Ladi Geisler

German guitarist, bass player, and all-round musician Ladi Geisler has anonymously contributed to thousands of popular studio recordings and hundreds of world-wide Top Ten hits, quietly becoming one of the most versatile instrumentalists of the post-war German music scene and an approachable legend in his own country. Miloslav Ladislav Geisler was born in November 1927 in Prague, son of the director of an electrical company, who had ambitions for his son to join him in that profession. His father paid for violin lessons, and young Ladi proved to be a quick student; he began teaching himself trumpet as well; but fate and Adolf Hitler intervened. He became a German in 1938, when Hitler annexed the Sudetenland, and then, in 1943 the Nazis, desperate for combat troops, drafted the 15-year-old boy into the Luftwaffe, where he was trained to fly the first combat jet fighter, the Messerschmidt 262. He was spared a certain death (the casualty rate by then was almost 100-percent for young Luftwaffe pilots) when he was captured by the British before completing his flight training, and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Denmark. A young autodidact, while in prison he was given an acoustic guitar and brief lessons by another prisoner, and he took to the instrument immediately with great zeal. Multi-talented pianist Horst Wende, eight years Geisler's senior, was in the same camp, and, recognizing the young man's talent, he took young Ladi under his tutelage, teaching him some traditional German lieder and American jazz standards. Around this time Geisler first heard Nat King Cole's guitarist Oscar Moore playing electric guitar, and, totally infatuated with the new sounds, studied electronics, modified a guitar, and built his own amplifier. Electric guitar (and later, electric bass) became the instrument that defined his life and career. When World War II ended, Wende and Geisler went together to Hamburg, playing as a duo, then a trio, first in the streets and then in the clubs of Hamburg, performing a mix of schlager (sweet upbeat pop), folk, and swing. One night the trio was approached by a charismatic singer, former sailor Freddy Quinn, who sat in with the combo; they were instantly compatible and, playing as "Freddy Quinn and the Horst Wende Quartet," became one of the top-drawing groups in Hamburg, filling the Tarantella Club every weekend and touring American military bases during the week. Geisler was quickly acknowledged as a top-notch and versatile player; his first known record is July 1946's The Joint Is Really Jumping by vocalist Evelyn Künneke, live at the Ohlstedter Hof in Hamburg; typically uncredited, it was an inauspicious beginning to a studio career that would eventually encompass thousands of similarly anonymous recordings. By 1955 the Hamburg music scene was filled with Europe's best new talent,as the locals, tourists, and occupying soldiers' appetite for live music seemed insatiable, making that city one of the few places where a musician could earn a decent living. Geisler left the Horst Wende ensemble and, by now a fixture on the scene, became the number one "go-to" guitar player for Norddeutscher Rundfunk Big Band (North German Radio Big Band, aka NDR), an ensemble which included Wende, Bert Kaempfert, and James Last. His contributions to the NDR were so important and well-loved that "On Guitar, Ladi Geisler!" almost became the radio trademark of the band, making him famous to music enthusiasts all over Germany and beyond. Polydor Records wisely moved into Hamburg, snapping up most of the quality musicians, building studios, and laying the foundation for what was to become a recording empire, with particular emphasis on a pop music department headed by Bert Kaempfert. Affectionately as "Fips," Kaempfert gave Geisler the rarest of honors, making him the number one guitarist in his company while additionally allowing him to record outside of Polydor. Ladi played on all of Kaempfert's sessions as well as those of developing international stars Horst Wende (and his later incarnation, Roberto Delgado), James Last, and Hildegard Knef. Kaempfert rarely toured, and the others hired road guitarists, leaving Geisler free to stay in Hamburg to perform and record with the orchestras of Franz Thon, Alfred Hause, Helmut Zacharias, and Gunther Fuhlisch, while supporting such German schlager and pop artists as Abi & Esther Ofarim, Rudi Shuricke, Margot Eskens, Friedel Hensch, and Freddy Quinn as well as many others. Geisler played on over 1,000 recordings a year, covering every style from polka to pop, rock to rhumba, surf to schlager, with his only credit appearing on his union session sheets as he turned in performances for Polydor, Teldec, Philips, and Electrola. In the early '60s he bought a Fender electric bass guitar from James Last, who didn't like the sound of the instrument; while recording with Kaempfert he developed what became one of the strongest beats in pop music, which came to define the Kaempfert style and separate those recordings from all the soundalike product in the marketplace. "Knackbass" is a treble staccato created when the string is plucked by a pick and immediately suppressed, canceling the sustain; the impact of the sound propelled such compositions as "Danke Schoen" and "That Happy Feeling" to world-wide hit status and cemented Geisler's industry reputation as an invaluable contributor. He began to release records under his own name in the '60s, and with his backup group the Playboys, had German hits with cover versions of such pop standards as "Calcutta" and "Wheels"; "Little Geisha" was a top charting single for Ladi Geisler and the Tonics in 1963, and became a hit in New Zealand as well. In the late '60s he released his own albums for the first time, Latin and Russian themed instrumentals that showed a great kinship with such skilled American players as Chet Atkins and Les Paul. Even the Beatles came into contact with Geisler; when the band's equipment proved to be too shoddy for recording their early sessions in Hamburg with Tony Sheridan, Geisler kindly loaned them the use of his gear. Ever versatile, he performed in an avant-garde piece by Pierre Boulez with the NDR Orchestra to considerable acclaim, and played on an album with German hip-hop star Ill Will. A modest person, he was startled to be mobbed by interview requests and fan adulation while touring Japan in 1988 and 1990 with the Alfred Hause Orchestra. In the 1990s the ever-astute Bear Family label began compiling some of his work and recording more, making several excellent compilations and new recordings; they also released the audio-book Anekdoten Eines Gitarrens, featuring guitar work, tributes, and an interview with Geisler. Since his retirement from studio work in the late '90s, Ladi has focussed on jazz performances, playing live in clubs and festivals around Europe with a trio or quartet, often celebrating the works of his idol, Django Reinhardt. "Work keeps me young," he invariably replies when asked why he keeps performing in his eighth decade; if that is true, given his prolific high-quality output Ladi Geisler must be the youngest musician on the planet.
© Laurie Mercer /TiVo