Dr. Rainer E. Lotz, an economist and mechanical engineer by education, is a retired civil servant (development aid) and lecturer in political science. As a consultant and development bank manager he had worked in the Near East, Latin America, South East Asia and East Africa. He is a record collector and auctioneer, historian, and writer/publisher.
Published works: Compiler of more than 50 LP and CD anthologies of historic recordings; author of more than 200 articles in scholarly journals in Europe, the US, Australia and Africa. Publisher/editor of the “German National Discography” (25 volumes). He has more than 100 monographs to his credit (often in cooperation with Horst J. P. Bergmeier), including „German Ragtime and Pre-History of Jazz“ (1985), „The AFRS Jubilee Radio Transcription Service“ (1985), „Under the Imperial Carpet – Essays in Black History“ (1987), „The Banjo on Record“ (1993), „Hitler´s Airwaves“ (1997), „Black People – Entertainers of African Descent“ (1997), “Beyond Recall – A Documentation of Jewish Musical Life in Nazi Berlin, 1933-1938” (2001), “Live from the Cotton Club” (2003), “Lili Marlene” (2005), "Deutsche Hot-Discographie" (2006), „100 Jahre Jazz in Deutschland (History of Jazz in Germany) – Volumes 1 to 4“ (2007-8).
Contributor: „The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians“; “The Oxford National Biography”; “The Encyclopedia of Africa and the Americas”; “African American National Bibliography”; “Oxford Companion To Black British History”; “Cross the Water Blues – African American Music in Europe” (2007); “Black Europe -The first comprehensive documentation of the sounds and images of black people in Europe pre-1927” (2013)
Current projects include "German 78rpm Record Labels and Companies”.
Memberships: CBMR (Chicago Center for Black Music Research international advisory board), ARSC, CLPGS, IAJRC, IGJ, IASA (former chairman, International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives discography committee).
Awards include: ARSC Lifetime achievement award for excellence in recorded sound research 1998. Grammy Nomination 2015 for best historical album. IASA Special Recognition Award 2017.
Interests include: Black Studies and the Black presence in Europe, general history, discography, minstrelsy, ragtime, jazz, iconography, and musical theatre, but avantgarde jazz and world music are preferred for listening pleasure. Owns a collection of historical recorded sound documents.
Contact address: Rotdornweg 81, 53177 Bonn, Germany; TEL: +49-228-352808; FAX: +49-228-365142; EMAIL:
rainer-lotz@gmx.de. WEB:
http://www.lotz-verlag.dePublished works: http://www.lotz-verlag.de/schriftenverzeichnis.pdf
Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_E._Lotz