Charlie and His Orchestra

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Charlie and His Orchestra (also Mr. Goebbels Jazz Band , Templin band or Bruno and His Swinging Tigers ) was a big band of the Nazi era put together for propaganda purposes , named after their singer Karl “Charlie” Schwedler .

history

Initiated by Wolf Mittler, the Irishman William Joyce sent pro-German comments from mid-September 1939 on the German short-wave transmitter on Berlin's Kaiserdamm. He was joined by Norman Baillie-Stewart , who, after serving five years in the Tower of London for treason , had left England in 1937 and moved to Berlin in August 1939.

The saxophonist Lutz Templin from Düsseldorf was commissioned to put together a big band for the background music for the propaganda program Germany Calling by " Lord Haw-Haw ", who is in German service . The singing was done by Karl Schwedler ( Charlie ), an official from the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , who often sang the original text of an American classic in the first stanza, before moving on to political propaganda with anti-British, anti-Soviet and anti-Jewish content in the second stanza , and in which, for example, Winston Churchill or Franklin D. Roosevelt were also directly attacked. However, there are also many music examples where the propaganda text can be heard from the very first line, for example You're beautiful with me or St. Louis Blues .

At first, German musicians were part of the band's core. Many musicians accepted the offer because it saved them from military service, secured a steady income and enabled them to play their favorite music, jazz, to which the authorities did not have a uniform position under National Socialism. Rejected and discredited in many places, a general ban was never issued. The sometimes hesitant, then again offensive and sometimes even deliberately negligent behavior of the National Socialists towards jazz both in the Reich and in the occupied territories does not give a uniform picture. When musicians were partly drafted into the Wehrmacht and partly seconded to the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra from 1940 , the Charlie and His Orchestra also signed musicians from Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. Also Lale Andersen , which actually was banned from performing at that time, had or was asked to sing in English once a week. Her songs include Lili Marleen , Blue Moon , Roll on the blue funnel , Sing, nightingale, sing , Home may be a word , Under an umbrella in the evening and And so another lovely day is over . The lyrics corresponded to the original text, but the lyrics for Roll on the blue funnel , Home May Be a Word and Lili Marleen were alienated.

It is estimated that around 200 tracks were recorded by Charlie and His Orchestra, of which around half were known by 2012. It is not known which band members or ministry employees carried out the propagandistic transcriptions of the originals. Numerous records with the group's titles were later discovered around the world, as they were sent to diplomatic missions and radio stations in the Nazi-occupied areas during wartime and were probably also played in prison camps and similar institutions.

In 1943 the band moved from Berlin, which was threatened by air raids, to Stuttgart. The programs were broadcast on shortwave in various parts of the world, not just England. Music for camouflage and propaganda purposes was broadcast, some of which was banned in Germany, including mainly Jewish composers and American swing or jazz music.

Members of the band

The band members included:

As guest musicians:

The arrangers included the Czechoslovak Kamil Běhounek and Friedrich Meyer .

Others

The story and pieces of the band were staged by Oliver Hochkeppel and Peter Wortmann in 2017 and performed with the Wine and Roses Jazz Society & Swing Orchestra under Heinz Dauhrer.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Lord gives in his jazz discography in addition to the Karl Schwedler, Lutz Templin, Primo Angeli , Nino Impallomeni , Charly Tabor , Mario Balbo, Alfredo Marzaroli, Bob van Venetie, Max Gursch, Freddie Brocksieper , Otto Tittmann, Tip Tischelaar , Rimis van den Broeck, Willy Berking , Walter and Evelyn Leschetitzky, Franz Mück , Eugen Henkel , Benny de Weille , Meg Tevelian additionally to Robby Zillner (trombone), Jos Breyre (trombone), Renato Carneval (or Carnevali, alto saxophone, clarinet), Jean Robert (tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, clarinet), Eberhard Schmidt-Schulz (trumpet), Henk Bos or Bosch (trombone), Folke Johnson (trombone), Francesco Paolo Ricci (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Baldo Maestri (alto saxophone, clarinet), Kurt Wegen (clarinet), Detlef Lais (tenor saxophone), Paul Wegener (bass, also Rudi Wegener), Ferri Juza (trombone), Cor Koblens (alto saxophone, clarinet), Herre Jager (trumpet), Tinus Bruyn (alto saxophone, clarinet), various Violinist (Gustav Klein, Willi Hanuschke, Helmut Steinmann, Adalbert Luczkowski) and in a recording from 1942 Carlos Henriques (vocals, Portuguese / English)
  2. ↑ Charlie and his orchestra: Swing Heil! A scenic concert in the Bürgerhaus Unterföhring , Jazzzeitung, October 13, 2017