They play the Blues at the Kulturbahnhof Gleis 11
The coron editions in concert mode should not be the end of the jam session, at least when it comes to its founder. Wolfgang Härtel launched it in August 2007 with a concert in the then Thorr restaurant "Loher Eck". In response to the "dead scene" in the former district town of Bergheim, the jam session was meant at the time, he recalls.
Companions breathe new life into 'dead scene'
Among his companions he counts musicians such as Jessica Mondello, Raphael Monsanto, Angela Lentzen, the Bedburger Dieter Kirchenbauer sent his students and many more.
For the last eleven years, the Erftrock organizer Peter Hirseler, actually a true fan of hard rock music, provided the sound and lighting technique of the jam session with comparatively soft-washed sounds of the rhythm 'n' blues. Musicians such as Walter Knipprath, Heinz Odenthal or Klaus Renzel – actually a comedian with guitar in his luggage – and "many, many bands" from Düsseldorf, Cologne, Aachen, Neuß and Düren, Wolfgang Härtel describes.
New home in the Kulturbahnhof Gleis 11
Many, many bands are still to come, Härtel wants. In the Kulturbahnhof Gleis 11, the jam session has found a new home after the Coronapause.The local cultural coordinator Anika Kresken plans monthly appointments for the jam session in the stage program of the non-profit GmbH of the development company Bergheim.
Only with the crowd in front of the stage it is over. According to the seating plan, 40 spectators would have room, Says Härtel, but because of the virus he made the room available for only twelve listeners on the concert evening.
"Now there's a live stream. Because we all want to reach out"
Wolfgang Härtel, founder of Jamsession
"Now there's a live stream. Because we all want to reach out," says Härtel.With additional technology on the already existing high-class mixing console, the solo entertainer Markus Treinen and Heinz Peter Reykers, who already provided image and sound at the WDR, provide the digital illustration of the stage events.
Expensive black market interface, cheap rolling tripod
Luckily, with the use of the two friends, the purchase of his own HDMI interface for his computer also belongs in the field of anecdotes, Härtel amuses himself. For such an interface, "a small box for the computer, which would otherwise cost just under 130 euros", he got at the beginning of June after starting the shop at E-Bay under questionable circumstances in a Cologne pizzeria. However, at true black market prices, for just under double. In relevant specialist markets, the box was no longer available because many stages that were currently retrofitting such sought-after streaming technology.
"I wouldn't have thought that at the age of 67 I would still be working on digital techniques such as livestream," Härtel says. As a mobile stop for his action cam, he has remade an infusion tripod on wheels. He discovered this during his voluntary jobs in the nursing home, where he supervised seniors with music and memory training.
Many clicks
At first he feared that no one was watching, but by now, the stream of the first show with the band "Cent's Underground" parked on Facebook had received more than 4500 clicks in July. The next jam session is on Friday evening 11 September.
And even the last three-hour blues session has already broken the thousand mark.