Helmut ZACHARIAS - The Swingin' Violin Of Helmy's Bebop (1948-1952)

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Born: January 27, 1920 in Berlin, Germany Died: February 28, 2002 in Brissago, Switzerland German virtuoso Helmut Zacharias, a child prodigy who defied the Nazis and came to be called the "best jazz violinist in the world", has died in Switzerland, his daughter announced Friday. He was 82. He succumbed to Alzheimer's disease at a nursing home in Brissago on the shores of Lago Maggiore in Switzerland. In a career which spanned eight decades, Zacharias charmed audiences with his witty, jazzy renditions of classical motifs and pop themes. His last public performance was in December 1995 when he appeared on a nationally broadcast television show in Germany. Already diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the time, he retired to a sanatorium in Switzerland immediately afterwards. He was born in Berlin in 1920 into a musical family. As soon as he could stand, at 2-and-a-half, his father put a toy violin in his hand. It was made of tin and imitation fine wood, but he was soon able to play simple tunes on it. Before he could read he was already proficient at sightreading music - leading his father to let his now 4-year-old son undertake serious musical instruction on the violin. By the age of six he was performing on the cabaret stage of the Faun club on Friedrichstrasse in the heart of the entertainment district in giddy 1920s Berlin. The Faun was a model for Christopher Isherwood's fictional Berlin nighterie which became the Kit Kat Klub in the stage and film version "Cabaret". He made his radio debut at age 11 with Mozart's Violin Concerto in G-major. By the age of 14, Zacharias was making concert tours beyond Berlin's limits, finally landing a year later - 1935 - in Berlin's legendary Wintergarten music hall theatre, billed as the world's youngest violin virtuoso. In 1936, he was now 16, he registered at the Academy of Music in Berlin, becoming Professor Gustav Havemann's youngest student. In 1937, he won the Bernard Molique Prize and in 1938 the Fritz Kreisler Academy Prize. The clouds of war were already moving across Germany at the time. Nevertheless, in 1939, he toured Europe with the Berlin Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble formed from the Philharmonic, under the direction of Hans Benda. During the war, Zacharias defied a Nazi ban on "decadent" Swing music to form his own Big Band. Under the noses of Nazi officials, the band held a recording session at the Odeon Studios on Schlesische Strasse in the heart of Berlin in November 1941, producing three records. A stint in the Wehrmacht interrupted his musical career and he returned to a war-ruined Berlin after V-E Day in 1945 to help set up post-war Germany's first radio orchestra for newly founded Berlin Radio. He was soon a featured soloist at other German radio orchestras, which sprang up after the war to fill the yearning amongst a war- weary nation for cultural entertainment. By 1950, he was to be heard on all German radio stations, and AFN Frankfurt called him the "Best Jazz Violinist in the World." A series of recordings of him as soloist, composer, arranger and conductor of large and small orchestras was made in the venerable Baroque Hall of the Musikhalle in Hamburg. Deutsche Grammophon, which had its headquarters in the Musikhalle, gave him a contract under the Polydor label, launching him on an international career. He composed more than 400 works and sold 13 million albums. Biography by by www.wiesenthal.com

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Qui se souvient aujourd’hui d’Helmut Zacharias... ? Ahhhh.... Mais heureusement que chez nous, on a Patrick Saussois et son excellent label Djaz Records pour nous faire redécouvrir tout un tas de petites merveilles acoustiques... Helmut Zacharias a vendu des million de disques à travers le monde. Né en en 1920 à Berlin, de formation classique, il s’éteint dans la discrétion le 28 février 2002 après une carrière bien remplie dans un registre plutôt classique et "variété" (qui rappellera à certains érudits la carrière actuelle d’un autre violoniste, chevelu celui-là, et bien habillé...). Et pourtant... ! Cet excellent musicien a, de manière il est vrai beaucoup plus anecdotique, enregistré en Allemagne un répertoire de swing et de jazz qui vaut largement qu’on y prête une oreille attentive. D’abord quelques faces saisies avant guerre, et surtout avant que les autorités nazies lui interdisent cette musique rappelant beaucoup trop la musique "de juifs et des hongrois". Et puis aussi, en ce qui concerne cette anthologie , less incroyables sessions de 48-52, saisies dans un Berlin occupé, "américanisé", et découvrant (comme le fera en même temps -merci les ricains- l’Europe entière) les nouvelles harmonies du bebop. Harmonies étranges, subtiles et alambiquées dont Helmut Zacharias saura dès 1948 s’inspirer pour créer ses propres thèmes rappelant beaucoup ceux du répertoire de Parker et de Gillespie... ! La virtuosité, le swing et le drive de Zacharias y sont exceptionnels (et en plus, avant Benson, avant Boulou, le gars chante ses chorus !). On n’oubliera pas aussi de noter sur ce disque la présence d’un guitariste particulièrement attachant : le berlinois Coco Schumann, dont le destin édifiant fait froid dans le dos. Né en 1924, juif, il est d’abord déporté au camp de Theresienstadt en Bohême Moravie, avant d’être envoyé à Auschwitz en septembre 1944. Auschwitz était pire qu’un camp de concentration, c’était un camp d’extermination : fin 44, à peine arrivés, la plupart des déportés étaient gazés, assassinés et brulés. Pourtant, Coco Schumann en reviendra. Libéré par les troupes alliées. En 2005, lors de la commémoration de la libération des camps nazis, il déclarera au correspondant du journal "Le Monde" : "Au camp il y avait des gens pieux fidèles à l’enseignement de Dieu. Ils ont été gazés ; et moi qui ne croyait en rien, je suis vivant. C’est la musique qui m’a sauvé." Dans ses remarquables "liner notes", Patrick Saussois nous rappelle que "cet album est aussi un peu un disque de Coco Schumann : la joie de jouer qui s’en dégage à chaque note est un peu la sienne ; la joie de vivre, tout simplement..." Oui, la joie d’être vivant... C’est vraiment ce qu’on ressent de cette musique, souvent gaie, parfois triste, mais toujours belle... et salutaire. Review by Stoche - DjangoStation

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Tracklist

01. Swing 48 (H. Zacharias) 2’47
02. Dark eyes (trad.) 3’28
03. Those little white lies (Donaldson) 3’07
04. Presto aus der Fantasie in Be-bop (H. Zacharias) 2’49
05. The man I love (G. Gershwin) 3’06
06. Helmy’s bebop (H. Zacharias) 2’01
07. Ich küsse ihre Hand, Madame (R. Erwin) 3’13
08. Kosakenpatrouille (rusiche Volkenweise) (trad.) 3’03
09. Embraceable you (G. Gershwin) 3’43
10. Honeysuckle Rose (F. Waller) 2’34
11. Helmy’s bebop n°2 ((H. Zacharias) 2’25
12. You mademe love you (Donaldson) 2’39
13. How high the moon (Hamilton/Lewis) 3’00
14. Schöner Gigolo (Just a gigolo) (Casucci/ Brammer) 2’41
15. Mob-mob (H. Zacharias) 2’50
16. Saint Louis blues (W.C. Handy) 2’50
17. Helmy’s bebop n°3 (H. Zacharias) 2’27
18. S jam blues (D. Ellington) 2’47