The history of the REDHOUSE HOT SIX began in the autumn of 1987 when two students from Kiel in the North of Germany moved south to Freiburg and, before attending their first lectures, got in touch with the Freiburg jazz scene. Little did they know that the location of this historical encounter, the “Deutsches Haus” pub, was to become the homebase of the band to be. At the “Deutsches Haus” the two northerners met a number of experienced musicians of the older jazz styles who, in spite of having played in a number of bands, had never managed to realize their dream of a hot jazz band playing in the styles of King Oliver or Louis Armstrong. This was about to change: shortly before the end of October 1987 a first rehearsal took place. The newly founded band, already comprising three horns, banjo, piano and tuba, came up with the name REDHOUSE HOT SIX, and the four “natives” soon managed to procure a string of debut gigs, among these a concert at the newly opened “Jazzhaus Freiburg”, which, according to the local newspaper, was characterized by “effervescent enthusiasm and crystal-clear sound.” Making a virtue of necessity, the band at this time described the lack of a suitable drummer as the advantage of  “heightened transparency” (!), but this argument was abandoned when a  drummer was finally found in 1990. However, as the name REDHOUSE HOT SIX was by then firmly established even as far away as Stuttgart (where the band played at the the famous Dixieland Hall in 1990) and in view of the fact that they had been repeatedly greeted with the words “Ah yes, the REDHOUSE HOT SIX. How many musicians do you have?”, the band decided to stick to its name. Since then, a couple of musicians came and went – one even left the group to become a popstar – but the instrumentation of cornet, clarinet/sax, trombone, piano, banjo, sousaphone, and drums remained constant. In 1999 a second reed player was added, opening up the possibility of playing the music of early big bands such as Duke Ellington’s or Fletcher Henderson’s. Over the years the REDHOUSE HOT SIX have established a large base of fans and followers even beyond the borders of Germany. Having played festivals in the Netherlands, France and Switzerlands and tours of Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein as well as private and public functions of all kinds, the seasoned sound of the REDHOUSE HOT SIX has been likened by the press to “the perfect sound of a band bound for success” (Badische Zeitung). In May 2002 the REDHOUSE HOT SIX played the 32nd International Jazz Festival in Breda (NL), Europe's largest and most famous traditional jazz event, to great acclaim. The band plays regularly on the first Wednesday of each month in the 'Großer Meyerhof' in Freiburg, where they have found a new home since autumn 2005 after more than 100 gigs in their 'old home', the 'Deutsches Haus' between 1996 and summer 2005.
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Übersetzung: Prof. Dr. Christoph Reinfandt