The German jazz scene mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished soloists.

As the Hessian State Chancellery announced in a message on Twitter on Friday evening, the Frankfurt saxophonist Emil Mangelsdorff died on Friday at the age of 96.

According to Hessischer Rundfunk, a musician from Mangelsdorff's band had previously announced the death of the saxophonist, clarinetist and flautist, who was born in Frankfurt on April 11, 1925, on Facebook.

Christian Riethmuller

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Together with his older brother Albert, who achieved world fame as a trombonist, Emil Mangelsdorff was one of the defining figures of German jazz after the Second World War.

He played in various bands and was always open to innovations in jazz.

Influenced by Dixieland and swing in his youth, he later also played bebop and fusion very creatively. 

In 1958 he was one of the founders of the jazz ensemble of the Hessischer Rundfunk, but could also be heard in a number of other formations.

To the end he was a welcome guest on Frankfurt's stages, especially his monthly concerts in Frankfurt's Holzhausenschlösschen had long since become a classic.

At least as important as Mangelsdorff's merits as a musician was his testimony about the Nazi era. As a member of the swing youth, he had been harassed and even arrested by the Gestapo. He reported about these experiences in the Third Reich into old age in lectures in schools and institutions. "He has not only rendered outstanding services to culture in Hesse, but as a contemporary witness to the darkest hours of German history he has also done valuable work to commemorate it," said the Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) in a message on Twitter.  

For his services to culture, Mangelsdorff has been honored with numerous prizes and awards, including the Hessian Jazz Prize (1995), the Goethe Plaque from the City of Frankfurt (1995), the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal from the State of Hesse (2001), the Goethe Badge of the State of Hesse (2006) and the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.