Karl Lippegaus


Karl Lippegaus is a German music journalist, author and radio presenter.

Life and career

Lippegaus studied German literature, musicology and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Cologne after making his debut with a jazz broadcast on Miles Davis on Südwestfunk at the age of seventeen. Following an invitation by, he produced jazz and rock broadcasts at WDR since 1972.
He is the author of a biography on John Coltrane. Besides jazz Lippegaus also wrote about chanson, rock, folk music as well as on musical border areas, always with a particular interest into links between music and literature, film and photography.
For many years, he presented the radio feature series 'Speakeasy' at WDR. He regularly produced weekly jazz features such as 'Border Music' for WDR 3 / WDR 5, covering new areas of jazz, avant rock and world music, and 'Musikpassagen'. His series Musiker als DJ featured guests such as Terry Riley, Annette Peacock, Robert Wyatt, Hans Reichel, Savina Yannatou, Evan Parker,, Amélia Muge, Pascal Comelade, Gavin Bryars, Franz Koglmann, Rabih Abou-Khalil, and others.
At Deutschlandfunk he produced portraits about jazz musicians for the weekly program 'JazzFacts'.
In addition to his broadcasting activities from January 2016-2018, Lippegaus worked as an editor on jazz music for the music magazine .
In 1995, he received the first for a two-hour feature on migrants in the suburbs of Marseilles and Paris.
He also works as translator, for example for the biography Michel Petrucciani – Leben gegen die Zeit and for Amazing Grace, a film by Sydney Pollack on Aretha Franklin. For the WDR, he worked with director Hein Bruehl on the features Cry Baby Cry, Bis die kalte Zeit uns frißt on Lotte Lenya and Kurt Weill, Clowns, Clochards & Casanovas on Nino Rota, Wolfsmond after a book by Julio Llamazares as well as on In meiner Einsamkeit des Südens - Der europäische Blick auf den Orient on the travel writer Isabelle Eberhardt and the Spanish author Juan Goytisolo.
Lippegaus is the author of many episodes of the daily radio program and.
Lippegaus lives in Cologne and Southern France.

Works