Max Greger

Known throughout Europe as a skilled German saxophonist and bandleader, Max Greger built a substantial career that encompassed numerous film and television contributions. An accordion presented to him during childhood ignited his early interest in music, prompting later studies in clarinet and saxophone at the Munich Conservatory in the late 1930s. After a brief period of military service near the close of World War II, he joined several jazz ensembles and began performing regularly. Work in the postwar years, frequently at American officers' clubs, eventually prompted him to assemble his own sextet near the end of the 1940s and, soon afterward, to organize a full big band. Blending pop, jazz, and swing material, Greger achieved sustained popularity starting in the 1950s, highlighted by consistent German television appearances between 1963 and 1977, while also contributing to the expansion of jazz in his home country.