Peter Zastrow and his “Spirit of the 20s” really fired up the weirdos with pieces by Duke Ellington and King Oliver – Susann Hülsmann (55) lost her heart to swing Photo: Charles Yunck
By Oliver Ohmann
500 years of jazz love in the hall. Plus a lecture, a hot and cold beer. That’s how they were – jazz nutcases.
This unusual group will retire on Tuesday. “For reasons of age,” says Günter Waldow (86), who organized the meetings for over two decades as the “leader” of jazz lovers. The circle of jazz friends has been meeting since February 1988. The first home port was the “Spinnrad” pub in Wilmersdorf. “Initially there were only lectures on jazz, and then later often live music,” reports Waldow.
The spinners were not a club, not commercial, but all the more passionate. After every gig, the hats went around for the musicians. Motto: don’t jingle, just rustle.
Jazz, Blues, Dixiland – everything was possible. Prominent artists such as Coco Schumann, Scott Hamilton, Rolf Kühn and Andrej Hermlin were guests at the spinners. Since 1994 and until the end, the Prussian farmer’s house in Westend was her domicile. Here, five dozen jazz musicians let it rip at every meeting once a month. Now the spinners are retiring.
BZ is there to say goodbye and is sad that this hot round in Berlin should no longer exist.