Second Direction - Four Corners & Steps Ahead '2018

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Freeland
02. Storm Flute
03. Peace
04. Praeludium N° 3
05. Steamer
06. Flying Carpet Ride
07. Blue Dilemma
08. Four Corners
09. Steps Ahead
10. Feeling Free
11. Moving Fantasy
12. Keep Going
13. Tonys Choice
14. Last Minute



 Read MoreFritz Münzer & Second Direction:

West Germany in the 70’s of the last century. Composer and arranger Fritz
Münzer (1934-2007) is one of the countrys best Jazz saxophonists and
flutists. After a career in the 50’s and 60’s as a hip musician on
the German Hard Bop and Westcoast scene, the man from Mannheim first refuses to
establish his own band, but then forms Second Direction. With this formation he
records Four Corners, a so called Library LP for the small publishing label
Trend Records. The album was produced in 1976 by Joy Unlimited founder and
guitarist Klaus R. Nagel with top notch musicians at Tonstudio Bauer in
Ludwigsburg. Münzer is now active behind the scenes, writing music and is
heard on countless recordings for different music publishers.

Amongst connoisseurs Four Corners is considered one of the really outstanding
Jazz Funk Fusion albums from Germany. Münzer is joined by Gerhard Spirka on
electric bass, Val Hargreaves on drums, Karl-Heinz Merkel on Fender Rhodes and
occasionally Jörg Gebhardt on congas. However, the finished LP did not appear
in shops. It was exclusively available to broadcasters and foreign
sub-publishers by Nagel’s publisher Badenia-Vineta, for use on radio and
television. Therefore, background information and visual material regarding
Second Direction is missing. There is no band story, band photos or anything,
with the exception of an unusual artistic designed front cover by Karl Hans
Merkel. His artwork shows four stylized profile views of the musicians.

For a long time, the album remained a secret. Then, in the mid-90s, it is
suddenly discovered in alternative German music clubs and discotheques. During
the Acid Jazz revival in the United Kingdom, the dancers at Mojo, Unique and
Atomic Café not only move to electronic music, but also to Jazz and Funk
again. Now the Rare Grooves of Second Direction are on the playlists. DJ Rainer
Trüby curates his internationally successful Glücklich compilations with
European, Brazilian & Fusion Jazz of the 70’s and 80’s. In 1996 on
the second volume, he presents Second Direction’s Flying Carpet Ride. And
so begins the hunt for the extremely rare LP. High Class Fusion and Brazilian
Beats made in Germany on a level with bands such as Weather Report or Azimuth!
The track is frequently played at Trübys Rootdown parties and you just had to
have it! In addition to the high musical quality, it is above all the rarity and
obscurity of the record that makes it interesting for DJs and collectors alike
around the world today.

Back in 1978. Fritz Münzer wants to deliver a second LP for Badenia-Vineta
with his band Second Direction. Under the working title Steps Ahead, it is
produced at Studio 2000 in Pforzheim, with a new formation of high profile
musicians. This time Münzer plays with Toni Rabold on trumpet, Pit Löw on
keyboards, Chuck Tscheschner on electric bass and Peter Lübke on drums and
percussion. This band also impresses with first class, danceable, Fusion Jazz.
However, to the surprise of everyone, the new recordings are not taken into
account and the tapes soon disappear in Nagel’s archives. A second vinyl
LP is not manufactured and Münzers project, Second Direction, becomes history
after only two years. With the present Sonorama reissue these lost Steps Ahead
sessions are released for the first time in 2018, as well as Four Corners
produced by Klaus R. Nagel and directly transferred from the master tapes.

In the 1960’s, Nagel studies Early Music at the Mannheim University of
Music and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. He then works as a freelance
composer, arranger and musician for Film, Radio and Television. Soon after, he
founded the progressive and internationally successful Jazz Rock group Joy
Unlimited with the singer Joy Fleming. The pairing starts an intensive concert
career in Germany and abroad. He is also able to bring two of his complex Jazz
Rock ballets to the stage. Nagel is still active today as a bustling music
publisher. During the 60’s, Fritz Münzer plays with legends such as
Manfred Schoof, Joe Haider and Hartwig Bartz. In the 1980s he becomes a kind of
father figure to young Jazz musicians in the Rhine-Neckar area, enjoying a
reputation for playing the Blackest Sounds” on the local scene. From 1987,
Münzer teaches at the University of Mannheim and starts the so called College
Jazz Ensemble.

For decades, his changing formations have been like a regional school of Jazz.
Much in the spirit of Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers. Later on he co-founded the
independent label Jazz n Arts with Olaf Schönborn and Thomas Siffling. In
addition to Four Corners other hidden Münzer projects for various music
libraries are highly recommended, most of them in collaboration with jazz
pianist Wolfgang Lauth. In the 70’s and 80’s he records some
interesting Jazz and Funk library LPs, under pseudonyms such as The House Band
or Sound Factory Inc.. Under the name Jazz Unit a vocal Jazz album was released
in 1982 with his wife, singer Peggy Drake. This forms part of the next treasure
trove of fabulous work by Mannheims Jazzman Fritz Münzer ...

(Ekkehart Fleischhammer/ Sonorama 2018) 

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