I am of course extremely pleased that you are receiving this award for your life's work, and my pleasure is not entirely altruistic, as you are the musician who has performed by far the most times under your own name at Porgy & Bess, i.e. my program policy is officially confirmed by this. I haven't counted it exactly, but I believe that since the club opened in 1993, the number of appearances has now exceeded 3. Let me briefly list a few stages in Karl Ratzer's musical life:

It all began in 1965 with The Slaves, a wild underground band that, despite being discovered by the manager of the Rolling Stones, was not destined to last long. This was followed by bands such as Charles Ryders Corporation, C-Department and finally Gipsy Love with Kurt Hauenstein, Peter Wolf and his cousins Harri & Jano Stojka, a band that still enjoys cult status today. In 1972 he went to America. After working with the band Rufus, which later became world-famous with Chaka Khan, he formed a band in New York with Jeremy Steig, Eddie Gomez, Dan Wall and Joe Chambers and ensured that guitarists such as John Scofield and John Abercrombie always raved about his instrumental and harmonic abilities. From 1979 to 1985, he played duo concerts with Chet Baker in the USA and Europe (including at the Jazzspelunke in Vienna). At the beginning of the 1980s, Ratzer turned his back on the USA and returned to Vienna to devote himself to his musical career, which has developed continuously and consistently up to the present day and has reached an artistic peak with his current quartet, with whom he has been working for many years now. You can see this for yourself at his birthday concert on July 6.

So much for the musician Karl Ratzer.

But behind every artist there is, of course, a person, and he is undoubtedly a personality, the Sir - as we have been calling him for years or, in the meantime, Mr. Professor. Often angular and edgy on the outside, he has a big heart on the inside. An authentic person who doesn't play what he is, whether on or off the stage. A person whose language is music, for whom music is food or like the air we breathe, who would not be able to live without music.

Dear Karl:

It is a great honor to be among your close circle of friends and the cultural nation of Austria can count itself lucky to be home to such a musical genius. I congratulate you warmly on this well-deserved award and look forward to your next concerts. A line of text at the end: Don't say I'm late, it's my time. You're right! Chapeau.... (Christoph Huber, on the occasion of the presentation of the Amadeus Award for Lifetime Achievement 2023)

I met Karl in 1976 in Atlanta, Georgia. I heard him play in a club there and was very impressed. Karl moved to New York shortly afterwards and that's where I met him, played with him and really heard him. That's when I realized he was incredibly talented and a gifted jazz guitarist of the highest order. I remember thinking: "If only I could play like Karl". That wasn't the case and fortunately I found my own thing, but to this day I'm still impressed by Karl's skills. (John Scofield)

For me, Karl is not only one of the great guitarists of modern times, but also a very imaginative and adventurous composer, whose compositions can be heard in all my recent recordings. Carry on, my brother, and hope to be on the bandstand with you soon. Peace, (Joe Chambers)