Edelhagen was born in
Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Edelhagen studied conducting and piano in
Essen. and in 1957 took the leading position in the radio station
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) big band, which included
Dusko Goykovich and
Jiggs Whigham. By 1974, Edelhagen stopped producing for WDR. In 1958,
Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln introduced the university's first
jazz seminars, taught by Edelhagen. Among his students were
Manfred Schoof and
Jaki Liebezeit. Edelhagen died in February 1982 in Cologne, at the age of 61. ==References==