Billy Mo

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Billy Mo (actually Peter Mico Joachim * 22. February 1923 in Trinidad ; † 16th July 2004 in Hannover ) was a jazz - trumpet player and crooner .

life and work

Childhood and youth

Peter Mico Joachim's father was the result of the affair of a German Schutztruppe officer stationed in Cameroon with the first name "Peter Joachim" with a colored local, according to Joachim's portrayal to the Spiegel . Peter Mico's parents later emigrated to the Caribbean. According to another story by Joachim, the German grandfather married his African girlfriend and after completing his military service went to Trinidad with his "improper" wife. However, there is no evidence of a member of the protection force named "Peter Joachim".

According to a 1967 statement by Joachim, his parents died when he was about five years old, after which he and his two sisters were sent to the orphanage. According to another account, his mother died while giving birth and his father died in a car accident three years later. According to the music journalist Jan Feddersen , both parents died in an accident one year after his birth.

In the orphanage, Joachim received music lessons and learned to play the harmonica , according to other sources, at the age of six also trumpet and French horn . According to a later portrayal, he became a member of an orchestra for the first time when he was seven, and when he was 14 he became a member of the local police marching band and thus also Trinidad's youngest police officer.

In Great Britain

relocation

There are also different accounts of when and how Joachim came to Great Britain : According to a magazine report from 1967 based on an interview with Joachim, he was hired in 1945 by an officer of the British Merchant Navy for a purely colored dance band. A statement by Joachim in Spiegel speaks for 1945 , in which he states the length of his stay in London as 11 years (1945–1956). According to other descriptions, he received a music scholarship (an undetectable) Royal Academy of Music in Oxford in 1943 and a scholarship for the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1945 .

If you look for sources in England, you will also find a wife: Eldica Joachim (1922–2000). According to her short biography, she left Trinidad in 1946 and went to Great Britain with her husband Peter Joachim. From 1951 she worked as an actress in films such as Cry, The Beloved Country , Green Pastures and Holidays With The Huxtables , among others on the side of Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier . A polio ended her acting career. She later worked as a costume designer for various London and international film studios. Eldica had three children: Greta, Ruby and Sheila. Her granddaughters Jayne James and Sandra Reed are singers, her grandson Martin James is a drummer.

Musical work

It can be proven that Joachim first played in Al Jennings ' short-lived group Trinidad All Stars in London , with which he appeared on the BBC radio in November 1945 . The band played in front of American and British soldiers and performed in nightclubs. But the time for big bands had already passed its peak, the group broke up during a tour of France due to a lack of engagements and Joachim returned to England unemployed . Although he was still a member of various London bands, but could not live from his work as a musician. Instead, he had to work in restaurants. Two articles from the 1960s, which are based on interviews with Joachim, also mention a "three-year job as a nurse in a Scottish insane asylum" ("Pisspottschwenker").

From around 1950 Joachim worked with the Trinidadian multi-instrumentalist and arranger Rupert Nurse (1910–2001), who had come to England in 1945. With him Joachim also appeared on the side of the Caribbean pianist Winifred Atwell at the Prince of Wales Theater on the show Pardon My French (1953/54). According to a later account, he was then called "Hot Lips Pete". Joachim is also said to have appeared with an Ivor and Yvor Curzon band . However, an orchestra of this name can no longer be proven today. In the early 1950s, Joachim finally founded his own orchestra, with which he performed at the River Club , the Stork Club and the Café de Paris . The big breakthrough as a musician did not materialize.

Scientific training

According to the music author Friedel Keim , Joachim went to a Benson Institute of Music in the USA in 1949 , where he earned a doctorate . However, there is no evidence of such an institute. Another argument against this representation is that Joachim in an interview with the American magazine Ebony in 1967 did not mention a stay in North America, but expressed the hope that he would be able to visit the USA in the future. Also germ According doctorate he age of 30 after completing a psychology degree in Edinburgh and received at the University of Oxford , a professor of musicology . This representation cannot be substantiated by contemporary sources either. However, Joachim himself later stated that he had studied psychology, and the statement “Prof. Dr. “also on his tombstone.

