# In Germany Dusko Goykovich quickly became an integral part of its uprising young jazz scene … Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/10/14/germany-dusko-goykovich-quickly-became-integral-part-uprising-young-jazz-scene-video/
- Published: 2017-10-14T08:13:51+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**14.10. – Happy Birthday !!! Born in 1931 in Jajce (Bosnia), Dusko Goykovich studied
at the Music Academy in Belgrade from 1948 to 1953. As a youth he played with several
jazz and dixie bands, mostly for dancing audiences and eventually on parties at 
the embassies of the capital. **

When the 18-year-old joined the Radio Big Band of Belgrade, he was considered a 
talented young jazz man who also can read music. When he left the band five years
later, he had grown into a fine big band player and featured soloist. Dusko went
to Germany where he quickly became an integral part of its uprising young jazz scene.
In 1956 he made his first record as a member of the Frankfurt All-Stars.

After a short stint in the big band of Munich’s Max Greger, Dusko stayed for four
and a half years with Kurt Edelhagen’s band, then Europe’s leading jazz orchestra.
Francy Boland, Claus Ogermann, Jerry van Rooyen and Rob Pronk were among the arrangers
who worked for Edelhagen. In addition to being the band’s premier trumpet soloist,
Dusko performed with such as Stan Getz and Chet Baker. It came as no surprise when
in 1958 he was invited to play with the Newport International Youth Band at the 
Newport Jazz Festival. Other members of the Newport band included Albert Mangelsdorff,
Ronnie Ross, George Gruntz, and Gábor Szábo.

Following the performance at Newport, Dusko’s trumpet became very popular in Europe.
In 1961 the Berklee School of Music offered the 29-year-old a grant for studying
composition and arrangement in Boston where Herb Pomeroy was to become one of his
teachers. Looking forward to writing his own arrangements for his great love, the
big band, Dusko concentrated on his studies at Berklee so exclusively that he regrettingly
turned down offers by Count Basie, Stan Kenton and Benny Goodman to join their bands.
While at Berklee Dusko (now also on flugelhorn) recorded with the Berklee School
Quintet and Orchestra including fellow students such as Gary Burton, Mike Gibbs,
Sadao Watanabe, Steve Marcus, Mike Nock, and Dave Young.

When he had just finished his studies and prepared his return to Germany, Dusko 
received a call from Canadian bandleader Maynard Ferguson offering him Rolf Ericson’s
place (who had just left to join Ellington). Of course, Dusko accepted. Ferguson,
a virtuoso trumpeter himself, featured him as a second trumpet soloist and even 
used some of his big band arrangements. When Ferguson’s band split in 1964, Dusko
joined Woody Herman and stayed with him for a year. It was his work for Herman that
founded Dusko’s international reputation as an outstanding big band player and soloist.“
Woody Herman encouraged me a lot,” Dusko recalls. “He not only accepted my big band
charts (with a single exception), but also recorded all of them.”

The same year Dusko (together with Sal Nistico) left Herman’s band and returned 
to Europe, eager to record his own music. Mal Waldron and Nathan Davis played on
his sextet album (1966) that emphasized Dusko’s personal, Balkan-influenced style.
In those years, Dusko – by then a member of the leading league of international 
jazz artists – also worked with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Clark
Terry, Lee Konitz, Sonny Rollins, Phil Woods, Duke Jordan, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis,
Slide Hampton and many more. He continued his big band career as a member of the
Clarke-Boland Big Band in 1966 that assembled some of the best musicians living 
in Europe, among them US ex-patriates Benny Bailey, Idrees Sulieman, Johnny Griffin,
Sahib Shihab, Jimmy Woode and – of course – Kenny Clarke. The CBBB was probably 
the finest jazz orchestra of the sixties, but it seldom played for live audiences
at all.

After his time at Berklee, Dusko Goykovich began writing big band charts of all 
of his compositions and many standard tunes. He has been asked to play his arrangements
with many European big bands, among them Dutch Skymasters and NDR big band. In Munich(
where he settled down in 1968) Dusko soon started his own “rehearsal” big band including
such as Rolf Ericson, Palle Mikkelborg, Rudi Fuesers, Ack van Rooyen, Ferdinand 
Povel, and Frank St. Peter. Due to the difficulties in organising a European free-
lance orchestra, this band broke up in 1976 and was revived only for some performances
in 1981/82. Yet in 1986 Dusko was able to re-found his own orchestra which has been
on the scene ever since. In 1993, he also started a much-acclaimed international
comeback as a recording artist with his prize-winning CD “Soul Connection” featuring
Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Heath, Eddie Gomez and Mickey Roker. Soul Connection was followed
by “Bebop City” which featured young alto sax wizard Abraham Burton, Kenny Barron
on Piano, Ray Drummond on bass and Alvin Queen on drums. 1996 saw the fullfillment
of a long stanbding wish for Dusko: the recording of his own big band playing his
music, “Balkan Connection”. 1997 saw the release of the 2-CD set “Balkan Blue”, 
another high point in his career. Disc One features a wonderfully relaxed quintet
with Italian master saxophonist Gianni Basso and Disc Two is an extended work performed
by the NDR Philharmonic with a jazz rhythm section and Dusko Goykovich as soloist.
His compositions arranged by Palle Mikkleborg ( who had done a similar piece of 
work for Miles Davis ). Balkan Blue evokes strong memories of Miles Davis work with
Gil Evans – a seminal recording of our days.

![Image result for Dusko Goykovich](https://i0.wp.com/pxhst.co/avaxhome/32/23/00162332.
jpeg?w=640&ssl=1)

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