The first time I met Ernst-Ludwig “Luten” Petrowsky was in 1983

The first time I met Ernst-Ludwig “Luten” Petrowsky was in 1983, when I was 15 and went together with Rudi Mahall to a concert at the Jazzstudio Nürnberg, where Luten was playing with his wife Uschi Brüning. Rudi and I copied their compositions during the break (with their permission) and played them the next day in the basement of my father’s pub, which was our rehearsal room. 
The first time I actually played with Luten was at the Jazzfest Berlin in 1999, when Uli Gumpert invited me to play in his Workshop Band as a sub for Baby Sommer. Since then we have played together regularly, first in a quartet with Uli Gumpert and Klaus Koch, then mainly in a quartet with Jeanfrancois Prins and Uschi. 
Luten and I always talked about playing as a duo, and when I had some time left in the studio after a recording session in 2005, I called him and asked him if he would like to record a little duo with me. He came right over and we spent an afternoon improvising. Luten was so enthusiastic about the recording that he immediately sent it to Intakt Records in Zurich, and Irene Schweizer in particular was so taken with it that it was released on CD. Luten came up with the title “The Salmon Principle”, which then became “The Salmon”.
I felt especially honored when Luten and Uschi invited me to be a guest on their final duo production in 2013, which was released as “A Résumé” by Jazzwerkstatt.
I feel blessed to have made so much music with him and to have gotten to know him as a person. He had a great sense of humor and there was always so much to learn around him, even though he remained so curious.
He was indeed the salmon that always swims against the current to get to the source.
Take care, Luten, and thank you for everything.