Jazz pianist and drummer Wolfgang Mitschke became known to a wider audience with his jazz albums “NightOver Berlin” (2005) and “Midnight Moods” (2008) released on the jazz label SKIP-Records. He later switched to the internationally renowned NAXOS label and released a new jazz album, “The Berlin Nightbirds”, in the summer of 2020. In addition to very independently presented standards from the Great American Songbook, this album was given a very personal touch with several original compositions. With his jazz album “My Romance”, published by NAXOS in the summer of 2022, Wolfgang Mitschke continued on his chosen path with the active support of tenor saxophonist Jürgen Dietz.

And now another jazz album? Yes, but it should be a bit “vintage” with a view to golden times of jazz history, Wolfgang Mitschke thought to himself as he made his way to the recording studio in his native Rhineland to record music for his new jazz album entitled “Behind theSkyline”. Growing up in the 1970s in Lindau on Lake Constance, his contact with jazz began with his father always bringing him into the living room when there was big band jazz to be seen and heard on television in the big entertainment shows of the time. These were mainly the bands of Kurt Edelhagen (at that time especially in the television program “Varieté-Zauber” 1968/1969 with singer Corry Brokken), then in the 1970s by Paul Kuhn (SFB-Bigband Berlin) and later in the 1980s and 1990s by Horst Jankowski (Rias Tanzorchester Berlin).

Horst Jankowski, in particular, was already regarded as a brilliant jazz pianist in the 1950s, performing with stars such as Caterina Valente, Tony Scott, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis. However, he became internationally renowned not as a jazz musician, but as an entertainer. He composed and arranged pieces between jazz, pop and entertainment and performed throughout Europe and the USA, often on non-jazz-oriented TV programs such as “Musik liegt in der Luft” and “Melodien für Millionen”. Horst Jankowski sadly died far too early in 1998 at the age of 62. The album “Jankowskinetik” from 1970, released on the jazz label MPS, and the album “Jankowskyline”, released on the same label in 1971, are representative of many of his jazz albums. Both releases show that Horst Jankowski was indeed a first-class jazz pianist!

These timelessly beautiful recordings were the reason for Wolfgang Mitschke to dedicate his new jazz album to Horst Jankowski with the title track “Behind the Skyline”. This song contains a trilogy with a compilation of different musical moods, in which the actual main part is “hidden” between the introduction and the final part, and hiding something can certainly be interesting information – simply “Behind the Skyline”! The album also contains several short tracks dedicated to Horst Jankowski. To the new CD “Behind the Skyline” the same applies as to the previous albums “The Berlin Nightbirds” and “My Romance”: Wolfgang Mitschke’s piano lines are always charming and light-footed, which makes you want to listen to them. Translation: Axel Cordewener

Wolfgang Mitschke, Piano, Keyboards, Bass, Drums
All titles arranged by Wolfgang Mitschke
Additional Keyboard Programming, additional Guitar Programming
and additional String Programming by Wolfgang Mitschke

Special thanks to Iwen Schmees, Christian Dieck, Marike Datscheweit and the whole team of Naxos Deutschland, Elmar Gillet, Bernd Krickel, Axel Cordewener, Michael Hendricks and Gerald Koenen

This album is dedicated to the great German jazz piano player Horst Jankowski.