Reimer von Essen

Reimer von Essen was born in Hamburg on 31 October 1940. He spent his first school years in Shanghai and then in Plön in Schleswig Holstein, before moving to Frankfurt am Main in 1949. He came to jazz through records owned by friends, took clarinet lessons with J. Englert from 1954 to 1956 and studied jazz theory with Alfons M. Dauer. Hearing Sidney Bechet's recording of Blue Horizon was a turning point that drew him to early jazz.

After passing his Abitur in 1958 he studied German, English and music, and took his teaching examination in Frankfurt in 1966.

From 1966 to 1991 von Essen taught at the Albert Schweitzer School in Frankfurt, where he composed two school operas. Alongside teaching he built a career as a musician. He first performed in 1957 with the Beale Street Seven, founded the Blue Washboard Five in 1958 and joined the Smokehaus Jazzband in 1959.

In 1962 he joined the Barrelhouse Jazzband, founded in Frankfurt in 1953, and led it until he stepped back in 2023. The band recorded more than 30 LPs and CDs under his leadership, one of them issued in New Orleans, and toured more than 50 countries, many of them on behalf of the Goethe Institute. In 1968, with the band, he was made an honorary citizen of New Orleans.

From 1978 he recorded with Klaus Pehl's Ragtime Society and with the Jazz Classics. In 1982 he co-founded the Art Hodes International Trio, which continued after Hodes's death in 1992 as the International Trio with Ralph Sutton, Christian Azzi and David Boeddinghaus. He recorded as a soloist for the American label Stomp Off Records and on seven further CDs in Germany, led the New Orleans Four Plus One and the Reimer von Essen Trio, and co-founded the Original Union Brassband and Big Band Memories. He played at JazzAscona every year from 1996 to 2002.

He was a co-founder of the GFN in 1965 and co-organised the Hot Jazz Festivals until 1970. He taught at the Goethe Institute and the Alpbach summer university, sat on the board of the Hessian Jazz Academy from 1990 to 2000, was artistic director of the Plön Jazz Days from 1992, led the Ascona Hot Jazz Workshop from 1995 to 2001, and taught at the Darmstadt Jazz Conceptions and the Classic Jazz Workshop. He wrote on the history of jazz in Frankfurt, on New Orleans jazz and on performance practice in traditional jazz, and edited Talking Hot (2021), a history of traditional jazz in Germany.

Von Essen lived in a terraced house in the Kirdorf district of Bad Homburg. His children Lil von Essen and Oliver von Essen are both musicians. He was known among friends and colleagues as a wine connoisseur and a fine cook, including of Creole dishes.

Von Essen retired from active performing in 2023. He died in Frankfurt on Friday 13 November 2026, aged 86. His death was reported on 15 November 2026 by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an obituary by the critic Wolfgang Sandner. The cause of death has not been made public.

Von Essen was regarded as one of the most important figures in traditional jazz in Germany. Under his leadership the Barrelhouse Jazzband became, after the Dutch Swing College Band, the second oldest jazz band in the world still performing, and through his workshops, writing and teaching he trained and influenced a generation of players of early jazz. His recordings devoted to the music of Joe King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong are counted among the highlights of his large discography. He received the Hessian Jazz Prize in 2011 and the Goethe Plaque of the State of Hesse in 2019.