Ben Berlin

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Ben Berlin (actually Hermann Biek , born September 23, 1896 in Tallinn ; died 1944 ) was an Estonian jazz and entertainment musician ( piano , composition , arrangement ) and band leader .

Live and act

Biek comes from a Jewish family; his father Moische Biek was a bookbinder. As a teenager he performed as a pianist in Tallinn; After graduating from school in 1913, he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, which he graduated in 1919 with three degrees (piano, composition and conductor). After the October Revolution he lived with his wife in Soviet Russia for a while before they decided to return to Tallinn in 1920. Biek worked there as a composer, but had few opportunities to perform. In 1925 the couple moved to Berlin; In 1926 he took a job at the record company Vox and became artistic director, resident pianist and arranger for the recording sessions, among others. a. for the Georges Boulanger Artists Jazz Orchestra.

From 1928 he called himself Ben Berlin and recorded with his dance orchestra under his own name; In 1928/29 jazz-oriented numbers for gramophone were created in 15 recording sessions, mostly from the United States popular titles such as “ Ain't Misbehavin ' ”, “ Button Up Your Overcoat ”, “ Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man ”, “ Honey (I 'm in Love with You) ”,“ I Can't Give You Anything But Love ”,“ She's Funny That Way ”and“ The Varsity Drag ”. Until the early 1930s he also recorded a number of hits and film songs such as “ A friend, a good friend ”, “I would like to go to the radio tower with Marie” (Gr. 22913, vocals: Heinz Wernicke ), “ Darling, my heart sends my regards ” and “One day the miracle of love will come” (with Leo Monosson ), “I'm not a captain, I'm not a big animal” (Gr. 22943), “I don't have a car, I have keine Rittergut ”(Gr. 22706, with Two Jazzers ) and“ There must be something about love ”(Gr. 23175, by Willy Rosen , with Heinz John, vocals). Well-known musicians such as Franz Thon played in his orchestra, which had an engagement at the Delphi Filmpalast . “Although Ben Berlin's orchestra was purely a dance orchestra , it occasionally brought good jazz soloism to the fore, thanks to some excellent soloists,” wrote Horst Heinz Lange; Berlin had two Dutch jazz musicians in the band, the brothers Louis de Vries (trumpet) and Jack de Vries (tuba, bass).

After the National Socialists seized power , he emigrated first to the Netherlands, later via Austria to Paris and around 1935 to London. In September / October 1934 he visited his former homeland Estonia and gave several concerts of classical music in Tallinn and Tartu. Ben Berlin worked in London for the BBC as the director of musical programs and was also active as a composer again, albeit under his maiden name Hermann Biek. There he could no longer build on his previous popularity. He died in 1944 at the age of 48.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed September 15, 2016)
  2. ↑ A song from the sound film Hai-Tang. The Road to Shame (1930).
  3. ^ Horst Heinz Lange: Jazz in Germany : the German jazz chronicle up to 1960 . G. Olms, 1996, p. 62
personal data
SURNAME Berlin, Ben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Biek, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian musician
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Tallinn
DATE OF DEATH 1944