Jaki Liebezeit

Cologne

Hans Liebezeit, called Jaki from his teens, was born on May 26, 1938 in Ostrau, a village south of Dresden (the Spoon Records biography gives 1939), and died on January 22, 2017 in Cologne, aged 78. He began on trumpet in a school orchestra and switched to drums in Kassel. In late 1958 he moved to Cologne, studied at the music academy under Kurt Edelhagen, and shared a flat and played with the Jazz Cookers collective, with Gunter Hampel, Olaf Kubler and Lothar Meid. He met Kenny Clarke, whose limited-kit approach inspired him, and admired Elvin Jones; in 1963 he spent seven months at the Jamboree club in Barcelona with the pianist Tete Montoliu and played with Chet Baker and Don Cherry. From 1965 to 1966 he drummed in Manfred Schoof's quintet.

In late 1967 he joined Irmin Schmidt's group, and in 1968 formed Can with Schmidt, Holger Czukay and Michael Karoli. Can's albums from 1969 to 1979 include Monster Movie, Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi and Future Days. After Can he joined Phantom Band in 1980 and formed Drums Off Chaos and Club Off Chaos, and collaborated with Czukay (Movies, 1979; Full Circle, 1982; Der Osten ist Rot, 1984; Radio Wave Surfer, 1991), Michael Rother, Eurythmics (In the Garden, 1982), Brian Eno, Depeche Mode and Burnt Friedman. The Cyclopean EP (Mute, February 11, 2013) was with Schmidt, Jono Podmore and Burnt Friedman, and Flut with Hans Joachim Irmler came out on July 18, 2014. A tribute concert was held at the Kolner Philharmonie on January 22, 2018.