Swing Under the Nazis: Jazz as a Metaphor for FreedomFor a brief time in a Europe threatened and then occupied by Nazi Germany, jazz was heard as ubiquitously as rock ' n' roll is today. In a personal search for the story of that time, Mike Zwerin spent two years traveling across Europe talking with individuals who performed and enjoyed jazz in Hitler's dark shadow, including the Ghetto Swingers, a Jewish jazz band that "toured" Auschwitz and Theresienstadt; the Luftwaffe pilot who listened to Glenn Miller while bombing London; Django Reinhardt, the brilliant guitarist who refused to flee Nazi-controlled France; and many others. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
| 5 | |
| 17 | |
Doctor Jazz | 31 |
Rosebud | 43 |
Ruins Arrests Martial Law Fear Uprisings Assassination Occupation and Death | 61 |
Unblest Historicity | 75 |
The Guitar with a Human Voice | 109 |
The Bottomless Bottom | 123 |
Out of the Game | 135 |
I Just Made it up | 139 |
La Tristesse de Saint Louis | 145 |
Zazou Hey | 147 |
The Bête Noire | 163 |
My Blue Heaven | 173 |
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Africa Afrikaners American asked Asmussen Baldauf banned Bastogne Benny Goodman Berlin blow Blue Bluthner cafe called Candrix Carlo Bohlander Charles Delaunay concentration camps concert crazy culture dance Dietrich Schulz-Koehn Django Reinhardt Duke Ellington Emil festival Fouad Fox-trot France Frankfurt French friends George Scott German Gestapo Ghetto Swingers Goebbels guitar Gypsies heard Hitler Hot Club Hotel Hubert Rostaing improvise jazz band jazz fans Jazz Hot jazz musicians Jewish Jews Joseph knew laughed listening live looked Louis Louis Vola Maccaferri magazine MIKE ZWERIN Nazi Nazi Germany Negro never night orchestra Otto Jung Panassié Paris piano play jazz player police Polish radio records restaurant Robbie Sad Afrika soldiers songs Stephane Grappelli street Svend Asmussen swing swing music talk Third Reich told took trumpet Vogel Vola Warsaw wearing write wrote young Zazous Zwerin