According to another biography, Joachim received his doctorate in musicology on October 12, 1953 in London. In this article, Joachim is quoted as follows: “That was nice, but of course it was not a qualification that I could use later in Germany. Musicians were in demand, not music theorists. "

In Germany

First years

In April 1956 Joachim came to Hamburg penniless via Paris and was hired as a trumpeter in the house band of the St. Pauli scene bar Blauer Peter . According to Keims, he came to Germany “with a small band”. He also played Dixieland and rock 'n' roll in other bars and also began to sing. In 1957 he was the head of the NDR -Fernsehorchesters Viktor Reschke discovered and published under his new alias "Billy Mo" the two of Louis Prima derived Swing -Titel Buona Sera and Oh Marie . In the same year he played a trumpet solo in Franz Grothes Midnight Blues for the Bert Kaempfert Orchestra - for contractual reasons without naming his name . With other titles like Darling, You know , Oh, Jennilie and Swing, Methuselah (all 1958) Joachim began to establish himself as “Billy Mo” in the German music business.

stage name

The artist name "Billy Mo" comes from all representations by Joachim himself. Two divergent explanations are provided for its origin: According to the first, the first name comes from Joachim's favorite singer Billy Eckstine and "Mo" from Louis Armstrong's nickname "Satchmo". According to the second explanation, the stage name "Mo" is derived from the spiritual "Ol man Mo (ses)" or from the fact that Joachim played the title role in a musical called Old man Moses .

Folk music interpreter

With the title Das Fräulein Gerda , an oldie first published in 1938, Billy Mo's musical transition to pop and popular music took place in 1960 . That corresponded to his personal wish: “That was finally German music - that's what I always wanted. Traditional songs that people understand, something for people for whom the American was too much and who just wanted to get in the mood. "

With songs like If Elisabeth didn't have such beautiful legs (chart placement 1961: 17th place), Billy wants to go sailing with me on Sunday and What can Sigismund do for that (both 1961) Mo delivered further remakes of hits from the 1920s and 1930s. His big commercial breakthrough came in 1962 with the number one hit I'd rather buy a Tyrolean hat . In 1962/63, the song stayed in the charts for 17 weeks, reached number three on the sales lists and achieved sales of four million marks by 1967. For his success in Germany, Mo received a gold record from his music label . An English version was later published under the title I'd Rather Buy Myself A Tyrolian Hat . From then on, the Tyrolean hat became Billy Mo's trademark, which could not be missing from any public appearance. His later single releases could not repeat this success, even if he still several times with songs like Bierdeckel-Polka (1963: place 21), the Ernst-Neger title Humba Täterä (1964: place 15) and Der Salon-Tiroler (1964: place 15) Reached listings in the German charts. Hans J. Massaquoi later judged that Billy Mos "popularity was based on his talent to beat the Germans in their own specialty - humtata music."

1970 Mo's last single re-release was released. The musical development had passed beyond his musical style, his record sales collapsed. Nevertheless, Billy Mo was to be seen live and in entertainment programs over the next few years with his songs, which have now become "oldies" himself. To this day, his successes keep appearing on oldie samplers.

Musical classification

Most critics rate Billy Mo's musical abilities highly. The emphasis is on “the extraordinary solo ability” and it is emphasized that the “thoroughbred musician” has numerous “high-quality swing recordings” in addition to hits. Mo himself saw this distinction more calmly: “I also play jazz, but you don't make any money with it. And at first I was a bit tired of it, all the years after that the 'Tirolerhut' had been requested from me again and again. [...] I give people what they like. That was missing in Germany, someone who shows them the joy of life again on stage. " Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi , who was active as a swing musician himself in the late 1940s, said:" Billy Mo was missing it [... ] of jazz talent. What Billy Mo sold, perhaps better than anyone else, was musical average. ”However, it must be added that Massaquoi Mo's ability only judged on the basis of a single hit appearance in a discotheque.

Movie and TV

Billy Mo first appeared in a German feature film as early as 1959. With Paul Dahlke , Günter Pfitzmann and Ingrid van Bergen , he played a gangster quartet disguised as an on-board musician in the Heinz Erhardt film Triplets . Although Mo delivered a decent acting performance, his other appearances in German film were mostly reduced to contributions in music films . In small acting roles he was only in the television series Frei nach Mark Twain (1971, as a lackey) and in the children's film Little Man, what to do? (1981, as a civil servant).

