Siegfried Loch

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Siegfried Loch
Background information
Born (1940-08-09) 9 August 1940 (age 83)[1]
Słupsk, Germany (present day Poland)
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Record producer, musician
Years active1956–present
LabelsACT Music (founder)
Websitewww.actmusic.com

Siegfried "Siggi" Loch (born 9 August 1940) is a German record producer, a record industry executive, and the founder of the ACT Music record label.[1] As both a producer and record label pioneer, Loch is considered to have had a significant impact on the exposure, development, and success of modern jazz music,[2] particularly European jazz.[3][4]

During his career Loch has produced recordings for some of the most recognisable names in jazz, including Yusef Lateef, Eddie Harris, Joe Pass, Tim Hagans, Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Brubeck, Vijay Iyer, Vince Mendoza, George Gruntz, Esbjörn Svensson Trio and Manu Katché; many more released albums on his ACT Music label.[5]

Early life[edit]

Loch was born in the German town of Stolp, now Słupsk in present-day Poland.[1] His family fled East Germany in 1951 to Hanover and initially endured financial hardship.[6] Loch's interest in jazz developed after gatecrashing a Sidney Bechet concert in May 1956. Loch described this event as "life changing",[3][6] stating in a 2020 interview:

I got into a concert by Sidney Bechet. It was the first time that I was aware of listening to jazz. This music radiated the pure joy of life and a feeling of freedom with no limitations. For me this was a moment of complete enlightenment.[7]

He developed as a jazz drummer in the years thereafter[8] but considered his talents insufficient to become a professional musician. He therefore resolved to remain creatively connected to jazz music by engaging in alternative job roles within the music recording industry.[3]

Career[edit]

In 1960, Loch joined Electrola, a German subsidiary of EMI, as a foreign sale representative,[6] introducing him to the operations of the recording industry.[9] By 1963, Loch had moved to Hamburg to assume label management responsibility for the jazz section of Philips.[8] Soon afterwards he was persuaded label bosses that he should also assume production responsibilities.[1][9]

Loch's first production credit was Jazz Made In Germany by the Klaus Doldinger Quartet,[6] the first German jazz album to enjoy a global release.[9] Other early production work was undertaken for George Gruntz, Ingfried Hoffmann, and Don Paulin.[1] Tapping into the growing public interest in blues and rock 'n' roll emerging from outside established jazz clubs, Loch briefly diversified the label by recording and producing a number of acts tangential to German jazz,[8] including Spencer Davis, The Searchers, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Loch's "uncomplicated" production on Jerry Lee Lewis's Live at the Star Club, Hamburg was key to capturing the band's raw and raucous performance, raising Loch's international reputation as a producer.[10] Live at the Star Club, Hamburg has since become widely regarded as one of the greatest live rock 'n' roll albums ever recorded.[11][12][13]

By the late 1960s, Loch had become the managing director of the German arm of the newly formed Liberty Records/United Artists label in Munich, with special responsibility for the Blue Note Records catalogue.[14] In 1971 he became founding managing director of WEA Music Hamburg (later to become Warner Music Germany).[3] During this time Loch continued his production activities, including a touchstone recording of Gerry Mulligan, Paul Desmond and the Dave Brubeck Trio.[15] Loch's time at WEA enabled him to work alongside seminal Atlantic Records jazz producer, Nesuhi Ertegun, who later appointed him president of WEA-Europe in London.[6] His ascendancy within the recording industry was reflected in his commercial successes, which some attribute to his zeal for valuing the priorities of artists and listeners, described as a "balancing act between ethics and profitability".[8]

ACT Music[edit]

Loch's seniority within the industry increasingly distracted him from his original musical passions, particularly production:[2]

I was just running a record company, and this was rather successful. I was working for Warner for eighteen years, and at the end of the career I was the president of Warner Europe and then I realised that all of that had taken me away from my initial life in music, and love in music, which of course was jazz. This was in 1988. I decided to leave Warner and become an independent. [...] I started recording some other music, but in 1992, with the project Jazzpaña I started my own jazz label. It took actually thirty years before I realised my dream and had my own label.[9]

After some initial failures, Loch fulfilled his jazz dreams by successfully establishing ACT Music in 1992,[16] named after his commitment to encouraging signed artists to express themselves creatively.[3][4] Loch's first production project with ACT Music was the jazz-flamenco crossover, Jazzpaña, with The Mendoza-Mardin Project.[1] Jazzpaña assembled Spanish and US musicians with the Cologne-based WDR Big Band, performing arrangements by the then unknown American saxophonist Vince Mendoza.[3][6] Guests included Michael Brecker, Al Di Meola, Peter Erskine, and Steve Khan.[17] Jazzpaña received critical acclaim and enjoyed two Grammy nominations, quickly establishing the jazz credentials of the label.[3] Loch has remarked that the Jazzpaña album set the blueprint for the ACT Music ethos, which entailed a 'European-flavoured jazz aesthetic' packaged distinctively.[6]

With Loch's combined label management and proficiency in production, ACT Music has since become one of the largest and most successful jazz labels in the world,[14][4] issuing over 700 albums.[5] Many of these albums have attracted critical plaudits, including prizes or nominations. Prizes have included the German Echo Music Awards,[18][19] the Norwegian Spellemannprisen,[20][21] the UK Mercury Music Prize,[22] the US Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album,[23][24] Swedish Grammis,[25][26] among others.[27] Loch has continued to develop an extensive catalogue for ACT Music and has projected the musical profiles of numerous European jazz artists, including Joachim Kühn, Michael Wollny, Nguyên Lê, Adam Bałdych, Marius Neset, Émile Parisien, and Lars Danielsson, as well as US artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and Scott DuBois.[5]

