James Kok

James Kok (born January 26, 1902 in Chernivtsi in Bukovina , † October 18, 1976 in Berlin ) was a Romanian musician - clarinet , alto saxophone , violin - and director of a dance orchestra.

Live and act

The father, a lawyer, gave his son Arthur (later "James") Kok his first violin lessons. He studied violin, saxophone, clarinet, piano and arrangement at the Prague Conservatory . To avoid military service in his homeland, Kok moved to Berlin in 1923, where he founded his first own band. In the following years the dance orchestra made guest appearances all over Germany. During a guest performance in Hamburg's Trocadero in March 1933, the first test recordings were made, which led to an exclusive contract for the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (September 1933 to April 1935). During this time the orchestra, to which Kurt Weg also belonged for a time, was almost always engaged in the Moka Efti in Berlin. On May 1, 1935, the Reichsmusikkammer withdrew his work permit because Kok had repeatedly attracted attention through comments critical of the regime, inappropriate hotplay and ambiguities in his “Aryan proof”. The main orchestra, now without Kok, played the first in a Berlin suburb; the musicians chose Erhard Bauschke as the new orchestra leader. In the summer of 1935 the new orchestra appeared on Rügen - now with a “purely Aryan line-up”.

James Kok put together his own new orchestra in Switzerland and played in Zurich until the end of August 1935. Since his work and residence permit was not extended, he returned to Romania, where he again founded a dance orchestra in 1936. This orchestra toured Romania, played for the local radio station there (1938) and toured abroad to Switzerland (1938) and the Netherlands (1939). During the war he settled in Geneva, where he put together another band from emigrants.

When the musicians returned to their home countries after the end of the war, Kok had to finally disband his orchestra. Kok, who was in poor health, spent several years with relatives in the United States; he returned to Berlin in 1969, where he died a few years later. In addition to concert pieces, his repertoire consisted of hit melodies and brisk dance titles. Classically trained, he was not an outstanding soloist. Nevertheless, he is considered to be one of the best representatives of the hot style in Berlin in the 1930s; his orchestra, for which he wrote his own arrangements, was based on the models of Jimmie Lunceford and the Casa Loma Orchestra .

Discographies

• Horst H. Lange: The German “78” discography of hot dance and jazz music 1903-1958 - Berlin: Panther 1992, 3rd edition (1061 pages). - ISBN 3-929357-00-3 . - (contains a list of swing titles with cast details, pp. 571–572)
• Rainer E. Lotz: Discography of German Dance Music, Volume 1. - Bonn: Birgit Lotz Verlag, 1993 (vii, pp. 1–278). - ISBN 3-9802656-4-1 / ISBN 978-3-9802656-4-5 (contains a list of all James Kok records, pp. 261–276)
• Rainer E. Lotz: German hot discography. Cake Walk, Ragtime, Hot Dance & Jazz - a manual. - Bonn: Birgit Lotz Verlag, 2006 (vii, p. 1–468) - with CD-ROM - ISBN 3-9810248-1-8 - (contains a list of all swing titles with details of the solo sequence, p. 122)

Selected records

• Orient-Express - Foxtrot-Instrumental-Groteske - Grammophon 10050 - Berlin September 13th 1933
• And now the latest hit potpourri 1st and 2nd part - Grammophon 10118 - Berlin December 4th 1933
• James Kok's fliegender Hamburger-F / Avalon-F - Grammophon 10175 - Berlin January 22, 1934
• On the Alamo-F / Tiger Rag-F - Grammophon 47000 - Berlin January 16, 1935
• Jazz no crazy-F / White Jazz-F - Grammophon 47003 - Berlin 10./26. April 1935

literature

• Albert McCarthy: Big Band Jazz. - New York / London, 1974, p. 326.
• Horst H. Lange: The great dance orchestras, 1930-1950. James Kok. - Text accompanying the LP Polydor 2664260, c.1978
• Horst HJ Bergmeier, Rainer E. Lotz: Jazz in Germany. The swing years. - Book accompanying the CD box Bear Family Records BCD 16910 CP, 2007