Tanzorchester Emil Ludvik: Kongress Der Tänzer [written by Ludvik, Czech original title: \"Sjezd Swingařů\"]
Esta C 38018 (Mx. No.: 3678)
Prague, September 25, 1941
Apart from Ultraphon's remainders in Czechoslovakia and France, Esta was the second important Czech label in WWII. After Bohemia and Moravia had been occupied by the Nazis, the company began to release many Estas with translations of Czech titles (or even German dance numbers) and artist credits. As far as I know, they were not being distributed in the \"Altreich\", but rather in the Sudeten German part of the Czech governorate. This had probably to do with the comparatively hot swing music, or, even more, with the Nazis' initial difficulties to clarify the situation of all the involved jewish and half-jewish musicians, or even to trace their ancestry (The Bohemians were deemed as \"racially almost as good as Germans\", but how to evaluate Czech-Jewish mixtures?)
Ludvik's arranger / trumpeter was the fabulous Fritz Weiss, and he was jewish. Using aliases and clever camouflage, Weiss managed to stay with the Ludvik band up to December 1941, when he was deported to the ghetto in Terezin. During his imprisonment in the \"town the Fuehrer had donated to the Jews\" he founded the legendary \"Ghetto Swingers\" (with Coco Schumann at the piano). Later he was transferred to Auschwitz, where he died in October 1944.
Accordion player Emil Ludvik (1917 - 2007) was one of the most gifted arrangers, band leaders and jazz musicians in Czechoslovakia. In 1939 he founded his first \"Hot Kvintet\", which was the hard core of his later big band. After the war, Ludvik wrote music for many Czech movies.
