Michael “Kosho” Koschorreck
An acoustic guitar, a voice and charisma – that is all Michael “Kosho” Koschorreck needs to set himself apart from the uniform mainstream of the superstar era. A personal mix of hypnotic bass lines, rhythmic percussion on the guitar body, melancholic melodies and euphoric harmonies shapes his sound and reveals his deep love of music.
His current CD “All Sides Love” explores the theme of love from different perspectives. Produced by Mathias Grosch and Kosho, the album was recorded in Kosho’s own studio together with long-time colleagues and friends: Tommy Baldu (drums, percussion), Ulrich Barteit (flute), Mario Garruccio (drums, percussion), Mathias Grosch (keyboards), Robbee Mariano (bass, vocals) and Florian Sitzmann (keyboards). The album was mixed by Markus Born at kleine audiowelt and mastered by Chris Oz. It was released nationwide in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on 8 April on the Heidelberg label blisstone and distributed by edel:kultur. His musical roots are often described as “mother is bossa, father the blues”.
Michael “Kosho” Koschorreck was born in 1962 in Heilbronn/N. and grew up partly in Worms. In 1968 he started his own “radio show” at home on the turntable under the title “Oh happy day”, inspired by the children’s programme “Schlager für Schlappohren”. He regularly played a personal “best of” from his parents’ record collection, which shaped his early musical impressions: Bossa Nova (Orfeo negro), the American Folk Blues Festival, Easy Listening (José Feliciano, Andy Williams), soul (The 5th Dimension), psychedelic rock (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida), Jeronimo, Franz-Josef Degenhardt, Reinhard Mey and the music of the Beatles.
In 1972 his grandmother, herself a passionate musician, gave him his first guitar. As it was not easy to find fellow musicians for a band at that time, his first band “Phoenix” was formed only when he was 14. Within a short period he played in several groups of different styles, writing his own songs – often under his school desk.
At the age of 16 he joined the band of his two admired guitar teachers as a bass player. Shortly afterwards he left the group “Last Exit” to accept an exclusive offer from the Afro-American band “Afrodisia”.
In 1978 Koshorreck played lead guitar in this ten-piece funk band, whose original songs were inspired by Funkadelic, Maze and the Crusaders. The band consisted almost entirely of GIs and civilian employees of the US Army. The “way of life” of the soldiers and army kids in Worms, Mannheim and Heidelberg had a lasting influence on the previously sheltered, middle-class teenager. From “Afrodisia” he not only received the nickname Kosho, but also a long-lasting enthusiasm for American funk, blues and jazz. Through this scene he came into contact with musicians and producers such as Bill Summers, Jon Otis and soul-jazz legend Les McCann, with whom he would later go on tour.
The work with older and more experienced musicians strengthened his self-confidence and encouraged him to follow his own musical path. This led him throughout Europe: he played with “Gitanes” on the streets of southern France, lived in Switzerland with the band WSS and discovered the music of Brazilian composer, singer and guitarist João Bosco, whose guitar playing and singing left a lasting mark on him.
Back in Germany for further studies, his interest in smoothly produced pop and jazz gradually shifted towards a more “angular”, experimental musical language. The pop formation Soft Love, emerging from former members of Guru Guru and later musicians of Mardi Gras BB, pursued a sound concept that he described as “shattering glass instead of velvet curtains”. Koshorreck joined as a replacement for Mannheim guitar legend Hans Reffert, adopted aspects of his sound aesthetics and expanded his musical horizon into the space between Kurt Weill and Einstürzende Neubauten.
In 1988 and 1989 the band Gentle Love received two coveted German rock awards. Shortly afterwards Kosho left the group in order to devote himself more intensively to the acoustic guitar.
