tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post3811583264518962007..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRØNMARK BLOG: A Ferrari, a cottage in Cornwall, peace on earth and a cure for cancer, please, Santa…Scott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-14992754911834088512013-12-24T12:29:33.258+00:002013-12-24T12:29:33.258+00:00Fascinating! Ineviatbly, the Nazis had a list of r...Fascinating! Ineviatbly, the Nazis had a list of rules covering the performance of jazz in the Fatherland, which you can find at http://boingboing.net/2012/03/10/nazi-rules-for-jazz-performers.html<br />Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman presented a rather good documentary on BBC4 last ngiht about British dance bands of the 1930s. Apparently the Jack Hylton Orchestra - which included several Jewish musicians - were a big hit in Germany, and were once disconcerted to find themselves performing in an enormous hall in Berlin with a vast Swastika flag as their backdrop.Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-50548705791420991852013-12-22T02:37:19.546+00:002013-12-22T02:37:19.546+00:00Every Christmas a neighbour of ours holds a deligh...Every Christmas a neighbour of ours holds a delightful drinks party which includes a group of professional singers performing carols for about a quarter of an hour.<br /><br />Last night their director recommended what he regards as an extraordinary 1932 recording of <i>Silent Night</i> by a German ensemble which had been brought to his attention in the past few days. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7JKtNg_irI" rel="nofollow">See what you think</a>.<br /><br />He was particularly struck by one of the tenors' high Cs, taken so comfortably that it might as well have been in the middle of his range.<br /><br />Very Christmasy.<br /><br />And then you discover that this "ensemble" is actually a jazz band.<br /><br />And the Nazis, as much fans of jazz as they were of Jews, and half the band being Jewish, destroyed their wildly successful career – one year they gave 130 concerts, next year their singing on the soundtracks of films was erased.<br /><br />Once, some Brownshirts invaded a concert of theirs and tried to stop it – the SS and SA officers in the front row of the audience on that occasion saw them off and the concert proceeded.<br /><br />But they couldn't survive. Their concert bookings in Germany were cancelled for them. They tried America, where they gave 40 concerts, including one on a warship broadcast to 85,000 troops, but William Randolph Hearst's newspapers reckoned that a German was a German was a Nazi.<br /><br />They went back to Germany and ultimately the band split up.<br /><br />There's a long documentary available <a href="https://archive.org/details/HarmonyVs.HateTheComedianHarmonistsStory" rel="nofollow">here</a> from which I've pinched the stories above.<br /><br />They were a hugely successful, popular band and you can hear virtuosity in all the pieces featured in the documentary but most of them are – to my ears – pretty irritating.<br /><br />But that <i>Silent Night</i> of theirs is special.<br /><br />Merry Christmas.David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.com