{"id":12289,"date":"2023-02-22T15:49:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T14:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/?p=12289"},"modified":"2023-02-22T16:24:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T15:24:18","slug":"post-von-doc-cheatham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/post-von-doc-cheatham\/","title":{"rendered":"Mail from Doc Cheatham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gerhard Conrad wurde 1929 im polnischen Szamocin geboren. Nach dem Krieg arbeitete er eine Weile als Lehrer in der N\u00e4he von Leipzig, floh aber Anfang der 1950er Jahre nach Westdeutschland und lie\u00df sich in Menden nieder. Neben seiner Arbeit als Lehrer ist er Jazzforschern vor allem durch seine Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen bekannt, die er im eigenen Verlag „Der Jazzfreund“ herausbrachte, und in denen er immer wieder ein Schlaglicht auch auf die Jazzszene im Osten Deutschlands und in anderen L\u00e4ndern hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang warf. Dazu geh\u00f6ren Bio-Discographien etwa von Kurt Henkels Heinz Wehner oder\u00a0 Walter Dobschinski, aber auch die mehrb\u00e4ndige „Discographie der Jazz- und Semijazzaufnahmen im Bereich der heutigen Volksdemokratien“ (1982-1991). Conrad verstarb im Jahr 2016.<\/p>\n

Conrad was in regular contact with the Jazzinstitut and often sent packages of books, records, programs, photographs, postcards, and letters he had received from musicians around the world. In the mid-1960s, for example, he corresponded with trumpeter Doc Cheatham, whom he quizzed in particular about Rex Stewart, with whom Cheatam had worked in McKinney's Cotton Pickers in the early 1930s. Conrad asks whether he feels that Stewart is underestimated, and Cheatham says that he is not, he has always been seen as one of the greats, it's just that he has been living in Los Angeles for a while, but the music is played in New York. California, writes Cheatham, is certainly nice to live in, but musically it's more of a cemetary. Ben Webster recently warned him to move to the West Coast if he wanted to continue making music.<\/p>\n

Er w\u00fcrde gern in Deutschland spielen, schreibt Cheatham in einem weiteren Brief, aber angesichts des Rock ’n‘ Roll-Craze h\u00e4tten Jazzmusiker wie er es schwer. Louis Armstrong gehe es gl\u00fccklicherweise gut, merkt er an, ansonsten sei das Jazzleben in New York schwierig, selbst das Birdland sei zu einer Diskothek geworden, nur am Montag g\u00e4be es dort noch Jam Sessions. New Orleans-Musik, schreibt er, sei eine wundersch\u00f6ne und ernsthafte Kunstform, leider f\u00fchlten sich zahlreiche Bands zurzeit gen\u00f6tigt, diese Musik eher als Burlesque-Persiflage aufzuf\u00fchren, mit lustigen H\u00fcten und \u00e4hnlichem Klimbim. Er selbst habe gerade einen Gig im Eddie Condon’s Club auf der 56th Street\u00a0 mit der Max Kaminsky Band.<\/p>\n

His last letter is dated May 1966. Things are going better, he writes, hence the long pause in correspondence. Right now he was playing a concert with Juanita Hall, then a TV show, plus gigs with Machito's band. It's hard to plan because Juanita Hall doesn't know yet if she wants to continue the show, so they \"have to hustle\". Ah, the pen is acting bad, so excuse this scratching. OK, Conrad, let me hear from you again soon. As ever, Doc Cheatham.<\/p>\n

Doc Cheatham, Brief an Gerhard Conrad, 9. September 1964<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Doc Cheatham, Brief an Gerhard Conrad, 28. September 1964<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Doc Cheatham, Brief an Gerhard Conrad, 27. Januar 1965<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Doc Cheatham, Brief an Gerhard Conrad, 20. April 1965<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Doc Cheatham, Brief an Gerhard Conrad, 26. Juli 1966<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Doc Cheatham, Brief an Gerhard Conrad, 27. M\u00e4rz 1966<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Download der Briefe als PDF-Datei
\n<\/strong>(please click on the image)<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gerhard Conrad wurde 1929 im polnischen Szamocin geboren. Nach dem Krieg arbeitete er eine Weile als Lehrer in der N\u00e4he von Leipzig, floh aber Anfang der 1950er Jahre nach Westdeutschland … Continue reading Mail from Doc Cheatham<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12289"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12315,"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12289\/revisions\/12315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jazzinstitut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}