He worked as a court clerk in Rhineland-Palatinate, and in a law firm in Neustadt an der Weinstraße, while at the same time becoming involved in running a jazz club, Cave 54, in Heidelberg.
Lippmann then hired him to help run the Jazz at the Philharmonic tours of Europe arranged by Norman Granz, and they began to work together regularly from 1957.
[4] This brought American blues musicians such as Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson II, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, T-Bone Walker, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Little Brother Montgomery, J.B. Lenoir, Lonnie Johnson, Victoria Spivey, Big Joe Williams, Sleepy John Estes and others to Europe for the first time.
[4] The promotional approach adopted by Lippmann and Rau has been criticised for taking a conservative and romantic view of blues music, and presenting it as a heritage rather than putting in the context of the civil rights movement in the US.
[2] Lippmann and Rau worked together to promote a wide variety of jazz, rock, pop and gospel acts across Europe in the 1970s and 1980s.