Germany is the undisputed worldwide leader of the piano boogie tradition, and is often referred to as boogieland.

Considered the greatest exponent of boogie piano in the world is German, Axel Zwingenberger, who popularized the re-emergence of this musical tradition out of Hamburg in the 1970’s and made records with Champion Jack Dupree, Big Joe Turner, Sippie Wallace, Lionel Hampton, Mama Yancy (Jimmy Yancy’s wife), Lloyd Glen, Jay McShann, and Lila Ammons, Albert Ammons granddaughter.

Axel Zwingenberger

To see and hear Axel play is an unforgettable experience.

I have performed at many of the boogie festivals in Germany, France, and Belgium over the past 5 years and, through my friend and colleague, the most renowned boogie drummer in Germany,  Micha Maass, I gained an introduction to Axel Zwingenbergers’ house in Hamburg.

Axel and Eva are lovely people and warmly welcomed me in, along with the band I was travelling with, the Frank Mushalle Trio. Frank is another wonderful piano player who has been mentored by Axel.

For all their friendliness and warmth (mountains of apple and walnut strudel, freshly baked from their garden) I felt very nervous. The only person there who didn’t speak German, I smiled and nodded like an idiot.

Added to my discomfort was that I was a woman with a man’s name, Jan (which means John) and came from so far away, i.e. Australia!

Axel didn’t speak much to me directly, except to mention that the Bechstein grand and upright pianos were available for anyone to play. This was code for an impromptu audition at the feet of the master, so I chose a moment when everyone was engrossed in conversation and food, and slipped into the side room where the pianos were, but had only begun the opening bars of Hadda Brooks Lazy Boogie when both Frank and Axel were in front of me, watching my every finger movement. I was terrified, but somehow managed to try to relax and focus into the music. At the end they said “das is gut” and Axel invited me to come and visit him again. I was thrilled.

The next year I returned to the house for dinner at 7pm with Axel and Eva, who invited another prominent r’n b piano player, Vince Weber, and his wife, Annette. I planned over and over what I would take and ultimately decided on chocolates and roses. These pale orange roses were a big hit with Eva, who had them beautifully arranged in minutes.

I was touched beyond words by both Axel’s and Vince’s delight in my other present, a plastic grand piano pencil sharpener each, and I found it endearing that two of the greatest piano players in the world could get so excited by this little gift!

There was more playing, listening, and, with Axel’s permission, I recorded everything he said on a primitive (and very discreet) cassette player.

His collection of vinyl, DVDs and CDs is staggering and he is tremendously generous in passing on his knowledge.

At intervals there was more coffee, more chocolate, the Weber’s went home, and finally I began to feel I may have outstayed my welcome and should make a move back to the Etap in Hamburg’s Reeperbahn where I was staying. I mentioned that I would go off to catch the train, at which Axel and Eva laughed and explained the trains probably wouldn’t be running by now as it was 4.40am!

So Axel gave me a ride to my door in his 1960’s  Porsche, entertaining me with stories of being invited by Charlie Watts, who he regularly performs with, to play boogie backstage at a Rolling Stones concert, during which Keith Richards and Ron Wood danced together like 2 old chooks!

I saw Axel and Eva again this year when I played at the Blue Wave festival on the island of Reugen in Germany’s North.

Axel played a show with Big Jay McNeely and his band,  which was unforgettable. A great friend of Louis Armstrong, (and looking rather like him) Big Jay is now 83 and refers to his audience as “oh my children!

Reugen used to be in the East, is now a popular and somewhat luxurious tourist resort, and our shows were on an outdoor stage in the middle of a picturesque plaza right by the water.

Thanks again to Micha Maass, I had come from an “invitation only” 3 day music camp he runs nearby in Binz, which had been an exhausting and exhilarating experience.

We studied from 10am to midday , again from 2pm to 4pm (think playing non stop until your arms and hands are dropping off), a dash back to your teepee (rather luxurious individual houses with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and under floor heating, but you are never there to enjoy it!), more coffee, more coffee, before an impro session every night with some of Europe’s best blues players, in front of an audience from the camp.

Wunderbar!

Good on dear old Europe for spearheading the touring, recording and filming of many of the black American jazz and blues players who were being overlooked and ignored in America from the 1950s on, for producing precious gems of recordings we would otherwise never have heard, and studying with such respect and integrity the boogie piano tradition of Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis.

Axel Zwingenberger has his own style, is as brilliant as any of these great men, and I am truly grateful for the inspiration these trips to Europe have given me as a musician.

In my ambassadorial role, the Germans at least now realize there are pockets of dedicated boogie players in this, the most remote outpost of civilization, Down Under!