Karl Heinz Schäfer (17 March 1932 – 12 October 1996) was a German-born composer and arranger who worked mainly in France.
Born in Frankfurt to Jewish parents, he moved with his mother during World War II to the United States, where he learned piano and flute.
He returned to Europe to study philosophy and linguistics at Heidelberg University, and settled in Paris, France, in the early 1950s.
He was a student of Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris, and in the evenings played piano in nightclubs, where he worked for a while as an accompanist to Stan Getz.
[1] He then spent time touring American military bases, and developed a taste for Arabic and Indian music.