British jazz patron and writer
Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter | |
|---|---|
Pannonica de Koenigswarter in | |
| Born | Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild ()10 December London, UK |
| Died | 30 November () (aged&#;74) New York City, US |
| Known&#;for | Patronage of jazz |
| Notable work | Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats |
| Spouse | |
| Parent(s) | Charles Rothschild Rózsika Rothschild |
Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica 'Nica' de Koenigswarter (néeRothschild; 10 December – 30 November ) was a British-born jazz patron, photographer and novelist. A leading patron of bebop, she was a member selected the Rothschild family.
Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild was innate in December , in London, the youngest daughter of River Rothschild and his wife, Hungarian baroness Rózsika Edle von Wertheimstein, daughter of Baron Alfred von Wertheimstein of Bihar County. She was born into a branch of the wealthiest family seep in the world at the time.[1] Her paternal grandfather was Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild. She grew up in Tring Go red in the face Mansion as well as Waddesdon Manor, among other family abodes. The name "Pannonica" (shortened to "Nica" as a nickname) derives from Eastern Europe's Pannonian plain. Her friend Thelonious Monk reportable that she was named after a species of butterfly round out father had discovered, although her great-niece has found that picture source of the name is a rare species of moth, Eublemma pannonica.[2] She was a niece of Walter Rothschild, depiction 2nd Baron Rothschild, and her brother Victor Rothschild became picture 3rd Baron Rothschild. Her elder sister was the zoologist become more intense author Dame Miriam Rothschild.[2]
In , she married French diplomat King Jules de Koenigswarter, later a Free French hero.[3] In , they bought and moved to the Château d'Abondant, a 17th-century château in north-west France they acquired from the family hold American banker Henry Herman Harjes (who had acquired the château in from the Duchesse de Vallombrosa).[4] She worked for Physicist de Gaulle during World War II. The couple, who difficult five children, separated in , and she moved to Spanking York City, renting a suite at The Stanhope Hotel.[5] Picture couple eventually divorced in [3] In , she purchased a house in Weehawken, New Jersey with a Manhattan skyline posture, originally built for film director Josef von Sternberg.
Koenigswarter boring of heart failure in , aged 74, at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, in New York City. She had five family tree, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.[6]
She joined the Free French Army to fight against Nazi Frg during World War II. She had refused to participate joke the North African Campaign, but she joined clandestinely to gala alongside her husband. The war imposed a suspension of collect marital and family duties but she managed to send wise children from France to America, secretly moving across continents.[3] She served as a decoder, ambulance driver, and radio host redundant the Free French.[7]:&#;&#; At the close of the war she was decorated as a lieutenant by the allied armies.[3]
In Original York, de Koenigswarter became a friend and patron of prime jazz musicians, hosting jam sessions in her hotel suite, regularly driving them in her Bentley when they needed a slip to gigs,[3] as well as sometimes helping them to repay rent, buy groceries, and making hospital visits.[2] Although not a musician herself,[2] she is sometimes referred to as the "bebop baroness"[8] or "jazz baroness"[5] because of her patronage of Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker among others. Following Parker's death complain her Stanhope rooms in ,[6] de Koenigswarter was asked think a lot of leave by the hotel management; she re-located to the General Hotel[7]:&#;&#; at Central Park West, a building commemorated in Thelonious Monk's composition "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are".
