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The Kontrabass was and always will be Rocky's musical companion, and it has made him famous in jazz.
He has played alongside almost all of the great jazz legends and was mentioned in Reclams Jazz Guide,
Jazz in Bayern- Werner Kraus, Wikipedia and the renowned Downbeat magazine by Mal Waldron and Chet Baker.
Worldwide known as one of the "Legendary German Bassists ". Nevertheless, he is relatively unknown in the area where he lives.
Joachim (Rocky) Knauer, was born in Schleswig-Holstein in 1951 and emigrated with his family to Vancouver, Canada, when he was five years old.
There he learned to play the guitar at the age of 16 and was already a member of various rock, blues and soul bands a few years later.
However, he soon switched to electric bass and contrabass.
In 1972 he returned to Germany with the goal of buying a contrabass. To raise the money for it, he worked for the US Army in Augsburg,
where he met Ken Rhodes and George Greene.
In 1974 he recorded the Amayana album "Profile" with Ken and George.
From 1975 to 1977 he studied music theory and practice at the Joe Haider "Munich Jazz School" .
Since 1975 he played in the group Music Community (with Alex Bally, Larry Porter, Frank St. Peter, Hermann Breuer and Lee Harper) and is on
their Amayana album: "Music Community"
Meeting Larry Porter was very important for Rocky in terms of expanding his knowledge about jazz harmonics. Larry brought new musical concepts to Europe from his studies at the Juilliard University (New York) and from teaching in Berkley.
In February 1976, almost four years after his return to Germany, Rocky acquired his first contrabass.
He then played with Dusko Goykovich, Ken Rhodes, Leszek Zadlo, Mal Waldron, Tom van der Geld, Al Porcino and Klaus Weiss (LPs Child's Prayer, On Tour).
In 1979, he received an unexpected phone call that would shape his life. Chet Baker who was on a concert tour in Stuttgart, asked if Rocky spontaneously
could play the next day. Since that time the contrabass player permanently toured with Chet Baker through around the world until his ( Chet Baker's) death.
He also worked with Joe Pass, Doug Hammond, Pete York, Clarke Terry, Cindy Blackman, Paul Grabowsky, Manfred Schoof, Günther Klatt, Dave Burrell,
Bob Degen, George Greene, Helge Schneider and Charly Antolini. He has led a quartet (with Allen Blairman, among others).
He has also been involved in recordings by Chet Baker, Larry Porter-Allan Praskin Quartet, Chico Freeman, Christian Willisohn, Ruth Young, Stefanie Schlesinger,
Tobias Meinhart, the Cotton Field Blues Band, Max Greger, Hugo Strasser and the Clarinet Jazz Quartet.
Other important musical partners were for example: Joe Henderson, Wolfgang Dauner, Albert Mangelsdorff, Klaus Doldinger, Freddie Hubbard, Karl Ratzer, Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller, Benny Bailey, Costa Lukas, Kirk Lightsey and Art Blakey.
He played with musicians of all musical genres and if you take a closer look at his entire musical career, you can read the names of many musical legends.
This also includes 15 years with Max Greger under Hugo Strasser.
He took part in numerous concerts and tours and participated in a huge variety of musical productions on radio and television, as well as in various LP and CD recordings.
In total, Rocky Knauer participated in over 80 recordings.
Concert Oct 14, 2021 Stadthalle Schwabmünchen
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