Pannonica de Koenigswarter

Pannonica de Koenigswarter , b. Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild , (born December 10, 1913 in London , † November 30, 1988 in New York ) - a descendant of the English Rothschilds - was one of the most important supporters of modern jazz . She was particularly closely associated with the jazz pianist Thelonious Monk and his family. Monk, in turn, titled one of his most famous compositions Pannonica .

Life

Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild was born in 1913 as the youngest daughter of the banker and entomologist Charles Rothschild and Rózsika Rothschild , b. Edle von Wertheimstein, born. Her brother was Victor Rothschild, the third Baron Rothschild, and her sister Liberty Rothschild, with whom she moved to Munich in 1931. Pannonica, also called Nica, got its name from the country of birth of her mother (Latin: Pannonia for western Hungarian Pannonia ) - as well as a species of butterfly that was newly discovered by her father and named by him. She grew up in France and began studying painting in Munich in 1931. After National Socialism came to power , she broke off her studies and left Germany again in 1933. She became a pilot in Le Touquet in 1935 , where she met her future husband, Baron Jules de Koenigswarter. In this marriage she gave birth to five children.

During the Second World War , her family was involved in the resistance against the Nazi dictatorship : her husband joined the Forces françaises libres (FFL) of Charles de Gaulle , she accompanied him to French Equatorial Africa , where she developed her interest in African culture. also joined the FFL and worked for them as a cipher , commentator on Radio Brazzaville and as a driver of military vehicles. Her engagements as an active fighter led her u. a. to the Gold Coast colony , the Congo, Nigeria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Italy and France. Her brother Victor also worked as a personal courier for Winston Churchill in the USA, where he was already trained as a classical pianist and took piano lessons from Teddy Wilson . Wilson was also the one who brought de Koenigswarter into contact with the current trends in American jazz, in particular through a recording of Duke Ellington's Suite Black, Brown and Beige and Monks ' Round Midnight . As a young girl she already knew and loved numerous jazz records from her father's extensive collection and attended Benny Goodman concerts with her brother, which are rare in England .

After the war ended, she and her husband, who became a diplomat, moved first to Norway and then to Mexico City . In 1952, tired of the duties of a diplomatic wife and therefore without him, she went to New York , where she and her eldest daughter lived in a suite in the Stanhope Hotel on Fifth Avenue . The divorce was only finalized in 1956.

She immersed herself in the New York jazz scene , regularly attended the relevant, now legendary live clubs, such as B. Five Spot , Village Vanguard , Birdland , Minton's Playhouse and Small's Paradise and their suite was frequented by countless musicians who relaxed, entertained and also held jam sessions there, which gave de Koenigswarter horrific rent increases in order to be able to stay there. She quickly became a kind of patroness for jazz musicians and helped them with money, accommodation, jobs and advice, sometimes with legal assistance and drafts for record covers. She became a member of the musicians' union and at times even worked as an artist agent for Art Blakey and its Jazz Messengers . Her circle of friends and acquaintances also included u. a. Lionel Hampton , Walter Davis , Bud Powell , Coleman Hawkins , Sonny Clark and Tommy Flanagan . She took care of the epileptic Hawkins, who lived alone, after a seizure in his apartment. When the depressed Powell, who temporarily lived with her, disappeared without a trace, she looked for him for days until he was found again. Marked by alcohol and other drugs , Charlie "Bird" Parker (he had been addicted to heroin since his youth), who was no longer hired by the Birdland named after him , was a physical wreck but preferred her suite to hospital treatment died there in March 1955 at the age of only 34. Because of her commitment and her origins, she is often referred to as bebop - or jazz baroness , she was considered a personification of the female hipster .

After Parker's death, she left the Stanhope Hotel and moved to the Bolivar Hotel for many years . Thelonious Monk's composition Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are is a reminder of this time. De Koenigswarter first met Monk in 1954 in Paris , where she was introduced to him after a concert by a mutual friend, the pianist Mary Lou Williams . They became friends for life. Through them he got his Cabaret Card , the permission to perform in New York, back in 1957 . This had been withdrawn from him two years earlier at Baltimore due to an alleged drug offense. De Koenigswarter, who was with him at the time, was sentenced to three years in prison, was released and years later was acquitted. De Koenigswarter then campaigned in a long fight and with a signature campaign to ensure that musicians in New York nightclubs were no longer required to have their fingerprints taken and a cabaret card issued, until this regulation was finally abolished in 1967.

