him at all, despite the
several mistakes on the CD.
So, the "Peace Chant" is an exotic piece. While visiting him Ken signed me a 25 years-extention of our contract.
In 2013 I returned to Germany, started and finished the restauration of my bigband - mastertapes and they are of much better quality than the cassette ever was.
I am planning now an album with a
variety of his works, ie. with Benny Bailey, Al Porcino, Hanusz Berka and other stars.
In the meantime I have contact with his brother Chris who supports all my efforts.
Here are the mistakes and errors Ken made when producing the CD:
There is no label code on the cover nor the CD.
The Amayana-Label on the CD is not in the original colors; instead of the red, orange and green it is in green only.
In the title list and his text in the booklet one title is named incorrect: Instead of the correct version "Song For Strayhorn" he printed "Song For Stayhorn".
The photograph on the cover is not by me; it is made by my friend Reinhold Schinol.
Little note on the side: There is a hole in the right sock of Ken Rhodes foot. Well, musicians.
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