Heiner Stadler (April 9, 1942 – February 18, 2018) was a jazz composer, record producer, pianist and arranger whose work has traversed genres including jazz, blues and country, baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary classical music.^[1] He was also the founder and CEO of Labor Records, distributed by Naxos Records.^[2]

Early life

Stadler was born April 9, 1942, in West Prussia (now part of Poland) in the town of Lessen (Łasin) in the county of Graudenz (Grudziąd). His great-grandmother was Josephine Amann-Weinlich, ^[3] who founded and conducted Europe's first women's orchestra, the Wiener Damen-Orchester (later the Erste Europäische Damenorchester), which toured extensively, including an 1871 appearance at New York's Steinway Hall.^[4] Stadler studied piano at the Hamburg Conservatory and composition privately with composer Walter Steffens.

Jazz Composer and Arranger

Stadler relocated to New York City in 1965 to begin a career as a jazz composer and pianist. His first commercially released work, an arrangement of Duke Ellington's composition Main Stem featuring saxophonist James Moody, Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, Freddie Waits et al., was issued in 1969 on the Milestone label. Prior to that, at a recording session in December 1966 at Nola Penthouse Sound Studios, Stadler recorded his composition entitled ‘’The Fugue #2’’ which would become part of the pioneering 1973 release Brains on Fire. The 1966 session included Jimmy Owens on trumpet, Joe Farrell on tenor sax, trombonist Garnett Brown, pianist Don Friedman, bassist Barre Phillips and drummer Joe Chambers. The 1973 release also included sessions from 1971 featuring bassist Reggie Workman, Tyrone Washington on tenor sax and drummer Lenny White, along with Stadler himself on piano.

‘’Brains on Fire’’ was reissued in 2012 with additional tracks recorded through 1974. One notable addition was a twenty-minute duet between vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and Workman on bass (recorded July 3, 1973, at Generation Sound Studios, New York City, under the composer's supervision). The re-release also included Stadler's arrangement of Russ Freeman’s composition Bea’s Flat, originally written for trumpeter Chet Baker. Commissioned by the NDR Big Band^[5] and conducted by Dieter Glawischnig, the arrangement featured musicians Manfred Schoof, Gerd Dudek, Albert Mangelsdorff, Wolfgang Dauner, Lucas Lindholm and Tony Inzalaco.^[6][7][8]

As producer and arranger, Stadler was responsible for the iconic 1978 album Tribute to Bird and Monk featuring Thad Jones, George Adams, George Lewis, Stanley Cowell, Reggie Workman and Lenny White. The widely acclaimed release received excellent reviews from Neil Tesser in Jazz Magazine and from DownBeat Magazine which honored the album with a five-star rating and recognized Stadler in the magazine's Annual Critic's Poll as a Talent Deserving Wider Recognition.^[9]

Other releases of Stadler's own works include Jazz Alchemy (1976) featuring Charles McGhee,^[10] Richard Davis, Marilyn Crispell, Joshua Pierce (Recorded on August 13, 1975, at Minot Sound Studios, White Plains, New York)^[11] and Retrospection (a 1989 reissue including several previously unreleased tracks). Stadler has been a four-time recipient of National Endowment for the Arts Grants for composition as well as a grant recipient from the Creative Artist Public Service Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

In 1988, dancer/choreographer Sin Cha Hong's Laughing Stone company performed her original work Seraphim at the Joyce Theater incorporating environmental sounds arranged by Stadler with a score by Pierre Henry, Diamanda Galas and Kirk Nurock's Natural Sounds Ensemble.^[12] In addition to his own work, in the 1970s he produced (together with partner Kent Cooper)^[13] concerts at New York's Hunter College and the Brooklyn Academy of Music with artists such as Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, Koko Taylor), Albert King, Louisiana Red and Peg Leg Sam.

Record Producer

Stadler's record productions include releases by blues musicians John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Louisiana Red, Johnny Shines and Roosevelt Sykes; classical pianists such as the Brazilian João Carlos Martins (the complete clavier works of Bach) and Arthur Moreira Lima (music of Chopin), Grete Sultan, Bulgarian musicians such as Pavlina Dokovska, Angela Tosheva, Nadejda Vlaeva, Ivan Spassov, Ivo Papazov and Gheorghi Arnaoudov, Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, the Chinese-American pianist Margaret Leng Tan (new music by John Cage and others); the Brazilian guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima, jazz musicians Dee Dee Bridgewater, Thad Jones, George Lewis, Tyrone Washington, Reggie Workman, Ken Peplowski, Randy Sandke, and Jay Clayton; the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble; a large group of important twentieth-century composers including the Americans Harry Partch and Petr Kotik, Japanese composer Somei Satoh, Korean composer Isang Yun and many others.

He is particularly known for his extensive recordings of the American avant-garde pioneer John Cage, begun in cooperation with the composer and continuing until his death. He also supervised the release of Philip Glass's famous recording of Einstein on the Beach (originally for Tomato, currently available on Sony). Stadler has produced for Labor Records, Arabesque Records, Zoho, WERGO Records, Tomato Records, Arcadia Records and several labels within the Concord Music Group.^[14]

References

External links

• Labor records website