Heiner Stadler

Heiner Stadler (April 9, 1942) is a jazz composer, record producer, pianist and arranger whose work has traversed genres including jazz, blues and country, baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary classical music. He is also the founder and CEO of Labor Records, distributed by Naxos Records.

Stadler was born April 9, 1942 in West Prussia (now part of Poland) in the town of Lessen (Łasin) in the county of Graudenz (Grudziąd). His great-grandmother was Josephine Amann-Weinlich, who founded and conducted Europe’s first women’s orchestra, the Wiener Damen-Orchester (later the Erste Europäische Damenorchester), which toured extensively, including an 1871 appearance at New York’s Steinway Hall. Stadler studied piano at the Hamburg Conservatory and composition privately with composer Walter Steffens.

Stadler relocated to New York City in 1965 to begin a career as a jazz composer and pianist. His first commercially released work, an arrangement of Duke Ellington’s composition Main Stem featuring saxophonist James Moody, Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, Freddie Waits et al., was issued in 1969 on the Milestone label. Prior to that, at a recording session in December 1966 at Nola Penthouse Sound Studios, Stadler recorded his composition entitled ‘’The Fugue #2’’ which would become part of the pioneering 1973 release Brains on Fire. The 1966 session included Jimmy Owens on trumpet, Joe Farrell on tenor sax, trombonist Garnett Brown, pianist Don Friedman, bassist Barre Phillips and drummer Joe Chambers. The 1973 release also included sessions from 1971 featuring bassist Reggie Workman, Tyrone Washington on tenor sax and drummer Lenny White, along with Stadler himself on piano.

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