PAUL VERNON CHESTER

Manouche Maestro
 

Django and World War II - The Occupation

In Germany, Jazz and all other American music was banned in the country before and after Americans joined the war. Stalin forbid the playing of Jazz music at the end of the 1945 war throughout the Soviet Union, and banned the use of saxophones. Jazz was called "the music of blacks by Hitler as a reason for the prohibition of Jazz music. Nevertheless, Jazz music was embraced by all who heard it around the globe.

The reasons Django returned to France whilst Stephane remained in the UK? Well Django was an incredibly capricious individual and his decisions were almost invariably based on emotion rather than logic. He once said, when asked why he returned to France at the declaration of war, "It is better to be frightened in your own country than in another one". Stephane was an altogether different personality and I think he would have thought about the situation very carefully before deciding it made much more sense to remain in the UK. Despite what Stephane said later in life when looking back through rose tinted glasses, there were no real emotional ties between them. In fact, most of the time I don't think they liked each other.
Django was actually at his most popular in France during the war. He was almost on the level of Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf in terms of popularity. He survived primarily because he was Django Reinhardt and many Germans loved jazz and were quite prepared to compromise their "principles" when away from their homeland. Django neither collaborated with nor attempted to alienate the Germans and he had the gypsy's innate ability to survive. Fortunately for him, the Germans in France had a more relaxed attitude to gypsies than in other occupied European countries. I have a couple of photographs of Sarane Ferret, one of Django's fellow gypsy guitarists, playing in a night club to a group of German soldiers and French collaborators.
I think for much of the time, the war simply passed over Django because he only cared about music, women and gambling. He would only become concerned with the occupation if it interfered with any of these activities. For much of the time, he was not of the real world. - Roger Baxter

Django's Survival

Parisien Clubs 1942

Propaganda War

With the outbreak of war in 1939 Reinhardt made his way back from England to France, leaving Grappelli in Britain.  Django spent the first winter of the war playing in Jimmy's Bar in Montparnasse; but in spring 1940 the German blitzkrieg led to the speedy fall of France. He fled the city when the Germans occupied Paris on June 14th, but returned after the French surrender left northern France under occupation. …

The New Quintet in concert circa 1941 Hubert Rostaing, Eugène Vées, Django, André Jourdan, Francis Lucas

Django was considering reforming some kind of quintet. He had hoped right up until May 1940 for Grapelly’s return, but Stephane had decided to remain in England. Django realized that such a project would require organizational skill that he himself did not possess. His first thought of getting Michel Warlop to help in this project, but of course he was otherwise committed. Georges Efrossé, then playing with Django’s friend Sarrane Ferret who was also a first class violinist – or was the true answer to form a new style of quintet? Django eventually decided to install the clarinet of Hubert Rostaing in place of the violin. Regrettably, this new quintet did not last long. Django decided, as he was pretty much a star in his own right, that freelancing was for him the best bet.

During the war, in occupied France, Django kept a low profile. He continued to record, including some superb sides in Brussels in the spring of 1942 for the Rhythme label (unfortunately pressed on inferior material).

There were, though, closet Jazz fans among the German Officers. One of these was Dietrich Schulz-Koehn (the “Doktor Jazz” of the Luftwaffe (one of Django’s most fervent admirers, and who more than once got him out of a tight corner. In any case, the ban on American jazz records only served to boost the value of the discs which the French jazzmen were putting out by hundreds under the enemy’s nose with camouflaged titles to conceal their American antecedents.

Throughout the war he continued to play (with the help of Luftwaffe officer Deitrich Schulz-Kohn, known as 'Doktor Jazz') in the Paris clubs, this time with the clarinet accompaniment of Hubert Rostaing instead of violin.  Reinhardt has often been criticised for staying in Paris during the war and playing to audiences of mainly German officers, but if you listen to the recordings he made during those war years you'll hear many references to Jewish Klezmer music that are strong ironic references to the German occupation.

