Aktion: Grabstein für HORST FISCHER
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Aktion: Grabstein für HORST FISCHER
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Among the present generation of young trumpet players there is
unfortunately scarcely anyone who knows that back in the fifties and sixties
there was one trumpet player in Germany who
was without a doubt one of the best in the world and could be compared with such
first-rate high-note artists as Maynard Ferguson or Bill Chase. Horst Fischer was the star in most of the well-known German orchestras
specializing in light musical entertainment which, in those days, achieved a far
different level of popularity
than nowadays. A child of the German Wirtschaftswunder,
he was born and raised in Chemnitz which he left in 1951 to become a member of
Erwin Lehn's radio dance orchestra in Stuttgart. There he soon featured as their
soloist and lead trumpet player. There soon followed one successful solo
production after another with his own orchestra
and others, for example, the legendary "River Song" with the
orchestra of Willy Berking. After the time spent with Erwin Lehn he had
engagements between 1960 and 1969 as the soloist and lead trumpeter of the RIAS
Orchestra in Berlin under the direction of Werner Müller and then, until 1971,
as a soloist with Kurt Edelhagen in Cologne. From 1971 he was under contract
with the radio orchester in Zürich. In the fifties the American magazine
Downbeat placed him among the world's top trumpet players, but he nevertheless
rejected an offer made by Stan Kenton to join his
world-renowned band as a
solo and lead player and remained loyal to the German orchestras. On tours throughout Germany and abroad he was up until the late sixties
still the top trumpet player, as
shown during the legendary tours of Japan with Werner Müller. Although as late as 1973 a highly praised LP recorded with the orchestra
of Hans Bertram, "Horst Fischer And His Golden Trumpet", was produced
by Polydor, his popularity was noticebly declining, and his alcohol problems
were gradually undermining his vigour. At the end of the seventies he returned from Switzerland and attempted to
regain his footing in German bands, but was not successful. In the last years of
his life Horst Fischer lived in the Cologne area. A musician of great talent,
who in 1959 had already been awarded the golden trumpet for the sale of over a
million recordings had in the end just two people who remained at his side, his
fiancée and an unselfish friend.
Horst Fischer died at the age of just 55 years, completely forgotten by
the world of music. Friedel Keim, Author of
"Das Trompeter-Taschenbuch", Schott-Verlag. |