Between 1963 and 1965, Billy Mo had his own entertainment show on ARD with the Cafe Mo format recorded in the Hagenbeck Zoo . The series produced by NDR was based on spontaneity and improvisation: "Little was planned in Cafe Mo - we always only hoped that our colleagues would behave professionally and put their numbers off the cuff," said Mo looking back.

Private life

Billy Mo met his first German wife Margot Miranda in April 1956 in Hamburg. The children Susanna (* 1960) and Jeffrey-Gordon came from this marriage. At the end of 1966, Mo, who, according to Spiegel, was “permeated from Germanness to the subcutaneous tissue”, received German citizenship after publicly complaining about the sluggish handling of his application: “If you don't want foreigners, you should be very clear say."

Mo was considered an "incorrigible womanizer ", who was said to have numerous groupie affairs. Still married, he met Sylvia Hartjenstein in 1967, then bassist in the group Silverstars , which later took over its management. The couple, who have daughter Micole, married in 1990.

Further life

Mo has lived in Wunstorf , Lower Saxony , since the 1970s , where he was also involved in local music. Up to the age of 79 he performed in jazz clubs, most recently mainly in the Hanover Jazz Club . After an appearance in December 2001, he suffered a stroke . Since then he has been in a vegetative state and was a nursing case. In the summer of 2002, Mo was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon by the Federal President for his services to musical youth work , which the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Sigmar Gabriel, presented to him.

Billy Mo died of heart failure in 2004 at the age of 81. As a member of the Masonic lodge “Zum Schwarzen Bär” in Hanover, his burial was carried out in a Masonic ritual. The musical train “Die Wunstorfer Auetaler”, which he co-founded, played at his grave, Deborah Sasson sang the Ave Maria . A trumpet and a Tyrolean hat can be seen on his tombstone in Wunstorf-Luthe.

Musical hits

  • 1958: Midnight blues , trumpet solo in the film "Always when the day begins"
  • 1958: Ducky , Trumpet & Bert Kaempfert Orchestra
  • 1958: Buona Sera
  • 1958: Oh, Marie (Maria, Marie)
  • 1958: Dickie-Doo (Shoe-Shine)
  • 1958: Darling, you know (You Send Me)
  • 1958: Oh Jennilie (Don't Go, Don't Go)
  • 1958: Dolly Doo (Dance With Me)
  • 1958: Swing, Methuselah
  • 1958: Mary, My Girl (Poor Little Fool)
  • 1958: Salambuli (popcorn)
  • 1958: Ding Dong
  • 1958: La Paloma
  • 1958: You Are My Sunshine
  • 1958: Let Me In
  • 1958: Billy Boy
  • 1959: Gonggonza , with the Serenaders
  • 1959: Tatalee , with the Serenaders
  • 1959: Some Like It Hot
  • 1959: Baby (Sleep Walk)
  • 1959: Miss Gerda
  • 1959: Mister Rhythm King
  • 1959: Golden River
  • 1959: Nevada Swing
  • 1959: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Dixie based on motifs from the Fehrbelliner Reitermarsch (Viktor Reschke and his orchestra with solo trumpet Billy Mo)
  • 1959: Old Jäger swing based on motifs from the 'Old Jäger March of 1813' (Viktor Reschke and his orchestra with solo trumpet Billy Mo)
  • 1959: Petersburg Mambo based on motifs from the Petersburg March (Viktor Reschke and his orchestra with solo trumpet Billy Mo)
  • 1960: When Elisabeth
  • 1960: Barberina (My Cucuzza)
  • 1960: Susie
  • 1960: Rainbow Blues
  • 1960: Penguin Jive
  • 1960: When I bring blonde Inge (... home in the evening!)
  • 1960: Ay, Ay, Ay (fall asleep, my heart prince)
  • 1960: Have pity; Ay, Ay, Ay (fall asleep, my heart prince)
  • 1961: Bimbambulla in love
  • 1961: Can you whistle, Johanna
  • 1962: I'd rather buy a Tyrolean hat (also in English: I'd Rather Buy Myself a Tyrolian Hat )
  • 1962: What can Sigismund do for it?
  • 1962: My parrot doesn't eat hard eggs
  • 1963: Now he drinks lemonade
  • 1963: The big drum goes boom boom
  • 1963: When evening falls in Kingston Town
  • 1963: I'd rather buy a Tyrolean hat (I'd Rather Buy Myself A Tyrolian Hat)
  • 1964: Beer mat polka
  • 1964: Don't always think about the coals
  • 1964: There is no music without money
  • 1964: The Salon Tyrolean
  • 1964: I'm sitting in my fishing boat
  • 1964: Must a sailor be able to swim
  • 1965: The Humba perpetrator (with Ernst Neger )
  • 1965: We drown our grandmother's little house - and not just in summer - if it continues like this with brass music
  • 1965: The sheikh spoke to the emir ...
  • 1965: I want a herring
  • 1965: Didn't you see Uncle Paul
  • 1965: My grandma can't stand beat music
  • 1965: Don't be afraid of big animals
  • 1965: You are asked not to shoot while trumpeting
  • 1966: Juanita Banana
  • 1966: That's way too expensive for me
  • 1967: It would all be half as difficult if it were a little easier
  • 1967: Herr Wirt, where's my hat
  • 1967: The Zillertal brass music
  • 1968: It's A Very Nice Day
  • 1968: Nobody imitates us
  • 1968: my doctor is sick
  • 1970: Too much rum under the hat
  • 1970: I'm getting a divorce from you tomorrow
  • 1970: I buy tin trousers
  • 1972: the tartan skirt
  • 1972: Today we're going through the old town
  • 1990: Homesickness (with Micole)

