Gebärväterli -

Gebärväterli was a German jazz-rock band that released the 1978 album Im Tal der Emmen on Brutkasten.

Members: Manfred Demetz (trombone), Norbert Kirchner (guitar), Yogo Pausch (drums, congas), Friedl Pohrer (bass), Mandi Riedelbauch (saxophone, bassoon), Dieter Weberpals (flute), Reinhold Weberpals (piano, organ)

Background

Gebärväterli formed in 1973 in Nuremberg when guitarist Norbert Kirchner, bassist Friedrich “Friedl” Pohrer, and drummer Yogo Pausch turned a socialist-youth campaign band into a jazz-rock group. They added keyboardist Reinhold Weberpals, who brought his younger brother, flutist Dieter Weberpals, into the lineup. Kirchner then recruited saxophonist Gerd Ackermann and trombonist Manfred Demetz. The saxophone chair passed from Ackermann to Norbert Eisner and Traugott Jäschke, then to Wolfgang Oppelt before Mandi Riedelbauch joined the album lineup.

Kirchner grew up in Nuremberg and took up guitar at age ten. He restarted on the instrument in 1965 after beat music reached German radio, then played in Magic Buzz, Vaafer Deudd, and Palmström. The Weberpals brothers grew up in a Nuremberg home where their mother and grandmother sang, and Reinhold rehearsed with a Farfisa-organ band in the family living room. Dieter Weberpals started on piano and moved to transverse flute. Pausch, born Helmut in 1954, drummed as a school student and later studied percussion at the Nuremberg conservatory. Riedelbauch served as reedist on the 1971 Marsupilami album Arena.

Gebärväterli played youth-club dates in Nuremberg by late 1973. They reached CPH in July of the next year and later played KOMM, including Jazz-Ost-West Festival dates, with additional work in Stuttgart and Frankfurt.

Im Tal der Emmen

Gebärväterli released their only album, Im Tal der Emmen, in 1978 on Brutkasten.

Emmen features the established seven-piece album lineup of Kirchner, Pohrer, Pausch, Demetz, Riedelbauch, and the Weberpals. The album builds six instrumental pieces around long solo areas, abrupt ensemble breaks, reed and brass passages, guitar figures, and organ sections. Gebärväterli shortened concert pieces that had stretched between ten and forty minutes for the two LP sides.

“Ich bin der Postillion d’Amour…” awakes with fluttered flute figures and march accents, then turns toward late brass punctuation. “Der Don Juan hat seine Turnschuh’ an” darkens around a recurring low-register line, improvised saxophone turns, and electric-piano figures. “Im Tal der Emmen” lurches from picked guitar figures into jerky ensemble hits, then settles behind a horn-led passage.

“Schubidubikong” pivots from a shadowed bassoon lead to low-brass solos; paired upper-register lines precede late wordless shouts and a dissonant reed break. “Das gespannte Verhältnis…” brightens through sunlit upper-register runs and a firmer dance accent. “Rewind” charges through fast accents and short ensemble turns, with clipped responses at the close.

A1. “Ich Bin Der Postillion D’Amour, Aber Meine Uhr Geht Vuur” [I Am the Postillion d’Amour, but My Watch Runs Fast] (8:05) – Gebärväterli
A2. “Der Don Juan Hat Seine Turnschuh’ An” [Don Juan Has His Sneakers On] (5:50) – Gebärväterli
A3. “Im Tal Der Emmen” [In the Valley of the Emmen] (5:00) – Gebärväterli

B1. “Schubi Dubi Kong” [Shooby-Dooby Kong] (7:40) – Gebärväterli / Ackermann
B2. “Die Angespannte Beziehung Zwischen Einem Schmetterling Und Einer Distel” [The Strained Relationship Between a Butterfly and a Thistle] (7:05) – Gebärväterli / Ackermann
B3. “…ück Zurückspulen!” […ck, Rewind!] (5:45) – Gebärväterli

Gebärväterli self-produced the album at the Nuremberg studio of engineer Peter Klimek. The cover shows a grey-scale sketch of an active keyboard accompanied by a lizard and a reed at the foreground of a valley with green overgrowth.

Postlude

Gebärväterli played a farewell concert in 1981 at KOMM. Flutist Dieter Weberpals continued as the lead figure in Argile, which cut the 1983–86 Schneeball albums Nimdirsi and Weltmusik, then expanded around West African players for the 1991 CD Koko with Barry Sangaré.

Drummer Yogo Pausch moved through the NCBrown Blues Band, Argile, the Thilo Wolf Trio and Big Band, the Brodmann/Pausch Percussion Duo, and the Trevor Coleman Group. Pausch cut the 1986 solo LP Break Diggel and the 1989 Brodmann/Pausch album 2-3-4. He later toured with Konstantin Wecker and recorded widely with the HildegardPohl_Trio.

Mandi Riedelbauch recorded with the Jazz Workshop Ensemble on a 1980 Workshop Records album and later led the On Cue Big Band in Erlangen. Norbert Kirchner played on Nimdirsi and later surfaced in Sudhaus, Actor’s Peace Band, and Calvero. He later rejoined Weberpals for a 2014 Gebärväterli reunion and a 2023 Argile anniversary event.

Discography: