Cool cat diplomat strikes right chord

The first step he took was to collect 20 albums of Kenya’s finest artists across genres. After listening to their recordings, he selected those he considered the best and invited them to his residence for performances. That is how the Kikwetu Festival – one of East Africa’s biggest pop events – came into being.

“Most of these artists were not even aware I was an ambassador. All they knew was they had been called for a gig,” he recalls during an interview at his Waterkloof, Pretoria, residence.

The fact that most of the artists came from the country’s major ethnic groups – the Kikuyu, Luo and Kalenjins – was important for his peace-keeping endeavours. This initiative also marked his music partnership with Kenya’s biggest superstar, Eric Wainaina. The two subsequently recorded a single which became one of the most played hits on the country’s national radio stations. And that is how Lindner was introduced to African music on its home ground. Until then he had had a taste of pulsating African rhythms through Paul Simon’s groundbreaking 1986 Graceland album. At the time he was a senior law student majoring in political sciences at the University of Munich.

It was in this historic German city that as a youngster he discovered his passion and talent for music. The decade was the sixties and British rock was the rage. Like many young people at the time he idolised the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. At 12 he joined a teenage rock band, playing blues rock band Jethro Tull’s songbook on flute. He then enrolled at a local conservatoire where he took music lessons in classical flute. One of the conditions of passing his music exams was to take piano lessons which required him to practise eight hours daily. “My life was ordered in a strict and disciplined way. After two years as a classical pianist and flute player, it was time to move on, travel the world and learn different styles.”

His first overseas trip was to India and was motivated by Ravi Shankar’s popularity in the West. Shankar made his first concert appearances in the West in the late 1950s and early ’60s. His shows had a big impact on Western musicians, who at the time knew little of the rich traditions of Indian classical music. The master sitar player’s collaborations with the Beatles won him global stature and inspired a generation of European and American musicians to visit the East with the aim of learning Indian classical traditions.

During his travels in the East, Lindner was exposed to different musical styles and traditions – particularly the ragas whose sense of harmony and symmetry left a lasting imprint on his playing technique. “I also learnt it takes between two and three hours to tune a sitar; it’s a whole ritual on its own.”

His travels also took him to South America and the United States where he studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. The institution exposed him to top jazz musicians like saxophonist Michael Brecker.

Lindner’s 1994 debut album Machuca was recorded in New York and recalled his times in South America, when he was deputy head of mission at the German embassy in Managua, Nicaragua. He had joined the diplomatic mission in 1988. “It was a successful album which enjoyed fair airplay. I guess technique was the secret to its success,” he explains.

The ambassador credits the Mahavishnu Orchestra and its leader and guitarist, John McLaughlin, for his ability to transition from rock to jazz. He says the jazz-rock quintet’s seminal 1971 album The Inner Mounting Flame left a huge impression on him. Its Jimi Hendrix-style approach, Indian classical music influences and funk appealed to Lindner’s eclectic approach. Listen to Lindner’s sophomore offering, Gramercy Park South, to understand his appreciation and mastery of American soul and R&B. Dedicated to his daughter, Samira – a World Bank employee in Berlin – it was released in 1999.

The album introduces the voice of New York soul singer Grace Campbell and includes R&B/soul classics made popular by famous African American musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Randy Crawford and George Benson. Its combination of smooth jazz, urban funk and soulful ballads with a spice of salsa makes it a pleasant listening experience. Campbell’s lucid voice is like a clear stream after the summer rains. She also features on Lindner’s third album, B’wana, He No Home (2001), a tribute album to one of his favourite musicians, Michael Franks (American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett being another one).

Lindner says the album is also a tribute to the art of great songwriting as it is reflected in the laid-back but sparkling music of Michael Franks. “Since the early seventies, Franks has pioneered the exploration of jazz, pop, R&B and bossa nova, working with a legendary all-star line-up of world-class session musicians in New York, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro,” he recalls. “It had always been a dream of mine to record and produce an album dedicated to Michael’s music.

“The results are 14 sparkling compositions containing melodies and lyric lines which have been on my mind and soul for over 20 years, and which have accompanied me through all continents and chapters of my life.”

He rewinds to his early years on his latest album, The Chacao Sessions – another tribute offering that recalls his classical training. The 2014 recording pays homage to the musical genius of Claus Ogerman, a German-born American composer/conductor/ arranger whose orchestrations appear on the music of outstanding talents such as Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bill Evans, George Benson, David Sanborn and Joe Sample. “He’s one of the most prolific and musically versatile 20th century symphonic masters,” Lindner says.

Born in 1956 in Munich, the ambassador entered the diplomatic service in 1988 as an attaché in the legal division at the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn. His first posting was in 1990 when he was appointed officer for press and political affairs at the German Embassy in Ankara, Turkey. Since then he has travelled extensively across the world, including visiting 40 African countries and being involved in hostage negotiations with terror groups like al-Qaeda. Until recently he was Chancellor Angela Merkel’s special representative for the Ebola crisis in West Africa and director for sub-Saharan Africa in the German Foreign Office.

Lindner arrived in South Africa this year on the eve of Nelson Mandela Day and started working the following day doing volunteer work in Soweto with his Italian-born wife Laura Sustersic. On Heritage Day (September 24) he shared the stage with Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse at the Sacred Heart Music Festival in Johannesburg in a fund-raising drive for the education of refugee children.

One thing is clear about ambassador Walter J Lindner – he has developed a real passion for the continent and its people – not to mention its music which he believes can be a catalyst for creating a better world.

* Originally published on 29 September 2015 in JazzLife and on 8 October 2015 in the African Independent.