Bert Firman

Bert Firman (* as Herbert Feuermann or Feuerman, February 3, 1906 in London ; † April 9, 1999 ibid) was a British band leader and violinist .

Firman's mother came from Poland , his father from Austria-Hungary , immigrated to England in the late 1880s. His father and three older brothers were also musicians. Firman learned violin at an early age and studied on a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. As a teenager, his father gave him jobs as a musician in theaters and hotels; In 1921 he played a gypsy violinist in the musical Sally at the Winter Garden Theater on Drury Lane . The engagement lasted two years. During this time he took the name Firman . He then played in the Midnight Follies Orchestra in the Metropole Hotel and became its band leader at the age of only 16 after his predecessor's failure. In 1925 he became musical director at Zonophone Records (a sub-label of His Master's Voice , he was there until August 1928, his successor was his brother John Firman) and made numerous recordings with his own band. He became the leader of the band at the Gordon Hotel and recorded, in addition to Zonophone, for Homochord. In England he was very successful in the 1920s, where he had not just one but several bands that played in theater productions, in the Devonshire Restaurant (1927) and the Carlton Hotel. In addition to his big band , he also had smaller groups, such as the Rhythm Eight (in which, among others, Jack Jackson , Sylvester Ahola , Arthur Lally , Frank Guarente , Max Goldberg , Danny Polo and Chelsea Quealey played).

In 1929 he received a six-month contract as a guest conductor with the NBC orchestra in the USA and was also a studio musician in Hollywood during this time .

After returning to London, he formed a band that played for many years at Ciro's and then from 1932 at Les Ambassadeurs Restaurant in Paris. It included the pianist Sam Costa and the saxophonist Freddy Garner . He was also in Ostend and Monte Carlo with his band . In 1937 he returned to London, where he led a new band at the London Casino until 1939. During this time he could also be heard regularly on the BBC and Radio Luxembourg. At the end of 1939 he had a band in the Café de Paris in London.

During the Second World War he was in the British troop support ( Stars in Battledress ) in the Middle East and Europe from 1940 and also gave solo violin concerts there. After the war, he formed a new band in London, when the BBC asked him to audition, he was upset and went to Paris instead, where he played at the Bagatelle Club . Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli also played there at times . After the club was sold, he retired entirely from the music business and worked on the London Metal Trading Exchange. In 1976 he retired.

literature

• John Chilton : Who's who of British Jazz , Continuum 2004

Web links

• Biography of Guy Rowland