Horst Jankowski and The RIAS Big Band - Blowin' In The Wind

"Practice is the best of all instructors" ----Publilius Syrus ▼▼▼

HORST JANKOWSKI
Horst Jankowski was a classically trained German pianist, most famous for his internationally successful easy listening music.
Born in Berlin, Jankowski studied at the Berlin Music Conservatory and played jazz in Germany in the 1950s, serving as bandleader for singer Caterina Valente. Jankowski's fame as a composer of easy listening pop peaked in 1965 with his tune "Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt", released in English as "A Walk in the Black Forest". The tune became a pop hit, reaching nbr 1 on the US easy listening chart, nbr 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and nbr 3 on the UK Singles Chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The track was featured on the BBC's review of the 1960s music scene, Pop Go The Sixties, broadcast on BBC One and ZDF, on December 31, 1969. The Genius of Jankowski album, released in 1965, was also a million seller.
The instrumental tune was covered by many artists including Herb Alpert and Peter Nero.
Jankowski went on to score a string of successful albums, but moved on in the 1970s to concentrate more on jazz, including covers of pop and rock hits.
He conducted the RIAS Big Band for several years and appeared on German television (mostly ZDF) regularly. Between 1989 and 1994 Jankowski composed and performed easy listening music for Sonoton, Germany.

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962 and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".
In 1994, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

MHO
A spectacular big band arrangement of Dylan's famous early sixties song, which has been covered by numerous artists. Jankowski demonstrates his orchestration and arrangement skills - turning a "protest ballad" into a swinging big band tune isn't exactly one of the more obvious things ..... But Jankowski gets away with it and with the help of his magnificent RIAS musicians he delivers a VERY original version of Dylan's "pop classic". Take it away Maestro !