Django Concert reviews and newspaper articles from Sweden

Svanis1337

I'll be sharing some interesting articles in this forum post. It's not always easy to translate articles this old but I'll do my best. Here's the first one, a review of a concert from the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, dated Wednesday the 8th of February, 1939.

" The French hot club's quintet

gave on their jazz-evening in the great concert house hall yesterday something which could only be described as a cultivated form of jazz, It was at least no music of the most unintelligent, saxophone-howling kind. There was by the way no saxophone included. The instrumental crew was made up of a violin, three guitars and a bass fiddle, except in one number where the violinist became a pianist instead and the bass-fiddler a trombonist. The violinist was named Stéphane Grappelly, the primary guitarist (I assume he can be called that way) - Django Reinhardt and the bassist Eugène d'Hellemmes. All were absolute virtuosos on their respective instruments, and the ensemble in its whole was perfect in their interplay. Technically it was a consummate display, and it wasn't always musically uninteresting either: The jazzgroups' instrumental skills have often been heard, and there were ample opportunities of this even now.

The leading soul of it all was supposedly Django Reinhardt, whom despite only two useable fingers on his left hand (an accident has disabled the others) regaled his instrument with phenomenal ability. He was also represented as composer and with contributions that didn't belong to the programme's worst. The best was named "Swing thirtynine", that along with Gershwin's "Lady be good" and Irving Berlin's "The yam" are to be counted amongst those who advantageously broke the stubborn jazz rhythm's monotone primitivity.

Of that you became quite tired and I were almost myself tired in neck and besides a little everywhere by watching the young lady who served as "speaker" and intermediately had the task of sitting, bobbing and jumping to - that is jumping as well as she could in a sitting position - to the rhythm. In a few numbers she performed - her name is Beryl Davis - also as a singer, in due jazz style, I suppose, but without saying that she sang straight beautifully. And when she in addition gesticulated it became considerably stiffer than when she bobbed to the rhythm: then she seemed in some sort of way limp.

The hall was crowded and the crowd very satisfied.

S, B-e. "



Seems the critic didn't like Beryl Davis' singing too much.

Bob Holo

...and that critic sounds like an absolute bundle of joy...

I want to party with THAT dude.

LOL.

Matteo

Yes @Svanis1337, you did it! Thanks! I have thought myself that I should one day try to see if there were any old newspaper articles from the French Hot Quintet's visits to Sweden. Do you know if there's a review of their concert in Helsingborg? Or other articles from the Stockholm newspapers? As you probably know, the composer Wilhelm Petterson Berger were known for his nasty but witty remarks when he wrote reviews. Maybe this reviewer tried to follow in his path?

As for Beryl's "sitting, bobbing and jumping", I immediately rememberd this. So the reviewer were perhaps not all wrong about that:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/oscar-rabin-and-band-issue-title-see-how-they-run/query/beryl+davies

Jazzaferri

ROFL......I wonder what he would write today.....?

Svanis1337

@Matteo I don't have anything from Helsingborg, but here is another review of the same concert from Svenska Dagbladet, (Swedish Daily Paper) also dated 1939-02-08:

"

The concert house's grand hall was on tuesday evening crowded by a youthful and very enthusiastic crowd, whose expectations were completely fulfilled by the concert performers: The french hot club's quintet. Even jazz music has its amusing task, and it is with satisfaction one can establish that the french hotquintet dealt with the task with cultivated taste. Tuesday's concert showed fully, how unnecessary the conventional casserole lid rattling is within the genre. Even a jazzviolinist can play with a mute, without the effect becoming all too unpleasant. Especially when the violinist is as elegant in tone as Stéphane Grappelli. The guitar soloist Django Reinhardt was too a pleasant aquaintance; excellent technique but not pretentious. The repertory included several of his own compositions as well as a whole lot of both new and less new within hot music. Even a master like Liszt could contribute with his "Liebestraum". Beryl Davis, the young english vocalist, sang with less success, whatever that could be due to, and when Eugène d'Hellemmes exchanged the contrabass for a trombone, it seemed as if the confidence was lost for a while. It was at least an entertaining concert, which the audience with all imaginable energy pointed out.

J. O-v.

"

mandocat

Does anyone know if the band would have used microphones and amplification in 1939? What is "the conventional casserole lid rattling"? Drums?

Teddy Dupont

mandocat wrote: »

Does anyone know if the band would have used microphones and amplification in 1939? What is "the conventional casserole lid rattling"? Drums?

They used microphones only.

The audience seemed to love the concert but from the tone of the articles, the reviewers did not appear to like jazz very much.

The "conventional casserole lid rattling" may just mean "excessively noisy".

spatzo

From the article I understand that the writer is impressed by the HCQ's rhythm section as the HCQ demonstates that noisy drums are not necessary to play jazz

Svanis1337

I believe Spatzo and Mandocat are correct in this regard. It's probably referring to cymbals.