Casino Dance-Band, Oslo, 1925 - 1928. From the left: Kristian Hauger, Eugen Martinsen, Oscar Nielsen, Guttorm Frölich and Ola Nyhaug.
The Pioneering Years - before 1923 1923 - 27 1927 - 30 1930 - 35 1935 - 38 1938 - 40
The end of World War One also marked the start of the history of European "jazz". The newest American craze hit the continent in a matter of months after the November 1918 cease-fire - and by 1919 "jazz" was the tag for anything "new".
Original Dixieland Jazz Band came to England in early 1919, and their records were also distributed in Scandinavia in the same year. Swedish singer Ernst Rolf recorded with "Swedish Jazzband", and Sidney Bechet started touring Europe - also gaining recognition in more "serious" musical circles.
To the common man, "jazz" was much more than just the music itself. The word "jazz" covered everything that was wild, new and modern, particularly in connection with dancing and noisy musical effects. "Jazz dance" was introduced in Scandinavia in 1919, and the Christmas ball at Frogner school in Kristiania (as Oslo was still called at the time) featured a demonstration of the new dance in vogue. In Trondheim, a mandoline band named "The Jazzband" led off the students' cabaret - the name of which was simply JAZZ.
Even if jazz hit in a sudden wave after the war, people were prepared for it through knowledge of early American show music - which was rooted in the folk music of the American negro. Minstrel shows and groups performing negro spirituals had been touring Europe in the 1800s. "Cakewalk" and ragtime were introduced in the 1890s - first and foremost by way of the famous marching bands. Norwegian composer Oscar Borg introduced the cakewalk song "Georgia Camp Meeting" in 1897, and Norwegian recordings of this song have been found on cylinders dating from 1906. From 1908 and on, Norwegian accordeonists recorded numerous rags and other jazzrelated numbers. In 1913, The Norwegian American Line inaugurated their scheduled passenger services across the Atlantic, thereby also increasing import possibilities for records and sheet music.
The first foreign jazz orchestra came to Norway in January 1921. Public dances had made a breakthrough in the restaurants of Kristiania the year before - and the city was eagerly awaiting the first "real jazzband". The Grand Hotel opened up with an English quartet called Feldman's Jazz-band, and into the Bristol came "The 5 Jazzing Devils" - arriving, according to the ads, directly from the States. Six of these first musical guests were coloured - a fact getting quite a bit more attention than the actual music they were there to present. None of the musicians have carved their names into the history of jazz, however, and a qualified guess would be that they were mainly travelling music hall artists - some of them possible ex-soldiers stranded after the war.
A couple of months later, in March 1921, a new orchestra came into the Bristol: Jack Harris' Premier Syncopated Five. As with the others, this band had no "historical" names, except the Englisil Canadian bandleader, who made a name for himself in Scandinavia through his long stays in Norway and Sweden. Interviews and press reviews hint at the following character traits for Jack Harris' brand of jazz: A rhythmically relaxed music, played by memory rather than from printed music. The variations over the melodies were simple, rhythm was often syncopated, and new orchestral colorations were achieved through the use of saxophone, banjo, drums and various novelty instruments. On the whole, however, the music was adjusted towards the European "salon" music of the day.
The first visiting foreign musicians were important sources of inspiration for the first domestic "jazzbands" in Kristiania. Violin player Lauritz Stang formed his first teenage band in 1920, and was fast in picking up the new musical trends. Another youngster, pianist Amund Enger, appeared in a couple of jazz groups in 1921.
In the town of Bodø in Northern Norway, a 15 piece band was formed the same year, Bodø Jazz Band. The radicals were in it too, a 1922 band was called The Trondhjem Young Communists' Jazzband. The sports club "Speed" in Kristiania was the breeding ground for a couple of 1922 bands as well, with a.o. drummers Ola Nyhaug and Harald Jaang.
These Norwegian "jazz pioneers" played the popular dance tunes of
the day, and were a far throw indeed from what we today would define as the
jazz style of the 1920's. Typically, a band would consist of clarinets or violins,
piano, banjo and drums. Their musical material was either lifted from printed
sheet music, or copied from recordings of popular jazz/dance bands like Paul
Whiteman's and Art Hickman's from the US, Savoy Quartet and Jack Hyllon's Queens'
Dance Orchestra from England.
