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Thread: RIP Hans Süper junior

  1. #1
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    Default RIP Hans Süper junior

    Hans Süper junior (1936-2022) was a comedian and mandolin player from Cologne, Germany.
    He passed away from cancer on December 3rd.

    Though having a strong Cologne dialect he was known across regional boundaries as part of his comedy/musical show "Colonia Duett" where he performed with his "Flitsch" (the colloquial Colognian term for mandolin).
    Also he was known for his solo music where he, apart from his ingenious humor, also showed his more emotional side.



    RIP Hans Süper junior
    Eastman MD-315, Eastman MDO-305, Kentucky KM-150, Calace 1917, Gibson A ~ 1920, Johnson resonator mando

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  3. #2
    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    Default Re: RIP Hans Süper junior

    This is very sad news. I was born and grew up in Cologne, and speak the local language, Kölsch (not coincidentally also the name of the local beer). Hans Süper and the Colonia Duett were part of my childhood and youth, and seeing this video brings back so many memories. Cologne has a very distinct music and comedy tradition which revolves almost exclusively around the city's famous carnival celebrations, and Süper was a central part of that tradition (as was his father before him, a member of the vocal group De Vier Botze).

    He was a great stand-up comedian and while I wouldn't describe him as a mandolin virtuoso, he had the knack of basing his songs and comedy routines around the mandolin. There's a very moving 90-minute documentary about him on Youtube here, made when he turned 75 a decade ago.

    Hans Süper also links directly to one of my recent mandolin discoveries and one of the hidden treasures of the mandolin world, the most wonderful JP Weber. Unlike Süper, JP is a mandolin virtuoso, and used to work as a professional studio musician on mandolin and guitar until he got inspired by Hans Süper to dive into the world of the Cologne Carnival as a standup-comedian/singer-songwriter, accompanied on solo mandolin (and nothing else).

    Here is JP Weber's version of Süper's signature song "Isch ben ene kölsche Jung" ("I'm a Boy From Cologne"):



    As none of this may make much sense for those who don't speak Kölsch (which includes most Germans), here is a video that may have more cross-cultural appeal, JP Weber's mandolin-led cover version of Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight".

    Martin
    Last edited by Martin Jonas; Dec-06-2022 at 5:52pm.

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  5. #3
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    Default Re: RIP Hans Süper junior

    Thanks, I'm now halfway through the documentation. (Sorry to all of you not speaking German).

    I also had a quick look at the mandolins Süper was playing over the years.
    In the video above he is playing an Aria AM-180 (MIJ, plywood), he seemed to like it quite a lot and played it for the last few decades.
    Also you can see him playing Framus Graziella mandolins (both f-hole and cat's eye variants) and a not further identifiable oval hole flatback (probably a bottom-of-the-line German instrument).

    His other (and argueably better) mandolin was an Arnold Hoyer mandolinetto.
    Here you can find the page of the luthier who repaired it in 2021.
    You can also see that he strung one of each A- and E-String an octave lower to acompany his singing.
    Also you can find a picture of him playing a Gibson snakehead (probably it's JP Weber's).
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    Eastman MD-315, Eastman MDO-305, Kentucky KM-150, Calace 1917, Gibson A ~ 1920, Johnson resonator mando

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  7. #4
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: RIP Hans Süper junior

    Well this really is a small world, I believe I met Hans a long, long time ago.
    1965?
    I was in a school bus that he crashed. Kaput. And it was ok because we were very close to our destination. Either Dusseldorf or Cologne.
    And how we laughed a lot about that!

    I remember thinking that of the two buses that were making the trip, we were the lucky ones to have the singing driver.
    He had a ukulele (or maybe mandolin) that was painted on the dashboard.

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    Default Re: RIP Hans Süper junior

    Quote Originally Posted by Cando View Post
    Hans Süper junior (1936-2022) was a comedian and mandolin player from Cologne, Germany.
    He passed away from cancer on December 3rd.

    Though having a strong Cologne dialect he was known across regional boundaries as part of his comedy/musical show "Colonia Duett" where he performed with his "Flitsch" (the colloquial Colognian term for mandolin).
    Also he was known for his solo music where he, apart from his ingenious humor, also showed his more emotional side.



    RIP Hans Süper junior
    I didn’t understand a word of that but I enjoyed it. One of the best parts was watching the audience mouth the words and seeing the looks on their faces. It was easy to tell how deep the connection was.
    ...

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