Filmography

Works

  • Billy Mo: Mr. Rhythm King . Bear Family Records, 2000, ISBN 3-89795-457-5 .
  • Billy Mo: Some Like It Hot . 2001.

Web links

literature

  • Billy Mo - The Satchmo of Germany ; Article in Ebony , July 1967 issue, online

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Martin Morlock: Way to the coffin. In: Der Spiegel No. 25 v. June 13, 1966, p. 133.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hans J. Massaquoi: Billy Mo. The Satchmo of Germany. In: Ebony July 1967, pp. 68-73; Ders .: The German Satchmo. In: Little Hans, went alone ... My way into the New World. Frankfurt / M .: Fischer, 2004, pp. 106–111.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Friedel Keim: The great book of the trumpet. Instrument, history, trumpeter lexicon. Mainz 2005, p. 736.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Jan Feddersen: Billy Mo. "Mr. Rhythm King ". Audiobook, Bear Family Records 1996.
  5. ↑ a b c The great lexicon of popular music. Berlin 2000, p. 168.
  6. ↑ Eldica Joachim on eldica.co.uk ( undated ).
  7. ^ Val Wilmer: Interview with Rupert Nurse (1992). In: Oral history of Jazz in Britain. British Library . Archival Sound Recordings, C122 / 154 ( abstract ).
  8. ^ Val Wilmer: Rupert Nurse. First Musician to Write Big Band Arrangement for Calypso. In: The Guardian v. April 18, 2001.
  9. ↑ a b c "When Elisabeth". Jazz trumpeter Billy Mo dies, SPIEGELonline v. July 16, 2004.
  10. ↑ a b Photos of the grave in Wunstorf-Luthe on www.knerger.de.
  11. ↑ Best-selling Pop Records in Germany. In: Billboard v. February 6, 1961, p. 18.
  12. ↑ a b German Top 20 - Top 300 Of The Years 1960-1964.
  13. ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 445 .
  14. ^ Hit parade from November 1, 1963.
  15. ↑ Billboard v. November 7, 1964, p. 29.
  16. ↑ Hans J. Massaquoi: The German Satchmo. In: Ders .: Hänschen klein, went alone ... My way into the New World. Frankfurt / M .: Fischer, 2004, p. 108.
  17. ↑ a b c short vita ( memento from September 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on covergalerie.org.
  18. ↑ Hans J. Massaquoi: The German Satchmo. In: Ders .: Hänschen klein, went alone ... My way into the New World. Frankfurt / M .: Fischer, 2004, p. 107.
  19. ↑ Birth announcement in Billboard v. October 24, 1960, p. 55.
  20. ↑ The man in the Tyrolean hat is dead. In: Hamburger Abendblatt v. July 17, 2004.
  21. ↑ Billy Mo honored for his exemplary commitment on bdh.zeitec.de (2002).
personal data
SURNAME Mo, Billy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Joachim, Peter Mico (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz trumpeter and pop singer
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Trinidad
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 2004
Place of death Hanover