Dietrich Schulz-Kohn "Doktor Jazz" with Django in front of La Cigale in Paris during the war.

Django and the Nazi's
Dietrich Schulz-​Köhn (a Luftwaffe officer) aka "Doktor Jazz", a great admirer of Django who en­abled him to continue to per­form dur­ing the German occupation, in an era where many European gypsies faced the fatal consequences of racial hatred.  Germans went to his room and listened to "Americano nigger kike jungle music" for hours.  The quote is from Joseph Goebbels, who had banned jazz along with fox trots and the tango. Although repulsed by the "terrible squawk" of jazz, he soon realized that swing between the political harangues held listeners. And eventually there were some German swing bands. The extent of the ban and the definition of the music had both been vague anyway. Nobody has ever really succeeded in defining jazz, which is one reason I love it so much.

1942-43 - sleeve notes

Shortly after a tour through Northern France and Belgium, Django and his Quintet embarked upon another trip organized by Charles Delaunay. Delaunay remembered this tour, which included appearances at sea-side resorts in Southern France and Algiers, as a rather chaotic affair that came to an early end with the unexpected departure of the leader. Django had simply refused to play any matinee shows. Delaunay and the other musicians managed to return to the mainland just days before the Allied invasion of Morocco and Algeria on November 8, 1942….

This volume of the recordings of Django Reinhardt, presented in chronological order, opens with the remaining sides with Stan Brender's big band. These little-known, yet excellent tracks show the guitarist in top form. After the aforementioned tour, Django played and recorded again regularly in Paris. In the meantime, clarinettist Hubert Rostaing had left the quintet following a feud with the leader over money. His replacement, Andre Luis, proves a less suitable partner for Reinhardt, although Django's own playing is immaculate, "Manoir de mes reves" and "Blues Claire" ranking among his best recordings of the period. In March 1943, Django was able to cut some ambitious, yet fascinating sides with Fud Candrix and his big band, which also accompanied him on a series of concerts in Belgium later that year. In July 1943, Diango made his last recordings before the liberation of Paris. The fine "Melodie au crepuscule" also reunited Django with Michel Warlop for the last time in a recording studio. Django continued to play for the better part of the next year, but was also involved in several perilous situations, a state of affairs that kept him from the recording studios until October 1944.

This époque of Django’s QHCF ended sharply with the outbreak of World War II. Immediately, Django returns home from his England tour; contrary to Grappelli who decides to stay. At first, Django flees from the occupants to the South of France, not occupied, but soon returns to Paris. Later, he tries again to flee, this time to neutral Switzerland, in order to avoid an impending tour in Germany. The Swiss border guards, however, expel him because his application for political asylum was denied, but luckily nothing bad happens to him, allegedly also because he appeased the guards with his ability to play Guitar.

Django playing to Babik circa 1944

Stan Brenders would stand on-stage in Brussels in the late ’30s and announce that the next tune was going to be "Sept, et avec un combination avec onze," knowing full well the Nazi censors wouldn’t be able to follow the pidgin French reference to the real song title, "Seven Come Eleven," which like most swing numbers had been decisively banned from either radio or live airplay. One of the great victories of jazz against the fascists came in spring of 1942, when the Brenders band backed eight performances in Belgium by gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, all of the activity organized strictly guerilla style in outright defiance of the Nazi edict against swinging music. But with the defeat of the swastika crowd, Brenders' music became less and less swinging, with increasing use of schmaltzy strings.

Django with Fud Candrix Orchestra!

