A FIRESIDE
CHAT WITH ENJA RECORDS CO-FOUNDER, MATTHIAS WINCKELMANN
Love that Enja Records. There is this Abdullah Ibrahim record, Live at
Montreux, that features one of the burning trombone solos ever by a wonderful
Craig Harris (his best performance on record thus far). Not to mention
the many kick ass records from Bennie Wallace, Ray Anderson, and Dusko
Goykovich. Old Bottles, New Wine is one of my favorite bone records of
all time (Ray Anderson). So Enja has many a titles on my wall of fame
of keeper CDs. I sat down with the man that pays the bills at Enja, Mr.
Matthias Winckelmann from the offices of KOCH International (shameless
plug for Donald Elfman and Naomi), and he spoke candidly about the record
business, the state of jazz today, and his label, unedited and in his
own words.
FRED JUNG: Let's start from the beginning.
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: That was a long time ago when I was about fifteen or sixteen
years of age. I was, as a matter of fact, in a boarding school, which is
a bit of a college situation, I went to what we'd call a college here and
elder students kind of hooked me up with my first jazz experiences. And
very soon, I had a very seminal experience, which was listening to my first
Charlie Parker record, that totally turned my head around and still does
to this day. I bought my first Charlie Parker record when I was sixteen
years and I had no idea, not much idea about music really, but I knew this
was it. This was my moment of truth in a way. From that day on, I knew that
I wanted to spend my life in connection with jazz.
FJ: What
was it about Bird's sound that stimulated your ear then and still lingers
in your mind to this day?
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: It was a perfect balance of aesthetics, of creativity, at the
same time, the swing, simply, everything was a moment of perfection in my
opinion.
FJ: That
kind of in the moment seems to epitomize what jazz is all about.
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: Very well possible. In a jazz performance, you are gripped
by a moment, by some experience, simply, when you listen to that. That lasts
with you for a very long time.
FJ: When
did you establish the ENJA Records label?
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: We did our first record in 1971, which was Mal Waldron and
we set up the company in the spring of '72.
FJ: What
does ENJA stand for?
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: Well, that is a funny thing, Fred. It didn't originally stand
for anything. I sat with my wife in the kitchen and we thought, "Now, what
are we going to call this newborn baby?" I thought of all kinds of abbreviations
and came up with these four letters and later found a meaning to it, which
meant European New Jazz and then we went into American old jazz right away
(laughing).
FJ: Was
it difficult to get the ball rolling?
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: Well, of course the finances. I talked to my bank and told
them, "Look, I want to start a record label and I need like twenty thousand
dollars." They gave me a big laugh and said, "OK, but not from us." I simply
had to round up that money on the private side, which worked out and I paid
everything back after two years and it's kind of running since then. But
in the beginning, it was some good luck because I started with a partner
who had just come back from Japan and he had a very good relationship with
several of the largest Japanese record companies, who were very much into
jazz in those days. We could license our first Mal Waldron record immediately
to the Victor Company in Japan. We needed some money. I had a little capital
left immediately for the second record. We just went step by step. It was
easier those days than today.
FJ: How
was it easier?
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: In quiet several countries, jazz was more of a topic than it
is today. Japan was really into jazz. Japan is not really into jazz anymore
I think. For us, for instance, we're doing very well in Korea now. Korea,
I think, is where Japan was twenty years ago as far as the reception of
jazz is.
FJ: Finally,
someone who confirms what I have believed for the last few years.
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: I know from Japanese musicians that they work more in Korea
than in Japan now. I honestly think that jazz in Japan was something of
a fashion a bit. Half the jazz clubs which existed in Japan are no longer
in existence. There are hardly any. All the great places in Tokyo, all that
is over. There are now only some very few, high profile, very expensive,
really commercial clubs, which are attended to by business people, who have
that kind of money to spend. At the same time, I hear from my Korean partners
that they are starting another jazz festival. Clubs are spring up left and
right. There is a whole new awareness. The same thing might happen to China
I think. I'm just talking to Chinese major state companies and they are
setting up jazz divisions because they are finding out that this is exactly
what people want to hear, which is great.
FJ: In
the late Eighties, with the advent and acceptance of the CD format, it must
have been a financial commitment to transfer from LPs.
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: It was in the beginning quite difficult because only the majors
had their own CD manufacturing possibilities and we did our first CDs in
Japan and had them shipped over to Europe from Japan, packaged them there.
It was complicated. They were really expensive. In a way, I spent all my
early days of my company with LPs. Loved LPs, the big format and all that.
Somehow my heart was not at all into CDs. They are tiny little things. But
what can you do? The CD boom helped the whole industry and everything got
really changed. We were very slow transforming most of the catalog up to
CD format. Not all of it has really gone into CD format.
FJ: Many
of the artists whom you have recorded over the years have been sorely neglected
by the majors.
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: I think it is more than these artists are being neglected.
I think they do very uncompromising music. I think you cannot really have
a place with a major company. It will never work out. It cannot. You have
to sell your records to a limited audience. This audience is all over the
world and is not so limited, but you really have to give it very careful
care. And a major cannot do that. It is just not possible. A major has to
go with its own distribution, which has very different qualities in different
parts of the globe. For instance, Blue Note was always very good in this
country, but the Blue Note distribution in Germany is ridiculous. Bennie
Wallace's albums were not available for instance on Blue Note in Germany.
They imported like 200 and then they were dead. Polygram is very good in
Germany, very bad in Austria, not happening in Italy and things like that.
Whereas, an independent label like my stuff, I really have the comfort of
looking for the best partners in all the important countries of the world.
You simply get that way a better jazz distribution together than a major
could. So we have a very natural place there. Majors have to sell in few
markets with high advertising expense and so on and we can kind of spread
out more comfortably for other ways, just standing by the quality of the
music.
FJ: How
extensive is the ENJA catalog?
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: We have about five hundred titles in the catalog.
FJ: What
is the current number of new titles being released by ENJA per year?
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: We're releasing between thirty and thirty-five per year.
FJ: What
are some of the upcoming titles?
MATTHIAS
WINCKELMANN: Well, we just finished the third recording of the Maria Schneider
Orchestra. I think this is a very major album. It is a big step forward
from her first two albums, which are very great, but this new one really
shows her own compositional capacities much more than the first ones did.
It is a major step in modern orchestra writing. It is a beautiful, great
record, which will come out in the fall here. We just finished mastering
it, as a matter of fact, last week. We have a new record coming out with
vocalist Kevin Mahogany, who was with us for quite a while and went to a
major and just before he really went to Warner Bros., we recorded Kevin
Mahogany doing Mingus music only with the radio big band and we kept that
in the can for four years and it is wonderful. Kevin is totally proud of
it and very happy. It is a real jazz record. I love Kevin. He is a great
cat. We have a lot. As a matter of fact, I just renewed my relationship
with KOCH here and I think we will have a lot more visibility than we did
before, better conditions, more promo money and so on. I think you will
see quite a lot of us in the next couple of months here.
Fred
Jung is Jazz Weekly's Editor-In-Chief. Comments? Email
Fred.