Manfred Selchow is a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 authority and author. that fell to Poland after World War II.

His father, a school teacher , did not return from the war. In 1945 his mother and two siblings fled from the Red Army and ended up in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, where he went to school and spent his entire youth. In 1958 Selchow began studying at the University of Braunschweig, to become a teacher as well. In 1961 he began working as a teacher and retired being a principal in 1995.
Selchow is married and has four children who are also married. He has five grandchildren and as of 2008 one great grandchild.

His passion for jazz started in Berlin at the age of 12, where he and his friend often got together, to listen to the few, old 78 vinyl records they owned. It was during those years that many of the great Jazz musicians came to Berlin. Selchow would rarely miss an opportunity to see one of the greats, like Roy Eldridge

Roy Eldridge

Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the swing era and a...

, Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton was an American jazz trumpet player who was a leading member of Count Basie’s "Old Testament" orchestra and a leader of mainstream-oriented jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong...

, Bill Harris

Bill Harris (musician)

Bill Harris was a jazz trombonist.-Biography:Early in his career, Harris performed with Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, and Eddie Condon. He is renowned for his broad, thick tone and quick vibrato that remained for the duration of each tone. He went on to join Woody Herman's First Herd in 1944...

, Lester Young

Lester Young

Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....

, Flip Phillips

Flip Phillips

Flip Phillips was an American jazz tenor saxophone and clarinet player. He is best remembered for his work with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1946 to 1957.-Biography:...

, Illinois Jacquet

Illinois Jacquet

Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo....

, Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...

, Ray Brown

Ray Brown (musician)

Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...

, Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...

, Louie Bellson

Louie Bellson

Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni , better known by the stage name Louie Bellson , was an Italian-American jazz drummer...

 and others with "Jazz at the Philharmonic".

Many of the great bands came through as well: Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

, Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

, Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

. Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...

 did come several times and became a favorite of young Selchow.
In 1955 Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

 came to the "Berlin Sportpalast", bringing along one of Manfred Selchow's "heroes" — Edmond Hall

Edmond Hall

Edmond Hall was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. His father Edward Blainey Hall and mother Caroline Duhe had eight children, Priscilla , Moretta , Viola , Robert , Edmond , Clarence , Edward and Herbert .-Early life:Born in Reserve, Louisiana, about...

. Slechow remembers: "I had heard him before on records, but seeing him there, that was something else! A love was born." Berlin saw them all, all the greats - Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

, Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...

, Red Norvo

Red Norvo

Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments...

, Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

, and many more. Selchow devotion to this music produced two outstanding biographies. One is of Edmond Hall

Edmond Hall

Edmond Hall was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. His father Edward Blainey Hall and mother Caroline Duhe had eight children, Priscilla , Moretta , Viola , Robert , Edmond , Clarence , Edward and Herbert .-Early life:Born in Reserve, Louisiana, about...

, the other of Vic Dickenson

Vic Dickenson

Vic Dickenson was an African-American jazz trombonist. Dickenson's career started out in the 1920s and led him through musical partnerships with such legends as Count Basie , Sidney Bechet and Earl Hines...

. The Hall Biography is long sold out, Dickenson's is still available (more information below). Since 1986 Selchow has organized and accompanied 33 jazz tours in Germany and Switzerland.

Selchow had the opportunity to meet many of the great legends, like Wild Bill Davison

Wild Bill Davison

Wild' Bill Davison was a fiery jazz cornet player who emerged in the 1920s, but did not achieve recognition until the 1940s...

, Yank Lawson

Yank Lawson

John Rhea "Yank" Lawson was a jazz trumpeter known for Dixieland and swing music....

, Ralph Sutton

Ralph Sutton

Ralph Earl Sutton was an American jazz pianist born in Hamburg, Missouri. He was a stride pianist in the tradition of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller....

, Jack Lesberg

Jack Lesberg

Jack Lesberg was a jazz double-bassist.He performed with many famous jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, and Benny Goodman....

, Norris Turney

Norris Turney

Norris Turney was an American jazz flautist and saxophonist.Turney began his career in the Midwest, playing in territory bands such as the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra. He played with Tiny Bradshaw in Chicago before moving to New York City, where he played with the Billy Eckstine Orchestra in 1945-46...

, Oliver Jackson

Oliver Jackson

Oliver Jackson , aka Bops Junior, was an American jazz drummer.Jackson played in Detroit in the 1940s with Thad Jones, Tommy Flanagan, and Wardell Gray, and had a variety show with Eddie Locke called Bop & Locke...

, Nat Pierce

Nat Pierce

Nat Pierce was an American jazz pianist and arranger born in Somerville, Massachusetts, perhaps best-known for being pianist and arranger for the Woody Herman band from 1951–1955...

, Peanuts Hucko

Peanuts Hucko

Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko was an American big band musician. His primary instrument was the clarinet.-Early life and education:...

 and Bob Haggart

Bob Haggart

Robert Sherwood Haggart was a dixieland jazz double bass player, composer and arranger...

 many of who became friends of Selchow.
Selchow is also an International Member of the Association of Jazz Record Collectors. His collection contains about 3,000 LPs, 4500 CDs, hundreds of 78s and more than 7,000 tape cassettes. He also owns a collection of about 200 films of rare jazz music footage.

The British columnists and book critics John Nelson and Stanley Dance wrote two independent reviews on Selchow's book Ding! Ding! - A Bio-Discographical Scrapbook of Vic Dickenson which counts 947 pages with 225 photographs, other illustrations, memorabilia and the entire discography complete with dates and names, as well as his complete life-story. Both critics praised it as one of the finest and most complete of its kind.

Profoundly Blue - a Bio-Discographical Scrapbook of Edmond Hall is no longer available.

Ding! Ding! - a Bio-Discographical Scrapbook of Vic Dickenson is still available.