Lippmann + Rau Introducing Germany and Europe to Amercian Jazz and Rock Music
Both Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau shared a love for jazz music. After the war, Lippmann founded and played in the jazz combos at the Hot Club in Frankfurt. He partnered with Olaf Hudtwalcker to found the German Jazz Federation that organized jazz concerts at jazz clubs across Germany. In 1953, he started the German Jazz Festival at Frankfurt and became the leading jazz promoter in Western German. On the other hand, Rau was a practicing attorney in Heidelberg and, on the side ran a jazz club called the Cave 54. His first significant concert featured Albert Mangelsdorff, a famous German free jazz trombonist at the Heidelberg Town Hall. Lippmann was in the audience. Rau contacted Lippmann a year later to request his club be added to the German Jazz Festival, and their relationship began.
Lippmann recommends Rau as a stagehand to manage the drums of the famous American drummer Gene Krupa. Rau could not resist the chance to meet Krupa and other American jazz greats who accompanied Ella Fritzgerald, such as Oscar Peterson and Roy Brown. Lippmann invited Rau to join him in Frankfurt to learn the concert business. The late 1950s and 1960s were heady times for Lippmann and Rau. As West Germany prospered, so did they because their jazz concerts and festival were popular and well attended. In 1963, Lippmann asked Rau to become a partner, and Lippmann + Rau formed. Rau dropped his legal career and focus his energies on concert promotion.
American Folk And Blues Festival 1968 German Concert Poster By Gunther Kieser
In the 1960s, they expand into folk music with the start of the American Folk Blues Festival, where many Europeans heard American blues artists for the first time. Many young artists like Mike Jagger, Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Eric Burdon attended. Lippmann + Rau’s reputation grew, and become known for integrity and treating their guest artists with dignity and professionalism. They also picked the best talent for their productions. In January 1969, they booked Jim Hendrix and the Experience for a German tour and hired Gunther Kieser to create a tour blank for the shows. Kieser produced his “Medusa Head” layout that probably is the most famous concert poster ever produced in Rock history. Kieser created two poster sizes for the tour, starting in Hamburg and ending in Berlin. The larger layout was 32 x 48 inches and usually wheat-pasted around bus stops, street sidewalks around the cities Hendrix was playing. The promoters hung the smaller 22 x 33-inch posters in stores and local establishments. Hawley endeavors to find concert posters for all of the tour venues in January 1969. Hawley will pay $20,000 in cash for original Kieser Jimi Hendrix 1969 concert posters with dates printed on the bottom in the cities below. For reward details, please go to the home page.
Jan 17 Germany Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle
Jan 23 Germany Berlin Sportpalast
Jan 22 Austria Vienna Wiener Konzerthaus
Jan 21 France Strasbourg Hall du Wacken 9
Jan 17 Germany Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle
Jan 16 Germany Nuremberg Meistersingerhalle
Jan 15 Germany Munich Kongressaal
Jan 14 Germany Münster Halle Münsterland
Jan 13 Germany Cologne The Sporthalle
Jan 12 Germany Rheinhalle, Düsseldorf
Jan 11 Germany Hamburg Musikhalle
In 1968, Marcel Avram founded the Mama Concerts and started to compete with Lippmann + Rau bringing world-class artists to Germany and Europe. Mama specialized in large venue concerts, which turned sports halls and football arenas into concert halls. In 1987, Avram bought, Lippmann & Rau, asking Fritz Rau to become his partner. Together they built Mama Concert into the largest promotion agency in the world.
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