8 Days In April-Jean-Jacques Kravetz - The Hamburg Scene (1972)

Artist: Jean-Jacques Kravetz (8 Days In April)
Title: Kravetz
Year: 1972
Genre: France, Germany
Country: Krautrock, Heavy Prog
Format / Codec: MP3
Audio bitrate: 320 Kbps

Tracks:
01. I'd Like To Be A Child Again (Jean-Jacques Kravetz, Udo Lindenberg) - 9:32
02. Ann Toomuch (Jean-Jacques Kravetz, Udo Lindenberg) - 7:43
03. Routes (Udo Lindenberg) - 7:25
04. When The Dream Is Over (Udo Lindenberg) - 3:13
05. Master Of Time (Jean-Jacques Kravetz, Udo Lindenberg) - 9:46

Personnel:
- Jean-Jacques Kravetz - organ, piano, percussion, synthesizer, arranger, producer
- Thomas Kretzschmer - guitar
- Carl-G. Stephan - bass
- Udo Lindenberg - drums, percussion, vocals
- Roger Hook - 12-string guitar (01,04)
- Inga Rumpf - female vocals (01)
- Thomas Kukuck - engineer, co-producer

Jean Jacques Kravetz is a french multi-instrumentalist (piano, keyboard, sax) and fruitful composer who released his whole career in Germany. He first made a name in Hamburg musical scene. In a relative discretion he published a solo effort simply called Kravetz (1972). In this solo excursion he was accompanied by the famous Udo Lindenberg on drums. Musically, the album is a pleasant combination between heavy fuzzy organs and krauty improvs. Kravetz is mostly known for being the keyboardist of Frumpy, Kin Pink Meh and Atlantis. Today he is recognised as one the great pionniers of German rock.

This is one of my all time favourite early 70's Krautrock related LP's. Highly underrated, and I've never grown tired of listening to it.
'Jean-Jacques Kravetz' is of course the renowned keyboardist of the great German band Frumpy.
Born in Paris in 1947, he moved to Hamburg Germany in 1967, where he was one of the co founders of the great aforementioned German band.
This was his first solo album released in 1972. Jean is backed by the superb musicianship of Udo Lindenberg(drums), Carl-G. Stephan(bass) and Thomas Kretzschmer(guitar).
The lineup here is actually 'The Udo Lindenberg Band' with Kravetz at the helm. Though this was much more in the 'heavy progressive' vein in comparisonn to Udo's much more commercial sounding solo output that came later.
Female vocalist spectacular 'Inga Rumpf' (Frumpy/Atlantis) also makes a guest appearance on the opening track 'I'd Like To Be A Child Again'. Udo takes over the vocal duties on the rest of the album.
The band are super tight here, and musically it definitely surpasses anything recorded by Atlantis, and in my opinion, rivals some of Frumpy's best material as well.
The only real downside I can see are the somewhat patchy vocal arrangements. But the instrumental passages (and there's many) are worth the price of admission alone. Highly recommended!
(Review By Doc_Smiley)