Radio Berlin dance orchestra

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The Radio Berlin Tanzorchester ( RBT-Orchester ) was a big band that played swing- oriented dance music on the Berlin radio from 1945 to 1950 . Public appearances were rather rare.

history

Emergence

At the end of the Second World War , Berlin was initially completely occupied by the Soviets . After the occupation of the western sectors by the western allies , the undestroyed broadcasting house in the west on Masurenallee in the British sector remained under Soviet control. On behalf of the Soviet cultural administration , which endeavored to quickly revive cultural life, Michael Jary founded the Radio Berlin Dance Orchestra in June 1945 in order to re-establish a house band for the field of modern dance music for the Berliner Rundfunk, succeeding the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra give. The orchestra was a radio orchestra that rarely performed in front of an audience.

Work and activity

Horst Kudritzki 1946

In 1946, Jary handed over the leadership to Horst Kudritzki , who had already had experience leading such a large formation during the war as Franz Grothe's assistant at the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra. Erwin Lehn acted as co-leader. The orchestra's repertoire consisted for the most part of contemporary American hits and swing classics - Walter Jenson was responsible for the arrangements from 1947 - which had otherwise been withheld from the German audience due to political requirements at that time. In this respect, the pent-up demand for American music was largely satisfied. There were also a number of own instrumental compositions in swing style. The music was arranged in a relatively modern big band style ( mainstream ) and in this respect emulated the leading American orchestras (directed by Woody Herman , Stan Kenton , Jimmie Lunceford and Dizzy Gillespie ) of the time. Kurt Henkels' orchestra at the Leipzig transmitter was also more modern musically. The RBT Orchestra recorded numerous records for the radio's own label Radiophon under Jary . Since these records were only intended for broadcasting purposes and were only printed in small quantities, they are very rare. On the other hand, recordings on Polydor (1946) were intended for sale to the public, but due to the general shortage in the first post-war period , they were not widely used either. With the change to Amiga (1947) a regular recording activity with a relatively wide distribution began, which lasted until the end of 1948.

resolution

Ultimately active in the Soviet sphere of influence, the orchestra was directly affected by the cultural and political developments there and ultimately fell victim to the Cold War . American-inspired dance music was no longer acceptable under socialism. The Central Committee of the CPSU resolved on February 10, 1948 a decision against "formalism" and for a "new socialist work style." As a result, there were restrictions in the East Berlin music scene. As a result, a number of soloists went to the West, and the RBT orchestra found itself in a difficult position. On January 9, 1949, the spokeswoman for the "unifying words of the RBT orchestra" Karin Jurow was dismissed for "reorganization". On March 1, 1949, Goldschmidt, the head of the music department at Radio Berlin, was dismissed through the commission to impose a “progressive” style on the RBT orchestra. His successor, national prize winner Helmut Koch , banned all English titles. German hits have also come under fire. Steimels I often dream that I am sitting on the moon has been banned because of "world flight tendencies". All texts in which "moonlight", "park" or "tears" appeared were banned. Letters from the audience were censored. Only negative reviews were passed on to the orchestra. In 1950, Jean Kurt Forest took over the direction of the orchestra in several broadcasts. His credo: “It is not compatible with the progressive spirit of the German Democratic Republic if we make dance music like our class enemies in America” and “We have to squeeze every Western influence out of the RBT orchestra, even if we need a hydraulic press should! ”The efforts to rebuild the RBT orchestra accordingly failed. On May 1, 1950, the orchestra was supposed to play in the East Berlin Lustgarten . The conductors Horst Kudritzki and Erwin Lehn refused. 21 musicians were not present. The rest of the orchestra played under Forest's direction and was whistled by the audience. On May 3, 1950, Lehn and Kudritzki submitted their resignation, the next day the musicians resigned.

Shortly afterwards, the Berliner Rundfunk dance and entertainment orchestra was founded as its successor. Walter Jenson was one of the conductors .

Start-up

The RBT orchestra was re-established under its old name. In 1993 it merged with the DEFA Symphony Orchestra to form the Babelsberg German Film Orchestra .

Today's availability of sound carriers

A number of typical recordings were re-released on Amiga in 1981 ( Jazz on Amiga 1947 - 1962 Vol. 1 ). This LP was also available on CD after the fall of the Wall . The Amiga Swing CD (Bob's Music) contains further titles .

literature

  • Horst H. Lange : Jazz in Germany . Berlin 1966, p. 120 ff.
  • Joachim Schütte: RBT story . Menden no year
  • Jürgen Wölfer : Jazz in Germany. The encyclopedia. All musicians and record companies from 1920 until today. Hannibal, Höfen 2008, ISBN 978-3-85445-274-4 (article RBT-Orchester ).
  • Bernd Meyer-Rähnitz, Frank Oehme, Joachim Schütte: The "Eternal Friend" - Eterna and Amiga; The discography of the shellac records (1947 - 1961) , Albis International Bibliophilen-Verlag, Dresden-Ústí 2006, ISBN 80-86971-10-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Plathe: Interview with the RBT Orchestra 1950; from Siegfried Trzoß ' hit story (s) of the East, Volume 1 . 1945-1965, Berlin 2007 , accessed on May 14, 2017
  2. ^ Website of the Babelsberg Film Orchestra , accessed on November 8, 2010