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Casino Dance-Band, Oslo, 1925 - 1928. From the left: Kristian Hauger, Eugen Martinsen, Oscar Nielsen, Guttorm Frölich and Ola Nyhaug.
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The saxophone made its entrance into Norwegian jazz around 1923. In the orchestra of Lauritz Stang, Stang and Leif Tenge taught themselves their way around this new and important instrument for jazz. In Alesund, alto saxophonist Magne Flem appeared in "Mascott Jazzband" (1923). In Kristiania, young saxophone players Gustav Upp, Egil Langbrecke and Einar Hoff could be heard in the legendary "Synco Ramblers" (1924) and "Snappy" (1925), and in Trondheim, Jan Kjærstad and Gunnar Almaas formed a sax duo within the quintet "Chari Vari" (1925). In this band, fourteen year old banjo player Jonny Røstad and drummer Rolf Johansen also had their debut. The musicians of "Chari Vari" have a special place in the history of jazz in Trondheim, but this boys' band was most likely more of a playground for the kids involved than a real musical group.
The typical Norwegian band of the 1920s had become one with 1-2 saxes, violin, piano, banjo, and drums. The band "Sixpence" which was formed around 1923, had this instrumentation. Pianist Fenger Grøn was the initiating force behind this band, having just returned from USA with many new musical impulses. The band was based in Kristiania, and was extremely popular.
Listening to the radio had by now become the new source of inspiration. With their radio receivers tuned to England, Norwegian jazz fans were able to hear dance music from the Savoy Hotel, or from popular orchestra leaders Jack Hylton, Bert Ambrose, Henry Hall and Jack Payne. Norwegian broadcasting had also been founded, and from Kristiania Kristian Hauger went on the air with his "Pan Jazzorkester" (1924). In Trondheim, broadcasts of "The Bonny Band" could be heard in 1926, parallelled by Tromsø, presenting the same band name, but with different musicians.
Restaurants around the country usually presented quite ordinary dance music, with only slight reference to "the jazz age". There would, however, ever so often be a visiting band on stage. After Jack Harris, The "Manhattan Five" (including drummer Bill Harty) was the most spoken of in Kristiania. But Sidney Bechet actually played both at the Casino Theatre and at the Grand Hotel in 1926 - without anybody taking much notice. The term "authentic New Orleans music" was at that time unknown to Norwegian jazz musicians.
Jazz in the restaurants was not entirely reserved for visiting musicians, however.
Kristian Hauger had built a reputation as a jazz pianist by 1925, and was hired
as orchestra conductor in the Casino Restaurant in Oslo. This resulted in the
first full-time restaurant orchestra using jazzoriented players, with the typical
20s setting of sax/violin/piano/banjo/drums.
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Kristian Hauger’s Jazz Orchestra, Oslo (1928–1930). From the left: Kristian Hauger, Walfred Andersen, Ernst Olsen, Erling Gammeleng, Harald Jaang, Jules de Vries, Håkon Buntz and Trygve Fjelldalen.
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Kristian Hauger had paved the way for professionalism in Norwegian jazz. In Trondheim, the Theater Café followed suit by hiring Jan Kjærstad as musical director in 1927. He brought some of his friends from Chari Vari, thus forming that city's first - albeit quite short-lived - professional jazz band (sax/violin/piano/banjo/ drums). Røde Mølle ("the Moulin Rouge") opened in Oslo in 1927, featuring American Don Parker's orchestra, with Norwegian sousaphone player Erwin Dahlgren. Dahlgren soon switched to double bass, becoming probably Norway's first rhythm bass player. 1927 also saw the opening of restaurant Skansen in Oslo. The grand opening concert gave the audience an opportunity to hear trumpeter Haakon Buntz and trombonist Trygve Fjelddalen in their first appearances.
Something new had happened: Brass instruments and the double bass created new and exciting orchestral colours. Even more important: Improvisation had become a common term. The reason for this is to be found in the new American records of the time, recorded by white musicians in Chicago and New York, who had come to understand some of the real content of jazz. In the second half of the decade, records were distributed featuring soloists like Phil Napoleon, Red Nichols, Miff Mole, the Dorsey brothers, Adrian Rollini, Frankie Trumbauer, Eddie Lang, Frank Signorelli, Arthur Schutt and Bix Beiderbecke.
