username:

password:

 
 Songs
 Albums
 Diggers
 Comments
 Blogwalls
 About
 Email Me

445,329 Albums + 604,843 Individual Songs
Send
Send
 
 
Descriptions

Belgian Wartime Jazz : "At the Woodchopper's Ball"...Gene Dersin (1942)


Playing Next: Chick Webb - If Dreams Come True (Ella Fitzgerald)
Random Page  /  Random Song


Please activate the HD function(1080p/720p) before watching the video or watch it with a larger type player (in 480p).

The darkest years of the 20th century ironically were the golden age of Belgian big bands and jazz musicians - who were reknowed thorughout Europe. Then the banning of American and English music and records duirng the Second World War led to a boom in orchestras and recordings. The \"big three\" bandleaders were of course Stan Brenders, Fud Candrix and Jean Omer who were already known before the outtbreak of the war. There were many more however who either played in these orchestras or had their own band.

Today's video features one of these musicians : Gène Dersin. The recording in question is the jazz standard \"At the woodchopper's ball\" - composed in 1939. Dersin's version was recorded in 1942 and due to the ban on English sounding titles the title was literally translated in to French. This was a common practice used to milsead the censors who would otherwise ban the records. It was also widely used in Germany where - contrary to popular belief - English and American titles were still played in public and recorded but with Germanised titles. The examples of Tiger Rag / Schwarzer Panther or Metro Stomp/ U-Bahn Fox are widely known.

Belgium produced many interesting records during the Second World War - most famous perhaps are the recordings made by Django Reinhardt (with Stan Brenders, Fud Candrix and Ivon de Die) for the Rythme record label. Unfortunately these recordings are often marred by the poor quality of the records which were made of recycled schellac (according to some sources even cardboard was used in the mix). Usually the records play badly or are extremely used and thus a frustration for many a record collector. Suffise to say that digitalzing them is a bit of a nightmare.

This Olympia release is one of those rare ones that look quite bad yet play surprisingly well. It won't win any beauty contests but it is a great version of this classic. Fud Candrix also recorded a version for Telefunken in 1940. The flip side of the Dersin record is the Candrix-Deloof composition \"Riffin' at the Arena\" which became \"Dans l'arène\".

About the record:

Olympia
D 7016 / mx. 16 163

Brussels
1942

The record in quite bad condition

This record was recorded with a Grado 78E cartridge and stylus. The restoration was done as truthfully as possible.


© 2021 Basing IT