Ruth Hohmann

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Ruth Hohmann with Manfred Krug and the Jazz Optimists (1965)

Ruth Hohmann (born August 19, 1931 in Eisenach ) is a German jazz singer and university lecturer. In the GDR she was the first and for a long time the only female jazz singer, was considered the "First Lady of Jazz" and played a major role in the spread of jazz in the GDR.

Life

Ruth Hohmann (stage name) took singing and ballet lessons as a child and sang in the school choir. In 1949 she completed an acting training in Erfurt . Two years later she married the theater and film critic Heinz Hofmann and moved to Berlin. After the two children were big enough, she sang to Walter Kubiczeck , who was enthusiastic about her talent. After the first hits with a jazz note, which were published on the AMIGA label, she turned to jazz and sang with English lyrics, which the audience (unlike the party and the media) welcomed. On November 12, 1961, she made her first appearance as a jazz singer. She was the first female jazz singer in the GDR with a professional ID . Up until 1966 she performed regularly at home and abroad, mainly with the Jazz Optimists Berlin , but also with Günter Hörig , Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky , Bernd Wefelmeyer , Klaus Lenz , Theo Schumann and others. In 1965 she played the title role in Harry Kupfers television opera Hete , which the regime never let broadcast. In the same year she took second place in a survey by a Munich newspaper for the best female vocalists, without ever having performed in Germany.

After being banned from performing from 1966 to 1972, she has been a singer at the Jazz-Collegium Berlin since 1972 . She mainly sings swing, New Orleans jazz and blues and has an impressive command of scat singing . Ruth Hohmann provided jazz standards such as Sweet Georgia Brown and Makin Whopee with German lyrics and combined them with a “black” voice.

From 1976 to 1996 she was responsible for training in jazz and chanson at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin . She had been brought in by Alfons Wonneberg , the long-time head of the dance music department. So she became the first teacher of vocal interpretation at the university. As an actress, she played in the DEFA film by Egon Günther Lot's wife in 1965 and most recently in the film NVA by Leander Haussmann .

In 1988 she was awarded the GDR Art Prize. On August 26, 2006 Ruth Hohmann was awarded honorary membership "For Merit to Jazz" by the Eisenach Jazz Club . Her political stubbornness was also expressly recognized.

Discography (selection)

LP

  • 1978: "Dixiparty", "The girls from La Rochelle" (Chanson)
  • 1984: "Streams"

CD

  • 1993: "swingin 'complements" with the jazz college
  • 1995: "Jazz-Lyrik-Prosa" (a title with Manfred Krug and the jazz optimists)
  • 1999: "Jazz-Lyrik-Prosa II" (2 tracks, including with Uschi Brüning)
  • 2003: "Ahrenshooper Jazztage" (3 titles)
  • 2005: "Ruth seventy5" (portrait CD)
  • 2005: Jazz Enough (audio book)

Filmography (vocals)

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Ruth Hohmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Winkler: My band forbade me to stop singing. , taz.de of November 28, 2011 , accessed on December 3, 2011
  2. ^ Report on guardian.co.uk dated December 2, 2011 , accessed December 3, 2011
  3. ^ GDR Art Prize , In: Neues Deutschland, May 20, 1988, p. 6
personal data
SURNAME Hohmann, Ruth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz singer
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisenach