Siggi Loch photographed in 2012. Photo courtesy of ACT Music

The founder of the German ACT label Siggi Loch will be 75 on August 6th this year, and it has been annnounced today that the label will be issuing his personal selection of music from the 23 years that the ACT label has existed, and also from the period prior to that, the last ten years of which he spent at the head of WEA Europe (Warner).

When he was 70 in 2010 his autobiography “Siggi Loch – Plattenboss aus Leidenschaft” (record boss out of passion) was published asa book. The set for publication this August is being described as his “musical autobiography.”.

The German press release shows the scope of the compilation. It starts with the musician who first inflamed Loch’s passion for jazz, Siggi Loch, through his first jazz productions with Klaus Doldinger, Klaus Weis, Volker Kriegel and Jean Luc Ponty, onwards to blues recordings with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, through to the Spencer Davis Group.

The ACT period will be represented by artists such as Nils Landgren, e.s.t., Michael Wollny, Joachim Kühn, Nguyên Lê, the “Young German Jazz” and the “ACT Duos” CD series, and live recordings of highlights from the recent successful concert venture under the banner “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic”, one-off special, high-profile, popular concerts held in the Philharmonie in Berlin.

The press release also seems to give a pretty clear answer to questions aboout future at ACT and of its driving force. In the press release, Loch proudly quotes Dizzy Gillespie: “I will bop until I drop”

“A Life in the Spirit of Jazz – Siggi Loch at 75” (5 CD-Box incl. Booklet, ACT 7004-2) will be issued in the UK on 31st July and in Germany on 7th August 2015