The success of ACT Music has been attributed to Loch's progressive approach to label management, which has included Loch's ability to identify creative talent[3] and harness his role as a producer to give "optimal exposure to unusual talents".[8] ACT Music is one of the few labels to demonstrate gender parity on its executive board. [28]

Personal life[edit]

Loch is a passionate collector of post-war and contemporary art, some of which features as artwork on ACT Music album releases.[6] This is a passion shared with his wife, Sissi Loch, whom he married in 1964.[1] The Siggi & Sissi Loch Collection includes works by Yves Klein, Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, Per Kirkeby and Sigmar Polke, among many others.[29] Some have been auctioned to support the Siggi & Sissi Loch Charitable Foundation.[30] One of Loch's first art acquisitions was by Gerhard Richter, costing close to 15,000 Deutschmarks upon purchase in the early 1970s. Selling the artwork some 40 years later financed Loch's purchase of a house in Berlin.[4]

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "About ACT - Siggi Loch". ACT Music. ACT Music + Vision GmbH & Co. KG. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b Milkowski, Bill (2019). "Label Watch: ACT Records". JazzTimes. No. May 09. Madavor Media, LLC. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h DeLuke, R.J. (2010). "Siegfried Loch: 50 Years on the Music-Making Scene". AllAboutJazz. No. March 31. All About Jazz & Jazz Near You. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d Davis, Clive (2012). "Getting his act together; Siggi Loch had a dream". The Sunday Times. No. 22 January. Times Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  5. ^ a b c "ACT Music + Vision GmbH + Co. K". Discogs. discogs.com. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Hobart, Mike (2017). "Crossover king: an interview with jazz label boss Siggi Loch". The Financial Times. No. March 10. Financial Times Ltd. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  7. ^ jazzahead! (6 August 2020). "Siggi Loch: How I found my way into jazz". jazzahead!. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e Siegfried, Detlef (2006). "'Underground': Counter-Culture and the Record Industry in the 1960s". New Perspectives in German Studies: 44–60. doi:10.1057/9780230800939_3. ISBN 978-1-349-28401-6.
  9. ^ a b c d Rioja, Arturo Mora. "Siggi Loch: A Twenty=Year Artistic Act". Tomajazz. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  10. ^ "Jerry Lee Lewis and Live! at the Star Club: Fifty Years Later". 333Sound. No. April 15. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  11. ^ Winwood, Ian (2023). "From Kate Bush to Motörhead: the 50 best live albums ever made". The Telegraph. No. 8 June. Telegraph Media Group Ltd. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  12. ^ Ross, Graeme (2020). "The 20 greatest live albums, from Nirvana Unplugged to Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison". The Independent. No. 21 May. Independent Digital News & Media Ltd. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  13. ^ Ward, Ed (2013). "Jerry Lee Lewis: Live, Singing As If Life Depended On It". WBUR. No. May 17. WBUR. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  14. ^ a b Fordham, John (2012). "ACT Records: 'It doesn't happen like this in the corporate world'". The Guardian. No. 12 January. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  15. ^ Nicholson, Stuart (2015). "Gerry Mulligan, Paul Desmond and the Dave Brubeck Trio: The Complete 1972 Berlin Jazz Concert". Jazzwise. No. October. MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  16. ^ Longley, Martin (2023). "ACT Turns 30, Looks Forward". Downbeat. No. 6 February. Maher Publications. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  17. ^ "The Mendoza / Mardin Project* – Jazzpaña". Discogs. discogs.com. 1993. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  18. ^ Spahr, Wolfgang (2017). "Klaus Doldinger, Norah Jones and Branford Marsalis Are Winners at ECHO Jazz Awards". Billboard. No. 6 February. Billboard Media, LLC. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  19. ^ "Årets internasjonale suksess: Banebrytende prisvinner". Music Norway. No. 6 June. Music Norway. 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  20. ^ Fordham, John (2015). "Marius Neset: Pinball review – award-winning saxophonist goes to another level". The Guardian. No. 19 February. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  21. ^ Monsen, Christopher (24 January 2023). "Solveig Slettahjell". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  22. ^ "Gwilym Simcock nominated for 2011 Mercury Music Prize". The Jazz Mann. No. 20 July. 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  23. ^ "Vijay Iyer Trio". Grammy Awards. Recording Academy. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  24. ^ Morrison, Nick (2011). "The Vijay Iyer Trio: Always Moving Forward". NPR. No. 15 February. NPR. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  25. ^ "Esbjörn Svensson Trio e.s.t. Biography". ACT Music. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  26. ^ Gates, Mike (2019). "Tonbruket 'Masters of Fog' LP/CD (ACT Music) 4/5". UK Vibe. No. 16 September. ukvibe.org. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  27. ^ Karłowski, Maciej (2019). "Adam Bałdych". Culture.pl. No. November. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  28. ^ Cooper, Rae; Coles, Amanda; Hanna-Osborne, Sally (2017). Skipping a beat: Assessing the state of gender equality in the Australian music industry. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney. doi:10.25910/5db1292d585d4. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  29. ^ "Siggi and Sissi Loch's art collection". Paul Fraser Collectibles. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  30. ^ "Release: A Kind Of Blue - The Siggi And Sissy Loch Collection". Christie's. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  31. ^ "Ehrenpreise 1998". Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  32. ^ "Interview: Siggi Loch, ACT Music, talks about Swedish jazz". Export Music Sweden. 22 April 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  33. ^ "Top German honour for jazz impresario Loch". JazzFM. No. 5 November. Bauer Media Audio UK. 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  34. ^ "Siggi Loch receives "Basisten" award from Swedish Jazz Association". ACT Music. ACT Music + Vision GmbH & Co. 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
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