Post by hi224 on Jan 18, 2020 4:11:18 GMT
It is the early 1970s. Musician Roberta Flack is recording her fifth album at the Hit Factory when a young man barges in and declares himself to be the greatest pianist to ever play. Flack and her production team decide to humor the young man, and set him up at a piano. To their surprise, the young man - named Hermann Szobel - is quite skilled (critics note that his technical ability was far ahead of other piano players his age), and they decide to help set up his career. The result is the 1976 record Szobel, a jazz fusion album heavily influenced by Frank Zappa and Chopin. Being the nephew of Fillmore owner and concert promoter Bill Graham, Hermann’s record is distributed by the Arista label, and Hermann himself has the backing of the higher-ups in the company. Despite this, as well as critical acclaim, the album doesn’t sell well.
Fast forward to 1979. Szobel is at work on his second record when in the middle of a recording session, he has a mental breakdown (though this is debated, as it may have just been a heated argument with a session musician) and storms out of the studio. The album is never finished (though it is rumored that demos of what might have been on it have been leaked by a session musician over the years) and Szobel disappears.
Let’s fast forward again to 2001. Hermann’s mother files a missing person report on her son, who had been living on an allowance in Los Angeles. She notes that he “was a loner, [who] loves dogs and smokes hash”. No information turns up on his whereabouts.
In 2012, the record label Lazer’s Edge rereleases Szobel, this time being the first time on CD. The label’s website states that Szobel is residing in his native Austria (being born in Vienna), but these are merely rumors and are unconfirmed. Around the same time filmmaker Katarzyna Kozyra, during the production of her documentary Looking for Jesus - a film about Jerusalem syndrome - finds Hermann in the city of Jerusalem, homeless and selling paintings he makes. He does an interview but refuses to let them use his face in the documentary. She buys a few paintings from him. The film does not see a release until 2014.
This is the last anyone had heard from Hermann. Where is he now? Is he even alive? If so, what could he be doing?
A lot of my information comes from Hermann’s vet short Wikipedia biography (which states that he “is/was” a pianist) as well as this concise piece from Consequence of Sound: consequenceofsound.net/aux-out/sensible-nonsense-the-vanishing-of-hermann-szobel/.
A discussion of Hermann’s second album exists on a metal board, but I can’t seem to find it at the moment. I found what is apparently the work done, however: youtu.be/IaXmkgrzOyo
Fast forward to 1979. Szobel is at work on his second record when in the middle of a recording session, he has a mental breakdown (though this is debated, as it may have just been a heated argument with a session musician) and storms out of the studio. The album is never finished (though it is rumored that demos of what might have been on it have been leaked by a session musician over the years) and Szobel disappears.
Let’s fast forward again to 2001. Hermann’s mother files a missing person report on her son, who had been living on an allowance in Los Angeles. She notes that he “was a loner, [who] loves dogs and smokes hash”. No information turns up on his whereabouts.
In 2012, the record label Lazer’s Edge rereleases Szobel, this time being the first time on CD. The label’s website states that Szobel is residing in his native Austria (being born in Vienna), but these are merely rumors and are unconfirmed. Around the same time filmmaker Katarzyna Kozyra, during the production of her documentary Looking for Jesus - a film about Jerusalem syndrome - finds Hermann in the city of Jerusalem, homeless and selling paintings he makes. He does an interview but refuses to let them use his face in the documentary. She buys a few paintings from him. The film does not see a release until 2014.
This is the last anyone had heard from Hermann. Where is he now? Is he even alive? If so, what could he be doing?
A lot of my information comes from Hermann’s vet short Wikipedia biography (which states that he “is/was” a pianist) as well as this concise piece from Consequence of Sound: consequenceofsound.net/aux-out/sensible-nonsense-the-vanishing-of-hermann-szobel/.
A discussion of Hermann’s second album exists on a metal board, but I can’t seem to find it at the moment. I found what is apparently the work done, however: youtu.be/IaXmkgrzOyo