These new impulses also reached the amateur musicians of Sixpence, a band that
in 1927 appeared with a new personnell: Gustav Upp, Egil Langbrecke and Einar
Hoff saxes, Johan "Jottit" Johnsen violin, Ulf Arnesen piano, Ragnar
Grøn drums. Sixpence became the most popular jazzband of the Norwegian
capital, playing at royal balls, in
the embassies and other parts of high society, and also got the honour of being
the first jazzband ever to play in the University Aula in Oslo.
At the "Røde Mølle", Norwegian orchestras had steady gigs from 1928 on - with new professional musicians coming up, among these trumpeter Willie Vieth and saxophonist Yngvar Wang. At the Bristol, Kristian Hauger became musical director in 1928, with an excellent jazz group.
At the annual meeting of the Norwegian Musicians' Union, an unanimous decision was made, declaring that "The saxophone is acknowledged as an orchestral instrument". The question of whether jazz musicians could become members of the union, led to heated arguments. From 1930 on, that door was opened - at least in the Oslo local.
Towards the end of "the jazz age", the amateur music scene was in
a flowering never to have been seen before. Coming Norwegian stars like Svein
Øvergaard and Finn Westbye were already active on the scene. Trumpeter
Thorleif Østereng and saxophonist Leif Bolin were part of "Columbia
Brothers". In Trondheim, a number of new jazzbands were coming up - the
hottest of which was called "The Jazz Kings". In Tromsø, "Bonny
Band and .Melody Boys" created local music history; Bergen too had seen
the formation of several jazzbands, of which "Charley Band" is the
one best remembered today.
From 1929, the economical depression spread to all corners of the industrialized world, including Norway. This meant the death of "The Jazz Age" - and "jazz", in the definition of the day: Happy, rhythmic and uninhibited dance music accompanied by the strumming of banjos. Of all the things marketed under the jazz umbrella, there were undoubtedly quite a few with more than a dubious relation to the real music.
Not only did society itself - in a situation marked by the crisis - take a critical view of the recklessness of the jazz age. The genuine jazz fans themselves also gained new knowledge, making many of them dissociate themselves from the "jazz" of the '20s. In the early thirties, many record companies started marketing and reissuing their formerly hidden treasures of authentic jazz recordings - with musicians like Louis Armstrong, Luis Russell, Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, Earl Hines, Don Redman, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins and Henry Red Allen. A new world revealed itself - so remote from Paul Whiteman and popular English dance music as to make jazz music a minority music for the genuinely interested alone. In order to keep a distance to old and fallacious learnings, the music was no longer called "jazz", but "hot" or "new rhythm style".
Insofar as jazz lost its general popularity, many of the amateur bands also disappeared. This was also the case with the restaurant bands - who were facing leaner years jazzwise. In Oslo, most of the jazz musicians were found in Thode Fagelund's Bristol Orchestra (1930-33) and in Røde Mølle Melody Boys.
In Trondheim, however, 1930 marked the introduction to asmall flowering for jazz. Alto saxophone player Willy Olsen ("Will Willys") had returned from the USA, and was hired as musical director at the Theater Café. Old friends from the 1927 café orchestra joined forces with him, and formed a hot ensemble under the name Otto Hagerup's Jazz Vikings. The Britannia Hotel also judged jazz as being a sound economical investment, in an era otherwise marked by the depression, and hired Fred Minsaas as their MD 1930. The Minsaas orchestra also became the city's radio orchestra.
Jack Harris visited Trondheim in the summer of 1930, inspiring local musicians to try "the snappy style" - with emphasis on the 2nd and 4th beat of the bar. This was a time of flowering, where jazz had become a listeners' music. The Students' Union jazz concerts, where the students' own "Bodega Band", of course participated.
In Bergen, "Charley Band" marked the thirties by going professional, under the band name "The Rhythmic six".
In Oslo, Kristian Hauger was the "grand old man" of jazz (aged over 25), having been the leader of several gramophone orchestras as well as playing in the orchestra at Chat Noir. In 1932, he was asked to form a radio dance orchestra, its first engagement being for 20 broadcasts. From 1934, their tenure at the NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) was made more permanent. There was never question of regular full-time employment however, so musicians were picked from various other bands, f.i. the orchestra at Scala Theatre. This cabaret band had its debut in March 1934, featuring many of our best jazz musicians.
