He was always one of the most present and busy among the local jazz musicians. During the Corona respite this summer, several concerts were on the pianist’s schedule Walter Lang. One or the other with saxophonist Jason Seizer, one of his oldest friends and companions since the two met in the late 1980s after Lang returned from studying in Amsterdam. But above all the release tour of the duo album “Cathedral” with the young guitarist and shooting star Philipp Schiepek, which for both of them Debut on the renowned act label was. But the first stream concert at the end of April, like the following, was canceled without giving any reason.
The project emerged from a typical initiative of the always searching Walter Lang: “The combination of the piano with the usual jazz guitar is often problematic, which is why I have been thinking about a duo with an acoustic guitar with nylon strings for three years. And during the Corona period too composed an enormous amount for it. I had noticed Philipp for a long time, and so it turned out perfectly, “he reported before the publication. Once again, it was the power of simple melodies that Lang staged with Schiepek. That was perhaps the greatest strength of the pianist, composer like arranger Walter Lang, one that may be explained by his career path. Born in 1961 in Schwäbisch-Gmünd (the Swabian accent emphasized his pronounced politeness and modesty almost excessively), Lang grew up with classical music, but above all with folk music on the accordion. the Beatles became for him – as for so many – an initiation experience, and so he wanted to become a rock musician. Until, by chance, he ended up at the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston and thus in the jazz academy, from which he was completely unaffected until then. All the more vehemently the love for improvisation and musical freedom inflamed. Which, of course, never forgot the emotionally charged melody and the sparing use of notes that were emphasized all the more for it (the distinctive single-note game in the right was one of his trademarks).
So Walter Lang became on a small scale what Brad Mehldau performed on the big stage: a great (neo) romantic of jazz. It was no coincidence that Lang seemed to have subscribed to vocal accompaniment for many years, hardly anyone could do it as discreetly, elegantly and sensitively as he: With countless singers such as Melanie Bong, Lisa Wahlandt, Aya Murodate, Jenny Evans, Stefanie Schlesinger, Tuija Komi, Nina Plotzki or Fernanda Santanna, but also with the singers Milton Nascimento and – documented on two duo albums – Philipp Weiss. From some of the names one can also read out other passions of Lang: firstly the love for Latin American music; In addition to female singers, he also repeatedly brought the outstanding Brazilian percussionist Marco Lobo to Germany. Above all, however, his love for Japan, which he traveled to early and regularly, and where he was a real star: his early albums, for example with a swinging Beatles project or adaptations of Charlie Chaplin, sometimes only appear in Japan, his trio Recordings on the local international label Atelier Sawano. Finally, Lang also played in the trio of the Japanese drummer Shinya Fukumori, who published on ECM.
Lang’s founding membership in the Trio eleven, his probably best-known project in this country, which was one of the first bands to adapt electronic dance floor sound and drum & bass for jazz. Here, too, Lang was responsible for the melodic side. Of course, his lyrical streak was best expressed in his own trio, where his own compositions were played almost exclusively. In 1999 it started with the Belgian Nick Thys on bass and Lang’s long-time companion Rick Hollander on drums. In 2008, Lang re-formed it with the Gothenburg bassist Thomas Markusson and the Berlin drummer Sebastian Merk. Again ten years later (which is why the trio is now named Tens Merk was replaced by the Swede Magnus Öström, the world-famous former est drummer. Even Corona could hardly slow down the success of the double album presented in 2020, such as the small tour.
A year later, right before the “Cathedral” tour, a cancer that had only recently been diagnosed did it. As was the case with Walter Lang, who lived in seclusion with his family in the Upper Bavarian countryside, he kept his suffering a secret. On Thursday, at the age of 60 and in the prime of his work, he lost the fight against cancer.