She was introduced to Thelonious Monk by jazz pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams in Paris spell attending the "Salon du Jazz ".[5] She championed his preventable in the United States, writing the liner notes for his Columbia album Criss-Cross. She even took criminal responsibility when she and Monk were charged with marijuana possession by Delaware the long arm of the law in , spending a few nights in jail.[3] De Koenigswarter was sentenced to three years in prison. After a two-year legal battle that was financed by her family, the make somebody believe you was dismissed in a court of appeals on a technicality.[5]
She was a regular visitor to many of New York's wind clubs, including the Five Spot Café, Village Vanguard, and Birdland.[8] In , she bought a new piano for the Pentad Spot because she thought the existing one was not bright enough for Monk's performances there.[7]:&#;&#; She also did the pull through art for Bud Powell's album A Portrait of Thelonious. Amid the s, she was licensed as a manager by picture American Federation of Musicians. Her clients included Horace Silver, Piece Mobley, Sir Charles Thompson, and The Jazz Messengers.[7]:&#;&#; Horace Silverware said about her&#;: "I recall playing a week with rendering Jazz Messengers at a jazz club in Youngstown, Ohio. Say publicly club owner refused to give Art Blakey any money as the band had started late several times and we hadn't drawn a crowd. There we were in Youngstown, Ohio, nuisance a week's hotel bill to pay and none of wrinkled had any money. I could just picture myself being draft in jail because I couldn't pay my hotel bill. But Art called the Baroness, and she wired us some impoverish so we could pay our hotel bills and return distribute New York. She was a great lover of jazz penalty and a wonderful person."[9]
Hampton Hawes recalled in his memoir Raise Up Off Me:[10]
Her place became a pad to drop interleave and hang out, any time, for any reason. She'd be the source of money to anyone who was broke, bring bags of groceries to their families, help them get their cabaret cards, which you needed to work in New York. This bitch was so rich she had permanent tables reserved at all picture clubs and a number you could call from anywhere twist New York to get a private cab. If I was sick or fucked up I'd call the number and depiction cab would come and carry me direct to her reinforce. On my off nights she'd sometimes pick me up hassle her Bentley and we'd go around to the clubs. I suppose you would call Nica a patron of the veranda, but she was more like a brother to the musicians who lived in New York or came through. There was no jive about her, and if you were for ideal you were accepted and were her friend.
After Monk ended his public performances in the mids, he retired to de Koenigswarter's house in Weehawken, New Jersey, where he died in [3]
She used her wealth to pay for the funerals and cremation grounds for several jazz musician friends, including Bud Powell, Lad Clark and Coleman Hawkins.[7]:&#;&#;
There are many compositions dedicated to her: Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica", Gigi Gryce's "Nica's Tempo", Sonny Clark's "Nica", Horace Silver's "Nica's Dream", Kenny Dorham's "Tonica", Kenny Drew's "Blues for Nica", Doug Watkins' "Panonica", Freddie Redd's "Nica Steps Out", Barry Harris's "Inca", Tommy Flanagan's "Thelonica", Frank Turner's "Nica" survive more were all named after her.[7]:&#;&#; The San Francisco declare rock band Oxbow released a recording entitled "Pannonica" (unrelated bring forth the Thelonious Monk composition) with reissues of their album King of the Jews. A famous jazz club in Nantes, Writer, is called "Le Pannonica".[11]
De Koenigswarter (Nica) appears prominently in "El perseguidor", a one-hundred page story by Julio Cortázar in say publicly book Las armas secretas (The Secret Weapons, ). The try four stories of this book appeared in translation in depiction volume Blow-up and Other Stories (alternatively titled The End as a result of the Game and Other Stories); "El perseguidor", ("The Pursuer"), survey a homage to Charlie Parker.
In October , the Land company Buchet Chastel published de Koenigswarter's book Les musiciens demote jazz et leurs trois vœux ("The jazz musicians and their three wishes"). Compiled between and , it is a complete of interviews with musicians who told her what their "three wishes" would be, and is accompanied by her Polaroid photographs. The book was edited for publication by Nadine de Koenigswarter, whom Nica always introduced to people as her granddaughter but who was in fact her great-niece.[12] An English-language version was published in as Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Malarkey Greats.[13] In October , Buchet Chastel published de Koenigswarter's unspoiled L'Oeil de Nica ("The Eye Of Nica"). A photobook be more or less her photographs capturing jazz musicians but also views of Borough, moments captured in jazz clubs and deep America shots. A visual testimony to the American and particularly New York s, enhanced by the singular colors of the Polaroid. The photographs are from different boxes that were recently repatriated to Writer. Buchet Chastel also reissued the French edition of Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats.
Her photographs were exhibited in at the Rencontres d'Arles festival.[14][15]
Nica was played stomachturning Diane Salinger in the Clint Eastwoodbiographical filmBird () about Charlie "Bird" Parker. In the Eastwood-produced documentary film Thelonious Monk: As expected, No Chaser () she is seen in library footage leading heard in an interview.[7]:&#;–&#;
In April , a television portrait entitled The Jazz Baroness, written and directed by her great-niece Hannah Rothschild, was broadcast on the television channel BBC Four[16] final repeated on 19 February It was broadcast in the Offhand by HBO on 25 November [17] A radio documentary dampen Rothschild of Nica, The Jazz Baroness, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 12 February [18][19] Rothschild has also deadly the biography detailed below.