In the meantime, four young musicians had started the first edition of "Funny Boys" (1932-34). This band performed at Røde Mølle and Skansen. The jazz audience had by this time had its first encounter with musicians representing hot music, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Harlem Band, November 1933. The band was met with mixed reactions, but was partly responsible for the start of a heavy debate on what was "real hot" and what was not - which created boundary lines between those "in" and those "out".
The first half of the thirties also created an incentive towards a better understanding
of jazz among the more generally interested music audience. This genuine interest
in jazz had in other European countries already resulted in the Danish Jazz
Music Society (31), Hot Club de France (32), and British Rhythm Club (33). Books
and magazines on jazz were on the market - there was no excuse for not being
informed.
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Willie Vieth’s Kaba orchestra, 1934. From the left: Gunnar Sønstevold, Julle Ellensen, Per Bruun-Lie, Finn Westbye, Svein Øvergaard, Kalle Engstrøm, Karsten Larsen, Willie Vieth, Yngvar Wang and Karoly Farkas.
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The last half of the thirties opened with a Norwegian success abroad. In December 1934, four musicians broke out of Willie Vieth's Kaba-orchestra, forming a new Funny Boys. Of these, Kalle Engstrøm, Gunnar Sønstevold and Svein Øvergaard came from the old quartet, while guitarist Finn Westbye was the new fourth member. The four of them headed south, and got enough gigs together for a total of four European tours over the first couple of years. At home in Oslo, the band played at Skansen, Merkur, Dronningen and Sisseners Bar (Kaba), making these places the jazz centres of the city as they went. Funny Boys undoubtedly became the most popuar jazzband of the capital, and was responsible for the first serious Norwegian jazz recording in 1938, towards the end of their tenure together.
Before Funny Boys there had been scattered documentations of Norwegian jazz musicians on gramophone records, but usually only in the form of short solos or jazz inspired orchestral passages in connection with recordings of popular dance music. Even among these short solo features, there is really very little of any real jazz value before 1935.
Trumpeter Willie Vieth was one of the musicians making an impression on the early, jazz-influenced recordings. He had been playing around Europe in the early thirties, with a.o. Hungarian jazz musicians. At the Kaba, he led an excellent ensemble from 34 to 36, and appeared in concerts with orchestras reinforced with additional jazz musicians. From 1936 to 1939, Vieth was musical director at the Bristol, leading an eight piece orchestra.
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Funny Boys at Sissner’s Bar in Oslo, 1938. From the left: Svein Øvergaard, Finn Westbye, Kalle Engstrøm and Gunnar Sønstevold.
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Even if the first serious jazz records had been made by Funny Boys in 1938, there had of course been serious jazz presentations before that, in concerts and on the radio. Surviving broadcast acetates from 1936 and 37 with Kristian Hauger's Radio Dance Orchestra give ample proof of this. The radio orchestra picked its musicians mainly from the Chat Noir and Scala Theatre. It became a very popular and musically rewarding ensemble, keeping it up until the fall of 1938, and being well documented in a number of popular recordings.
In Bergen, jazz musicians were suffering from the general lack of work in the mid-thirties. In order to keep themselves occupied musically, they formed a big band called "The Rhythmicans", playing concerts as well as introductions to cinema shows. Their co-leaders were trumpeter Lasse Dahl and ever-busy drummer Edgar Meyer Olsen.
The small jazz groups were also on their way up again, after a temporary "down" in the early thirties. In addition to Funny Boys came professional small bands like "Hot Kiddies" (from 1936, led by drummer Per Gregersen) and Alf Søgaard's orchestra at the Humlen Restaurant (from 36). In Trondheim, the students had given new life to their "Bodega Band", and in Oslo amateur groups like "Yankee band" and "Hot Dogs" gained popularity.
Jazz was by now a "serious" form of music. Authentic jazz recordings were far easier to get hold of, and "hot music" as well as "rhythm music" were objects of detailed studies. In 1936 , "rhythm clubs" were organized in Oslo and Trondheim, the year after saw the formation of the Norwegian Rhythm Club Association.
Europe had become an important market for American musicians, who either went
on tours from the USA, or settled down for some years, preferrably in Paris.
Coleman Hawkins was one of them, visiting Oslo in May 1935 with his "lush
golden saxophone", playing at the Bristol under the leadership of conductor
Willy Johansen. Pianist in the band was the young Robert Levin, who later became
one of Europe's top classical accompanists, playing and touring with luminaries
like Isaac Stern and Yehudi Menuhin. Almost two years were to pass before the
next big "name" visit: Jimmie Lunceford and his orchestra in February
1937. From then on, however, jazz enthusiasts could quite often sport their
finest gear in order to be properly dressed for a concert by some of their world
famous idols.