At that time, de Koenigswarter's name appeared frequently in the tabloids. The death of Parker in her suite and the joint arrest with Monk fueled the racist aversion of American society at the time to the dealings between blacks and whites. De Koenigswarter reported that when she performed in the southern states, white people would cross the street or spit in front of them when she was out with the musicians. Musician friends who were friends confirmed that she regularly got into trouble because she did not allow herself to be regulated in dealing with her black friends. De Koenigswarter also took in Monk and his family after an apartment fire and supported him financially. When Monk first fell seriously ill, he moved into de Koenigswarter's house in Weehawken , New Jersey , in 1973 , where he died in retirement in 1982. Monk called his new home Catsville at first , because Cats is jargon for other musicians ( Barry Harris lived in the house in 2006). Then hundreds of cats, who benefited from de Koenigswarter's love for animals , saw to it that the domicile was renamed Catshouse . After Monk's death, she fought to have a square on New York's 63rd Street West, where Monk had lived for 45 years, be renamed Thelonious Sphere Monks Circle . Monk's wife Nellie later said of de Koenigswarter: “She has been a sincere friend to us, and we have had few of them. She was exactly the person we needed. "

By the end of the 1960s, De Koenigswarter had produced a large number of Polaroids of musicians, most of which had an everyday documentary character, and which mostly depicted private and less often public situations. At the same time, between 1961 and 1966, she asked around 300 jazz musicians about their three most important wishes. Even then she intended to publish a book with the photos and answers, but no publisher showed any interest, so the idea was only realized posthumously. (→ see appreciations )

In the early eighties she helped Barry Harris to found a jazz school and at the end of 1986 published a tribute to the man and artist Monk in a New York daily newspaper in which she wrote about him:

“As a person, he was like his music. It could change your whole life. [... He could] let you feel the music, its inside and outside, like no other. He put you in the heart of the infinity of music ... "

The premiere of the film Bird about Charlie Parker in 1988 was her last public appearance.

1988 died Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter shortly before her 75th birthday during an operation in which they have a bypass should receive. She left three daughters, two sons and one grandson. At a memorial service in the "Church of Jazz" Saint Peter's Church (New York) a band led by Barry Harris intoned their favorite songs and was supported by tap dancers. According to her last wish, her ashes were scattered on the Hudson River to the music of Monks ' Round Midnight at midnight .

Act

The jazz musicians and their three wishes

Her great-niece Nadine de Koenigswarter, a Paris-based painter and free jazz lover, referred to by Pannonica de Koenigswarter as a quasi-granddaughter , found a box in her great-aunt's house with photos of jazz musicians from the 60s and next to it the notes of three answers When asked by her musician friends: "What are your three wishes?" Nadine de Koenigswarter published the book project in French in 2006, which could not be realized during Pannonica de Koenigswaerter's lifetime. The French Académie du Jazz voted it Book of the Year.

In the book, not only the musicians from their direct circle of friends come to words and pictures, but also many other jazz stars then or later, such as B. Charles Mingus , Miles Davis (also photographed in the Cathouse ), Elvin Jones , Sun Ra , Dizzy Gillespie , John Coltrane , Lou Donaldson , Mary Lou Williams , Eric Dolphy , Anita O'Day , Duke Ellington , Donald Byrd , Stan Getz , Count Basie , Louis Armstrong , Max Roach , Betty Carter , Oscar Peterson , Cannonball Adderley , Miriam Makeba , Dinah Washington , Albert Mangelsdorff and many others.

The range of the total of 300 musicians who were taken into account in the book not only reflects de Koenigswarter's personal work and fame in the jazz scene of that time, but is also a reflection of it. The wishes of the musicians have several focal points that emerge from the statements: In addition to personal statements, especially those relating to their families, as well as health and in particular personal artistic development (e.g. Gerry Mulligan , Lionel Hampton , Eddie Thompson , Pee Wee Russell , Charlie Byrd , Sonny Stitt , Oscar Peterson, Anita O'Day), many musicians wanted better performance opportunities and better recognition of jazz as an art and music form (Elvin Jones, Reggie Workman , Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Rouse , Hank Mobley ) or that existence as a jazz musician may bring better opportunities for income and survival. The financial wishes are partly simple with MONEY! ( Sonny Rollins , Charlie Persip ), sometimes with requests for an apartment or a car (Eric Dolphy, Tommy Flanagan) or simply that making music should also make money possible ( Archie Shepp : “To be free from poverty “, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Jimmy Cobb , Joe Zawinul ). In addition to the fact that many jazz musicians apparently lived in very precarious circumstances at the time, many general and social wishes were directed towards peace and love in the world and less social violence (Sonny Stitt, Wes Montgomery , Wayne Shorter ) and an end to it Racism (Betty Carter, Jimmy Heath , Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis expressed only one wish: "To be WHITE.")

