Clara de Vries

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Clara de Vries

Clara de Vries (born December 31, 1915 in Schoonhoven , † October 22, 1942 in Auschwitz ) was a Dutch jazz trumpeter .

Live and act

Clara de Vries, the younger sister of Louis de Vries and Jack de Vries , received trumpet lessons from her father Arend de Vries (1882–1942), a textile merchant and amateur trumpeter, and later from her brother Louis. In 1931/32 she was a member of the Jazz Blues Ladies (led by Leo Selinsky), which were very popular (tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and pianist Annie van 't Zelfde , a close friend, and Micky Bezemer, cello and woodwind instruments). They played in dance halls and restaurants like the Pschorr in Rotterdam and the Heck's Lunchroom in The Hague and Amsterdam. In 1934/35 she toured with Alexander Schirmann 's Jazz Girls in Germany, Spain and Switzerland. The repertoire consisted mainly of dance music ( foxtrot , tango , waltz ), but sometimes they also played hot .

De Vries also played in other bands such as the Vienna Jazz Ladies . In 1935 she founded her own band Clara de Vries and her Jazzladies and then played with her brother Jack de Vries' internationals . In 1936 she married the trumpeter Willy Schobbe (1915–2009) in Rotterdam, but continued to perform with various women's orchestras in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The marriage remained childless. In 1937 she revived the Jazz Ladies (gigs at the Mephisto in Rotterdam) and accompanied Coleman Hawkins in the same year . In 1938 she played in the women's orchestra Rosian Ladies (conductor Ro Hakker, accordion) in the stern in Rotterdam.

After the German occupation of the Netherlands, it became more and more difficult for De Vries, who was discriminated against as “Jewish” under the Nazi racial laws because of her origin , to perform. At first she played with the Plus Fours , mainly in the province of Groningen. But in February 1941 she was still giving concerts outside the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam in the Café-Cabaret Alcazar (on Thorbeckeplein), until this became impossible due to fights and raids. In August 1942 she was still playing in the Amstel cabaret in the Jewish quarter. She did not want to go into hiding - her parents had already been arrested and her brother was still at home. In a farewell letter to her friend Annie van 't Zelfde dated September 1, 1942, she wrote that she expected her arrest and her removal to the assembly camp at any moment.

De Vries was arrested on October 15, 1942 and, like her parents and brother, deported to Westerbork transit camp . Four days later she was put on the train to Auschwitz and murdered on the day of her arrival.

meaning

Decades later, Louis Armstrong commented on the trumpet playing of her brother Louis, also on Clara very appreciatively ( That Louis de Vries, he had a sister Clara with a ladies-band. Oh boy, she could play that horn! ).

She was one of the musicians in the Dutch TV documentary Sweet and hot Music - Nederlandse damesorkesten uit de jaren '30 by Netty van Hoorn (1989).

There are no known recordings, but there are, for example, radio recordings (they or their bands were often heard on the VARA radio station). A street in Rotterdam is named after her.

Clara de Vries, Juultje Cambre, The Merry Riders (De Vrolijke Ruiters), VARA radio broadcast 1938

literature

  • Wim van Eyle et al. a .: Jazz & Geimproviseerde Muziek in Nederland, Het Spectrum 1978, p. 152
  • Hans Langeweg: Clara de Vries , in Doctor Jazz Magazine (April 1975) pp. 25-29
  • Chiel Zwinkels: Vries, Clara de , in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland, 2015, KNAW .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Women's orchestras were nothing unusual in Europe at the time, but jazz bands with a female line-up were. In the USA there were already Babe Eagan and her Hollywood Redheads , who were in Europe in 1929.
  2. ↑ On February 9, 1941, members of the National Socialist Movement and the German Wehrmacht disturbed their appearance there with a fight in which 23 people were wounded. An NSB man later died. The interferers had heard that Jewish artists were still performing there.
  3. ↑ Annie van 't Zelfde reads the suicide note in the documentary by Netty van Hoorn. She also wanted to share the fate of the rest of the Jews.
  4. ↑ a b Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland
  5. ↑ Arie van Breda et al. a., 100 jaar Jazz in The Hague , 2000
  6. ^ Netty van Hoorn's website on the film
  7. ↑ There is erroneously given 1918 as the year of birth and 1943 as the year of death
personal data
SURNAME Vries, Clara de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch jazz trumpeter
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Schoonhoven
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1942
Place of death Auschwitz