The last, hectic years of the thirties, when international politics played their dangerous games on the European continent and the arms industry was working overtime, were also the time when Norway encountered the most hectic flowering for jazz until then. The most preferred name of the game was "swing". Enthusiasts organized swing clubs all over the country, record companies issued their "swing series", and the impresario business followed suit. During the last two years before the war, Oslo had visits from Nat Gonella and his Georgians, Edgar Hayes and his Blue Rhythm Band, Leon Abbey's Swingtime 38, Fats Waller, Joe Daniels and his Hot Shots, Quintette du Hot Club de France, Mills Brothers, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, Miss Valida Snow and Sven Asmussen - just to mention some of the most important ones.
Restaurant life was blooming - negative political expectations created an upswing in other areas. In the newly opened Regnbuen restaurant, Kristian Hauger had formed a 12 piece band of competent jazz musicians, many of them former members of the radio dance orchestra. At the Humlen, Alf Søgaard still had his successful quintet, from 1939 on expanded to a sextet with former "funny boy" Kalle Engstrøm. At the Bristol, Øivind Bergh had taken charge; his 10-piece band included several jazz musicians, led on by the langurous violin of the leader.
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String Swing, ca 1940. From the left: Arild Iversen, Robert Normann, Fred Lange-Nielsen and Finn Westbye.
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The violin had through the years always been a central instrument in Norwegian "jazz". In the present golden age of jazz it had to step aside to guitar and string bass, but found an important place in the new "string swing" movement, patterned after the French hot club quintet, Joe Venuti, Sven Asmussen or Stuff Smith. Freddie Valier String Swing existed in 1938-39, recording a total of 6 sides. Arild Iversen was the violin player, with Robert Normann on solo guitar, Finn Westbye on rhythm guitar, and Fred Lange Nielsen on bass. The four of them stayed together for many years, becoming very popular in concert as well as on records, either under the leadership of Robert Normann or simply under the heading "String Swing". Pianist Gunnar Sønstevold made string swing recordings with Sven Asmussen in 1939, at the same time young violinist Frank Ottersen made his debut with "Frankie Swingers".
Robert Normann was the big soloist of the swing years before the war, an eminent musician of international class. He led several groups of his own, at the same time being engaged in "Hot Kiddies" (or Gunnar Due's quartet) at the Lido, or soloing with the band of Oslo Swing Club.
Rowland Greenberg had also started showing off his extraordinary talent in these hectic years. His main base was the "Hot Dogs", an enthusiastic swing quartet including Fren Dahl on piano, Fred Lange-Nielsen on bass and Stein Lorentzen on drums. This group was also the central core of the band of the Oslo Swing Club.
To many jazz musicians, the freelance market looked very tempting. Several swing-type bands were formed, led by Cecil Aagaard, Svein Øvergaard, Per Gregersen and Finn Westbye. Common to all of these groups were bassist Fred Lange-Nielsen, pianists Gunnar Sønstevold and Ernst Aas, and last but not least the new young phenomenon on trumpet, alto and tenor: Arvid Grahm Paulsen.
In Trondheim, former , "Hot Dog" P.A.M. Mellbye had entered the students' circles, bringing the Bodega Band to new heights. Sax colleague Harry Benjaminsen was the local swing star of the Trondheim area, and was a charter member of Jonny Røstad's fine orchestra at the hotel Müller, while at the same time also leading his own quartet.
In Bergen, the Bergen Rhythm Orchestra dominated the jazz life. Ever-active Thorleif Larsen was the one initiating the orchestra, as well as being the drummer, and several of the pals from the old "Rhythmicans" were also present: f.i. Mikal Kolstad on trombone, Frantz Espedal on sax, and Arthur Wichstad on piano.
A bit farther south, new rhythmicans had seen the light of day. In Stavanger, two bands - the Snappy Swingers and the Swing Boys - joined forces in a larger unit under the name The Rhythmicans. They just made it through their debut concert before the war hit Norway.
The outbreak of war came at a very inconvenient time for Norwegian jazz. Just then, the swing era was at its zenith - or maybe it was on its way towards an even greater flowering? No one will ever know.
Bjørn Stendahl.
Translated by Per Husby.