Propaganda Swing:
Dr. Goebbels Jazz Orchestra
(Charlie and His Orchestra)

Charlie Schwedler (Karl Schwedler) - In the twisted annals of the Third Reich, few stories are so improbable as that of Charlie and his Orchestra.  Even as the Nazis campaigned against degenerate jazz music, persecuting musicians and throwing swing kids into concentration camps, behind the scenes Joseph Goebbels and his Propaganda Ministry were creating a jazz orchestra that would serve up Nazi propaganda backed by the latest swing music. The result was Charlie and his Orchestra , Karl Schwedler, made up of Europe s finest jazz players, whose short-wave broadcasts to English and American audiences soon gained a following abroad and, more clandestinely, within the Reich itself. Combining hit-parade savvy with pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic lyrics, the orchestra specialized in cover versions of the latest swing sensations; among the recordings featured here are the Churchill-baiting You're Driving Me Crazy , the anti-Roosevelt FDR Jones, and Slumming on Park Avenue ( Let s go bombing... ). As soon as the war ended, orchestra members found themselves in hot demand by American occupation forces, and many become respected leaders of Europe's postwar jazz scene. In this film, surviving band members (including the late Fritz Freddie Brocksieper) recall their musical collaboration with the Nazi regime with ambivalence and insight, shedding new light onto the contradictory workings of Goebbels propaganda machine.

1989, B&W/Color, 60 minutes, English commentary.
Thanks for the Memory

Hitler's Reflections on Jazz

Liberation of France - Luftwaffe Oberleutenant Dietrich Schulz-Koehn walked along the railroad tracks near St. Nazaire with three other German officers. Four American officers came down the line towards them. Small arms fire could be heard in the distance.  The winter of 1944 was cold. The men danced and blew on their hands. The day was grey, like an old print of a black-and-white war movie... They had minor roles, this was a sideshow. The main Theatre of war had moved east to the Fatherland.

One hundred thousand German soldiers were cut off and worn out here on the Brittany coast. The Allies were prepared to starve them out, but civilians were starving too and the Red Cross arranged evacuation negotiations along these tracks, an hour a day for weeks now. The opposing sides had begun to fraternize. They took photographs of each other, and traded the prints.  An African American officer who had been admiring Schulz-Koehn's Rollieflex asked: "How much do you want for that camera?" 
"It's not for sale." The lanky, bespectacled German liked Americans, particularly African Americans. He was more than pleasant about it, but he liked his camera too.
"How about three cartons of Luckies and four pairs of nylons?"
No. That was not enough. But as a matter of fact there was something. Why not ask? A few beats went by. The war was almost over anyway. Schulz-Koehn straightened up and adjusted his leather coat. There was nothing to be lost. It was in his estimation worth a try: "Do you have any Count Basie records?"

During the war, Django's artistic creations are prolific. He rarely records in the studio, but in the evening he has more than enough gigs – jazz being considered a form of protest against the occupying forces’ regime. He founds his own club, "La Roulette", later called "Chez Django Reinhardt". He tours Belgium, the Provence, which is not occupied, and Algeria. His wish – an own jazz orchestra, – "Django’s Music" – comes true. Its members unfortunately do not have a permanent position, and go their own way after the war. On the basis of texts by the French poet Jean Cocteau he composes the opera "Le manoir de mes reves", but it is never performed. He also impresses the experts with an organ mass which he had composed in 1944 in honour of the French Roma’s – 'Manouche' – dedicated to their holy place of pilgrimage, St.-Maries-de-la-mer, on the Riviera.

From Here to Eternity, James Jones
‘But when it came to describing for them who had never heard it the poignant fleeting exquisitely delicate melody of that guitar, memory always faltered. There was no way to describe them that. You had to hear that, the steady, swinging, never wavering beat with the two- or three-chord haunting minor riffs at the ends of phrases, each containing the whole feel and pattern of joyously unhappy tragedy of this earth (and of other earth). And always over it all the one picked single string of the melody following infallibly the beat, weaving in and out around it with the hard-driven swiftly-run arpeggios, always moving, never hesitating, never getting lost and having to pause to get back on, shifting suddenly from the set light-accent of the melancholy jazz beat to the sharp erratic-explosive gypsy rhythm that cried over life while laughing at it, too fast for the ear to follow, too original for the mind to anticipate, too intricate for the memory to remember.’

