Volker Kriegel & Spectrum

Guitarist Volker Kriegel was widely considered the father of European jazz-rock thanks to his influential stint with the Dave Pike Set as well as a subsequent series of pioneering solo LPs for the MPS label. Born in Darmstadt, Germany, on December 24, 1943, Kriegel was studying sociology under the famed philosopher Theodor W. Adorno when he began playing in a Frankfurt-based group with German jazz legends Albert and Emil Mangelsdorff, eventually abandoning his education to pursue a full-time career in music. Kriegel signed on with expatriate American vibraphonist Pike in 1968,...