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The Ghetto Swinger: A Berlin Jazz-Legend Remembers: A Berlin Jazz-Legend Remembers
192Overview
"Coco, it's not important what you play. It's important how you play it," said Louis Armstrong to jazz and swing guitarist Coco Schumann during a break between sessions. Recalling this episode Schumann reminds readers that even in the midst of real-world nightmares, music is alive and musicians experience this essential freedom and hope, which they can, in turn, give to their audiences. Throughout his remarkable life, Coco Schumann (b. 1924) would accumulate accolades, including the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany in 1989 and the prestigious Ehrenpreise Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, and play with jazz greats Toots Thielemans, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and others. But few knew he relied on composing music and performing for live audiences to ease the burden of his wartime memories.
After forty years of silence Schumann's memoir opened a rare window into the previously unknown life of one of Germany's most renowned musicians, who was a member of the vibrant and illegal Berlin club scene, a part of the cultural revival of postwar Berlin, and a survivor of Theresienstadt (Terezin) and the horrors of Auschwitz.
Shortlisted for the 2017 A.R.S.C. Awards for Excellence in Historical Research in Jazz.
Includes over 50 historical documents and rare photographs.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780998777061 |
---|---|
Publisher: | DoppelHouse Press |
Publication date: | 04/03/2018 |
Pages: | 192 |
Sales rank: | 959,695 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
Michael H. Kater, a former professional jazz musician, is Distinguished Research Professor of History Emeritus at York University in Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of ten books, including Hitler Youth (Harvard 2004). His latest book is Weimar: From Enlightenment to the Present (Yale 2014).
Co-author Michaela Haas is a journalist and life coach as well as the author of several self-transformation books. She has written for Germany’s leading newspapers and was the host of an award-winning TV interview program. She holds a PhD in Asian studies.
Co-author Max Christian Graeff is a German author and publisher. He has written several books and essay collections (in German) published by Deutsches Taschenbuch Verlag and NordPark Verlag, has made art, given performances and lectures as well as having sung with the German rock band The Morlocks.
Table of Contents
AUTHOR’S PREFACE to the English EditionHOW HIGH THE MOON
BERLIN AIR
YOU CAN’T STOP ME FROM DREAMING
AVANT DE MOURIR
LA PALOMA
SUMMERTIME
RIDERS IN THE SKY
ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET
FOOLISH THINGS
RAZZLE DAZZLE
DOSVEDANYA
AUTUMN LEAVES
AFTERWORD by Michael H. Kater
DISCOGRAPHY
PUBLICATIONS, FILM & TELEVISION, AND AWARDS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
What People are Saying About This
Coco Schumann used his talent for improv playing with the great musicians of Central Europe until he was forcefully relocated to the Jewish prison at Terezín. The musical society there was miraculous, and Schumann grew from drummer to expressive performer in the company of great composers, conductors, classical musicians, and a lively swing band. After the war, he reconstructed his career and became a trailblazing jazz guitarist. This compelling personal and insightful tale of survival brings to light another brilliant and selfless Terezín artist. It is storytelling from the inside by a music-maker who rediscovered the humanizing power of jazz and swing at a time when it was needed most.
– Murry Sidlin, President and Creative Director of the Defiant Requiem Foundation
Coco Schumann used his talent for improv playing with the great musicians of Central Europe until he was forcefully relocated to the Jewish prison at Terezín. The musical society there was miraculous, and Schumann grew from drummer to expressive performer in the company of great composers, conductors, classical musicians, and a lively swing band. After the war, he reconstructed his career and became a trailblazing jazz guitarist. This compelling personal and insightful tale of survival brings to light another brilliant and selfless Terezín artist. It is storytelling from the inside by a music-maker who rediscovered the humanizing power of jazz and swing at a time when it was needed most.
– Murry Sidlin, President and Creative Director of the Defiant Requiem Foundation