The Latest at Goethe

The endless tour: No wonder his band is named Passport, the guy is always on the road. In our interview, Klaus Doldinger talks about the film scores that made him famous, the jazz that is his life and a scandal in Paraguay. “We weren’t always poster boys.”


Mr Doldinger, what do you do on Sunday evenings at 8:15?

Occasionally I check what’s on television and funnily enough there’s always something that’s very familiar to me: Tatort. I composed and produced the theme song many years ago. By the way, a lot of these episodes are really still worth watching. I think it’s remarkable that this series has been able to continue developing and stay on the air for such a long time.

And how do you like the theme music?



For a composer, working for a detective story is relatively easy, whereas it’s a bit more challenging in melodrama or comedy.

Then let’s talk about “The Never-Ending Story.” How long did it take you to find the right music for it?

The Never-Ending Story was produced as a feature film and far more effort was put into it than into a television production. Wolfgang Petersen was at my house quite often and I played my ideas to him on the piano. The main theme was clear to both of us very early on. But then you have to think up variations. There were atmospheric images in The Never-Ending Story that demanded different themes. It’s a long process, which took about six months in this case; the actual work took up four to six weeks. For me, a lot develops from playing, from improvisation: you hammer things together or expand on a theme. Sometimes music suddenly came into my head – then I wrote it down quickly on a scrap of paper.

Photo Gallery: Half a Century with Klaus Doldinger

When you’re not writing soundtracks you are touring the world as a jazz musician, sometimes with the Goethe-Institut. Can you remember your first overseas tour?

Yes, that was our North Africa tour in 1964. A few years later we, the Klaus Doldinger Quartet, travelled South America. We toured through all of the countries of Latin America for almost two months. These journeys left deep impressions on me.

In what way?

It’s good to encounter people who give you something musical. For example, during our South America tour we recorded a video for a television production with five Brazilian musicians. It was a studio full of musicians playing straight from the heart. And in Morocco I met the Gnawa musician Majid Bekkas, with whom I still perform occasionally today. For many musicians abroad the possibilities in their homelands are limited. That’s why they are so eager to perform on stage in Europe.



Latin American and Oriental sounds are noticeable on your albums “Doldinger in Südamerika” and “Passport to Morocco.” Did the travels also make an impact on your musical output?

Of course. Brazilian music in particular was always an inspiration for me. Those are sounds that African Americans developed within jazz. On the Morocco album I took up elements of North African music, more precisely Gnawa music, which has great affinity with jazz and is played by the dark skinned Moroccans. By contrast, I was never able to discover any expressive parallels in Indian music, and that is why we never recorded an Indian record.

When a band of young musicians heads out into the big world, they want to experience something. An anecdote, please!

Of course, we weren’t always poster boys. We were doing a sound check in the theatre before a concert in Paraguay and a friendly gentleman – he called himself a friend of the Goethe-Institut – approached us and said, “Oh, kids, it makes no sense to wait here so long until the concert starts. Let me invite you to my house.” We accepted gladly. We drove on country roads for almost an hour and a half until we reached a hacienda . We dined in his house by the open fireplace and drank wine from huge stores. It got darker and darker and we really had to leave. When we returned to the theatre, the people were already leaving. Among them was the representative of the Goethe-Institut, who approached us wringing his hands and said, “What’s taken you so long?” It was a real scandal because they had planned a live radio broadcast that had to be postponed. That’s one of many stories we experienced on our journeys. Our agent in Munich, who was very niminy-piminy, wrote us telegrams quite often that said things like, “Will immediately cancel tour if unpleasant incidents continue.” We were young then and took every opportunity to make the journeys more fun.

You studied piano at the conservatory in Düsseldorf. How does a piano student end up on the saxophone?

I met kindred spirits at the conservatory relatively quickly and we worked together. I noticed that the piano wasn’t really my thing and that I would prefer to play a wind instrument. When I heard about the Hot Club nightclub where they played jazz records I went there. That was an absolute discovery. In Düsseldorf there were only three shops that sold records and then mostly classical and German pop music. The first time I heard the Creole soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet the soprano saxophone became my dream instrument. I worked during the holidays so I could buy one. I could play it pretty well within two months. And then I got into the jazz business pretty quickly. When I was 17 we formed our first band, The Feetwarmers, a Dixieland band. Our first live concert was in 1953 and in 1955 we recorded our first record.

So you taught yourself to play the saxophone and jazz?

Yes, I’m absolutely self-taught. There weren’t any jazz courses at music academies back then. The nightclubs I appeared at in my younger years were my campus. I was able to teach myself because I had already played with the great jazz musicians very early: Louis Armstrong, Fathead Newman, the masters Illinois Jacquet and Junior Walker.

Has a lot changed since then?

The fact is that there are many opportunities to study jazz music today, but afterward the young musicians are not sufficiently backed. That makes it hard for them to establish themselves and prove themselves on the stage. Also, music has increasingly become a business. Digital technologies have created new sales channels that undermine normal business. And we have the problem of piracy today. I myself am a member of the GEMA supervisory board and I think we and the users have to find a way to enable musicians to live from their music again.



In 1971 you established Germany’s most successful jazz band, Passport, with musicians such as Udo Lindenberg on the drums. Why him?

That was more a coincidence. My drummer unfortunately left the Klaus Doldinger Quartet in 1969 and I was looking for a new drummer. A colleague told me about a young musician playing in Hamburg. I looked at him and thought he was very amusing. And he was a great drummer.

What idea is behind Passport and its name?

1971 was a year of change for me. I wanted to make different music than my bebop mates; music that would take us away from it but set us apart from free jazz. For me, it was always important to keep my feet on the ground and play rhythmic and harmonious pieces that the listeners would remember. That led to Passport. With it I combine my background – traditional jazz and blues – with other melody-based styles. The origin of this interest is closely linked to the discovery of Deutschrock. My friend and producer for many years Siggi Loch gave me the idea to play rock. I soon noticed that the music by people with loud guitars was more than just racket. The name Passport was very arbitrary. We were in the studio and had a list of seven or eight suggestions. One of them was Passport. When Siggi’s manager heard the name he said right away, “That’s a great one. We won’t even need to hire an artist for the LP cover layout; we’ll just use a passport with your passport photos.” With that, the name was chosen and the second album followed: Get yourself a second passport.



In April you will be touring New Zealand with the Goethe-Institut. That begs for an album called “Passport to New Zealand”...

I’ll let that come as it may, because the impressions have to sink in. Everything that I’ve read about New Zealand indicates that it’s very European there. That’s why I’m not sure whether the journey will result in an album. Unless I meet musicians who persuade me. I never planned anything in my life, things always evolved. For me the main thing is meeting interesting people.

You could also compose the theme music for the next “Lord of the Rings” film being made in New Zealand.

I’m afraid that’s already taken care of. But, if they asked me, I wouldn’t refuse.

Daniela Gollob held the interview.