We had to sit on a chair one after the other, and Dr. Ritter compared the eyes of the children and questioned them; his colleague noted everything down. We had to open our mouths and our jaws were measured with a strange instrument, then our nostrils, the roots of the nose, the distance between the eyes, eye colour, eyebrows, ears inside and out, the nape of the neck, the throat, our hands - every single thing there was to measure.

---Josef Reinhardt

Nuages

Django and Vola

Django Reinhardt, Louis Vola, Palm Beach Cannes

Amazingly, after this unpromising start, Django now emerged as a popular star in a France cut off by the Occupation from its contacts with American jazz. He formed a new “swing” quintet on the Benny Goodman model with the clarinettist Hubert Rostaing which quickly became a hit with the young fans. Paris, one it had recovered from the disasters and confusion of the defeat, was looking for pleasure, for distraction. Suddenly Jazz records were selling in their thousands. The public wanted “Swing”. That (or sometimes “Swing musette”) was the magic word which became a kind of rallying cry for the young. Until now Jazz had been the preserve of a relatively select circle of dedicated enthusiasts. Now it became a general passion, and the Quintet and the Hot Club of France was its focus. According to Charles Delaunay: “When Django and his new Quintet made their first public appearance on the stage of the “Normandie” cinema they were staggered by the reception they got. “This was not simply a conquered population seeking to forget its troubles in dreams; it was also an act of defiance against an Enemy for whom Jazz was a hated symbol or racial decadence. And the Gypsy guitarist, in turn, was a symbol of that defiance.

There are also two intriguing photos (one shown left) of Sarane Ferret at the Shaharazade playing to German soldiers and French collaborators during the second world war that pose interesting questions about the pragmatism of both the gypsies and the occupying forces.

Opinions about Sarane Ferret's ability as a solo guitarist vary considerably. He was certainly less "gypsy" than and lacked that "off-the-wall" bravado of his brothers which, to some, may have been a positive asset. However, despite being a measured, tasteful player, the truth is he probably lacked that certain spark required to lift him above the ordinary.

Champagne does not appear to rationed.

Zazou's

In countries under Nazi occupation, and indeed Germany, jazz sub-cultures survived in the face of official hostility and persecution. In France, there were the Zazous: perhaps a corruption of the Cab Calloway's Opium inspired - kicking the 'Gong' around Song Chorus

Now, here's a very entrancing phrase,
It will put you in a daze,
To me it don't mean a thing,
But it's got a very peculiar swing!
Zaz-zuh-zaz-zuh-zaz,
Zaz-zuh-zaz-zuh-zay,
Zaz-zuh-zaz-zuh-zaz,
Zaz-zuh-zaz-zuh-zay!

'Zazou boys wore pegged pants with baggy knees, high rolled English collars covered by their hair, which was carefully combed into a two-wave pompadour over their foreheads, long checked jackets several sizes too large, dangling key chains, gloves, stick­pins in wide neckties with tiny knots; dark glasses and Django Reinhardt moustaches were the rage. The girls wore short skirts, baggy sweaters, pointed painted fingernails, hair curled to their shoulders, necklaces around their waists, bright red lipstick... They spent a lot of time in cafes, on the Champs Elysees or in the Latin Quarter... On Sundays they took portable gramophones to little exurban restaurants, played their swing records loud and danced...
The Zazous took nothing seriously. They opposed the regime by ignoring it, which was a political act whether they knew it or not. Wearing long jackets with wide collars and plenty of pleats is a political provocation during a highly publicized campaign for sartorial austerity. From time to time the police would raid a Zazou cafe and take them to the prefecture. They would be questioned and have their papers and addresses checked. Some were sent to the countryside to help with the harvest, after a haircut of course. One newspaper wrote: 'We are of the opinion that when the rest of the continent is fighting and working, the Zazous' laziness is shameful. The young men without their hair or collars now are going to get healthy sweating in the July sun, the girls will soon have thicker ankles, freckles on their sweet noses and calluses on their dainty hands. And then the world will be back to its natural order.'

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Last modified: 29/07/2010