Music like Volker Kriegel

Volker Kriegel (24 December 1943 – 15 June 2003) was a German jazz guitarist and composer who also wrote books and drew cartoons. He was a founding member of the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble.

Kriegel was born in Darmstadt on 24 December 1943. He started playing the guitar at the age of 15.

Kriegel studied sociology with Theodor Adorno, but in 1962 was already playing in a band with Albert and Emil Mangelsdorff in Frankfurt, and abandoned his studies. He was then in a fusion band led by vibraphonist Dave Pike, an American expatriate, and recorded the album Noisy Silence – Gentle Noise (1969). Simultaneously, Kriegel started the Mild Maniac Orchestra. He recorded the album Keep on Driving (MPS, 1970) with Don "Sugarcane" Harris, then signed with MPS and released the jazz-rock album Spectrum (1971). Five years later he started the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble, a shifting collective which at various times included Charlie Mariano, Albert Mangelsdorff, Ack van Rooyen, and Barbara Thompson. In 1977 Kriegel co-founded the label Mood Records, which released his own music and that of the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble.