Artist's albums
Pop Goes Swing
1991 · album
Descriptive Solo Piano
1980 · compilation
Jerusalem
1975 · album
Vintage Pearls: Cocktail Swing
2023 · album
Meet Horst Jankowski
2014 · album
Jankowskinetik
2014 · album
The Best of Mr. Black Forest
2002 · compilation
Piano Interlude
2002 · album
Jankowskeynotes
1970 · album
And We Got Love
1967 · album
Baby, But Grand!
1967 · album
The Genius Of Jankowski!
1964 · album
Bravo Jankowski!
1964 · album
My Fair Lady
1964 · album
More Genius Of Jankowski
1965 · album
A Walk in the Black Forest / Blue Spring
1965 · single
So What's New?
1966 · album
Still More Genius Of Jankowski
1966 · album
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Biography
Horst Jankowski was a seemingly inexhaustible composer of easy listening instrumental and space age pop who started out as a classical pianist. Comparisons are often noted between Jankowski and campy space age pop arranger and composer Juan Garcia Esquival, easy listening arranger and composer Bert Kaempfert, and easy listening arranger Ray Conniff. A student of the Berlin Music Conservatory, Jankowski moved on to performing jazz at German nightspots. For a time, he led the band that backed jazz vocalist Caterina Valenti. In addition to conducting, the Berlin native composed for his country's equivalent of Muzak. Jankowski's "A Walk in the Black Forest," alternately known in Germany as "Eine Schwarzwaldenfahrt," was popular in the 1960s. That popularity helped him land a record deal. Mercury released a number of Jankowski's albums. By the 1970s, Jankowski shifted more heavily to jazz and he did not receive as much airplay in the U.S. as he had previously. Albums from this period include his jazzed-up versions of the day's popular numbers, including "Light My Fire." These covers can be found on the Black Forest Explosion! compilation. Jankowski possessed a rather distinctive style of piano playing, which some have likened to banging on the keys. A sample of this can be found on his solos. Other recordings include collaborations with jazz ensembles, among them that of clarinetist Rolf Kuhns. ~ Linda Seida, Rovi