Appreciations

The jazz author and promoter Francis Paudras wrote about her and her personality:

“The appearance of Nicas was generally synonymous with joy, because she was never too good for us. When she paid anyone any attention, she pretended it was the most natural thing in the world, with infinite tact. I was sure that I had met the grande dame of jazz ... She was the helper, the confidante, the dear friend of everyone. "

- Francis Paudras : The jazz musicians and their three wishes, p. 18f.

Around twenty jazz tracks were dedicated to her: Gigi Gryce's piece (and album) Nica's Tempo , Sonny Clarks Nica and My Dream of Nica , Horace Silvers Nica’s Dream , Kenny Dorhams Tonica , Kenny Drews Blues for Nica , Freddie Redds Nica Steps Out , Barry Harris Inca and Nicaragua , Duke Jordans Pannonica , Tommy Flanagans Thelonica and Thelonious Monks Pannonica as well as his piece Weehawken Mad Pad , which is performed by the Jazz Messengers in Roger Vadim's Les liaisons dangereuses and Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are about the Hotel Bolivar , which appeared in 1957 with Pannonica on Monks Brilliant Corners and the title is supposed to represent his exaggerated pronunciation of the name, as the producer Orrin Keepnews wrote about the re- edition in 2007.

Clint Eastwood directed the biographical film Bird about jazz legend Charlie Parker in 1988 , in which Diane Salinger played the role of de Koenigswarters. The film won an Oscar , a Golden Globe and was awarded at the Cannes Film Festival . However, de Koenigswarter did not agree with the cast of her character, as the actress looked "like a horse". De Koenigswarter also appears in the Eastwood-produced documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser from 1989. She is also recognized in the documentary The Jazz Baroness (2009), made by her niece Hannah Rothschild.

Her book The Jazz Musicians and Their Three Wishes was awarded the Prix ​​Charles Delaunay in 2007 .

literature

• Pannonica de Koenigswarter: Les Musiciens de Jazz et leur trois voeux. Propos recueillis et photos. Paris 2006, ISBN 2-283-02038-7
  German: The jazz musicians and their three wishes. Photographed and noted by Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter. ,
  translated from American English by Michael Müller Reclam-Verlag , Stuttgart 2007 (with 200 black and white illustrations) ISBN 3-15-010653-2 .
• David Kastin: Nica's Dream: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness , New York; London: WW Norton, 2011, ISBN 978-0-393-06940-2
• Hannah Rothschild The Jazz Baroness. The life of Nica Rothschild Berlin: Berlin Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3827011503

Web links

• Nica de Koenigswarter in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The Jazz Baroness ( memento of March 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) - website for the DVD & radio documentary of the same name and for the book by Hannah Rothschild, great niece of de Koenigswarter

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Baronesse Pannonica de Koenigswarter: The jazz musicians and their three wishes. Reclam-Verlag , Stuttgart 2007. ISBN 3-15-010653-2 (hereinafter referred to as “De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker”), p. 6.
2. ↑ De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 6f.
3. ↑ ^{a b} De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 9.
4. ↑ Hon. Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild on thepeerage.com , accessed September 13, 2016.
5. ^ De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 9f.
6. ^ De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 13, with a reference to another version of the story.
7. ↑ ^{a b} De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 14f.
8. ↑ ^{a b} De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 13f.
9. ↑ ^{a b} De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 17f.
10. ↑ ^{a b c} “Jazz and Photography: Bebop-Baronin am Drücker” , Spiegel Online from June 17, 2007, accessed on January 13, 2014.
11. ↑ ^{a b} “Money! All women! Alle Steinways! ” , Die Zeit No. 49/2007 of November 29, 2007, accessed on January 13, 2014.
12. ↑ ^{a b} De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 18f.
13. ↑ ^{a b} De Koenigswarter: Jazzmusiker, p. 21.
14. ↑ "Obituaries | Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, 74 ” , The New York Times, December 2, 1988.
15. ↑ Saint Peter's Church: Jazz Memorials , Evangelical Catholic Church (not to be confused with the Roman Catholic parish of the same name in Manhattan), accessed on January 13, 2014.
16. ^ "Jazz & Photography: Pannonica de Koenigswarter, the Baroness of Jazz", WDR3 broadcast of May 10, 2007.
17. ↑ Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners (Re-issue 2007), Liner Notes p. 10, published by Riverside / Concord Music Group.
18. ↑ Pannonica de Koenigswarter in the Internet Movie Database (English)
19. ↑ Reviews A recommended jazz photo book in Die Berliner Literaturkritik from April 2, 2008 and Nica's request concert in FAZ from January 9, 2008, accessed on January 13, 2014.
20. ↑ Review Die Jazz-Baroness in jazz thing from November 14, 2013, accessed on January 13, 2014.