Dutch Blue Jazz Ladies: She Could Play That Horn!

Hollandse damesorkesten met Clara de Vries en Annie van't Zelfde (Nederlands) Dutch Ladies Bands with Clara De Vries and Annie Van 't Zelfde ( English) Hollandse damesorkesten - Blue Jazz Ladies (Nederlands) Dutch Blue Jazz Ladies: She Could Play That Horn ( English)

Annie Van't Zelfde and Clara De Vries
DUTCH BLUE JAZZ LADIES: She Could Play That Horn!
Hans Koert

Dancebands were in the pre war years very popular in the Netherlands and a band with only ladies was top of the bill, maybe because the emancipation of women was still in its infancy. Both Clara de Vries and Annie van't Zelfde were popular women musicians, who played jazzy dance music, in stead of the light-classical repertoire of their colleagues who played walzes, tango's and Wiener songs. In a previous blog, entitled Dutch Ladies Bands with Clara De Vries and Annie Van't Zelfde I wrote about this early period too.

Pschorr in Rotterdam during the 1930s

Early 1930s Clara became a member of the Blue Jazz Ladies directed by Leo Selinsky and this band became extreme popular. Also Annie Van 't Zelfde became one of the members of the band. She played the tenor saxophone. In The Netherlands they played at dancings like Pschorr in Rotterdam and in Heck's Lunchroom in Amsterdam or The Hague. Annie told, that she sometimes played swinging jazz music, although not part of their repertoire, when the boss was not in the house ....... and the musicians and the audience liked it and became crazy. Clara De Vries ( 1918 - 1943)

Both Clara as Annie played in several girls-bands like the Wiener Jazz Ladies, in which she had to play the light-classical repertoire. In 1935 Clara De Vries founded her own band, the Jazz-Ladies, with female artists like Annie Van 't Zelfde on tenor saxophone and piano and Mickey Bezemer on reeds and cello, to name another colleague. It's a short-lived band. Annie remembers Clara as a very good trumpet player. It is said that Louis Armstrong even remembered Clara 30 years later. To quote the late Arie van Breda in his great hand book "100 jaar" Jazz in Den Haag - het New Orleans van de Lage Landen ( p. 156): Louis should have said: That Louis De Vries, he had a sister Clara with a ladies-band. Oh boy, she could play that horn! ( p. 156)Lunchroom Heck in The Hague ( 1920sg)

Clara gets a place in the orchestra of her brother, the Jack De Vries Internationals for some years. In 1937 the Jazz-Ladies is re-founded and they played at gigs in Mephisto in Rotterdam. On the 12th of July 1937 they even accompanied Coleman Hawkins. Jac. Papier, the manager of Mephisto, renamed Annie as Annie The Same, a literally translation of her family name. In 1938 Annie and Clara played in the Rosian Ladies, a damesorkest directed by accordion player Ro Hakker. They played at Heck's Lunchroom in Rotterdam.

Annie Van't Zelfde ( 1913 - 2002)
Annie Van 't Zelfde was born in Rotterdam May 1913 and passed away in June 2002, 89 years old. She studied at the conservatory of Rotterdam piano and in the early 1930s she changed to the clarinet and alto saxophone, thanks to a concert by the American dance band of Babe Eagan. In the 1930s she played in several all-girl bands together with her friend Clara De Vries. From 1939 up to 1946 she had her own band, entitled The Swing Stars. During the war she continued playing, like in the Otto Hendricks Zondagmiddagcabaret ( = Sunday morning cabaret). In the post war period she still played, in her 80s, at City Corner in Rotterdam. I remember to have heard her playing once in the 1970s or 1980s at the Doelenplein in Rotterdam, together with the Willem Breuker Kollektief. Can someone show me pictures from these events?
Evelyn Novacek - One of the numerous musical women of the 1930s and 1940s. Ad for Evelyn Novacek at Heck's City Lunchroom in Rotterdam.(source:http://www.evelynnovacek.web-log.nl/ )
In a tv-documentary, entitled Sweet and hot Music - Nederlandse damesorkesten uit de jaren ‘30 by Netty van Hoorn, Annie remembers Clara De Vries. In September 1942 she received a farewell letter from her friend Klaartje ( = Clara), who writes that she believes to be picked up soon by the Germans to be transported to an internment camp - a very emotional passage of the film.
Amsterdam - Heck's Lunchroom at the Rembrandts square
In the film six women remember there years in show biz during the 1930s and 1940s: Annie Van ’t Zelfde, piano, saxophone and clarinet; Juultje Cambre, trumpet and vocal, Mickey Besemer, saxophone, clarinet and cello; Hannie Rutgers, drums; Florentine Peuschgens, violin and Duifje Walvis, better known as Rita Del Vano, violin.
Rita Del Vano ( aka Duifje Walvis) en haar Solisten Dames Ensemble. (1930s)
Thanks to Piet Van 't Zelfde, who pointed me to the Sweet and Hot Music documentary by Netty Van Hoorn ( in Dutch). It can beordered at her website. and to Sarah De Vries for her support. Sources: Heb je wel gehoord van Clara de Vries by Hans Langeweg ( Dr. Jazz magazine 71 p. 25 - 29) - Heb je wel gehoord van Annie van 't Zelfde by Hans Langeweg (Dr. Jazz Magazine 72. p. 8 - 12) - Annie van't Zelfde ( NJA Bulletin 45 p. 18-19)

Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl

Dancebands were popular in The Netherlands during the pre-war years and especially all-women bands, damesorkesten, drew full house. Clara De Vries and Annie Van't Zelfde were two popular musicians who played jazzy dance music. Others played only in the light-classical repertoire of walzes, polka's and Wiener Songs. Netty Van Hoorn, a Dutch film maker, produced a documentary about this period. Keep Swinging saw it for you. If you don't want to miss any contribution, please ask for its news letter.


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Dutch Ladies Bands with Clara De Vries and Annie Van't Zelfde

Hollandse damesorkesten met Clara de Vries en Annie van't Zelfde (Nederlands) Dutch Ladies Bands with Clara De Vries and Annie Van 't Zelfde ( English) Hollandse damesorkesten - Blue Jazz Ladies (Nederlands) Dutch Blue Jazz Ladies: She Could Play That Horn ( English)

..... free coffee, tea and fresch drinks!
DUTCH LADIES BANDS with CLARA DE VRIES and ANNIE VAN'T ZELFDE
Hans Koert

When you are a regular visitor of jazz clubs or festivals you know that Jazz seems to be a predominant male activity. Most jazz musicians are male and if female artists are part of the band, they happen to be the vocalist ......... Of course, I know, there are lot of exceptions that proves the rule ............ The same conclusions can be drawn for the entirely light music scene, as it seems. Women-instrumentalists seem to be rare species, but what about a complete orchestra with women-instrumentalists! That must be very very rare ......... During the 1930's and 1940s those All-Girl bands or Ladies bands, were very popular among the general public.

Babe Egan and her Hollywood Redheads ( 1932-1933) ( photo: Doctor Jazz Magazine nr. 73)

Some of you will have heard of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the Hour of Charm All Girl Orchestra, directed by Phil Spitalny or from Ina Ray Hutton who directed an All-Girl band entitled the Melodears.
Enjoy an old Soundie (1936), for the youngster amoung us, a kind of video clip avant la lettre, entitled Accent on Girls in which you can see Ina Ray Hutton directing her Melodears in the song Blues in the Groove.

Annie van 't Zelfde ( also known as Annie The Same) ( 1913 -2002) ( photo: Annie van't Zelfde archive from Doctor Jazz Magazine nr. 73)
I found a nice book about these All-Girl bands entitled Take-Off - American All-Girl Bands During WWII written by Tonya Bolden (2007). It has a CD enclosed with most Ina Rae Hutton and Sweetheart of Rhythm recordings.

All-Girl bands were not a pure American phenomenon - also in The Netherlands we had numerous All-Girl orchestras, although most are now completely forgotten. Damesorkesten (All-Girl bands), were very popular during the first half of the Twentieth Century in The Netherlands.

Clara de Vries and her Jazzladies ( The Hague - 1935) (from Doctor Jazz Magazine nr. 71)

Most damesorkesten played Tango's, waltzes, polka's and the Wiener repertoire, but when in the 1930s bands like Babe Egan and her Hollywood Redheads, an All-Girl orchestra, visited The Netherlands early 1933, All-Girl bands, that played jazzy dance music, became popular. Some well known women instrumentalists, who played that kind of swinging dance music were Clara De Vries and Annie Van't Zelfde. Annie Van 't Zelfde started to play the saxophone when she heard Babe Egan's band, and together with Clara she started to play jazz or jazz-related music. Juultje Cambre, Mickey Besemer, Hannie Rutgers, Florentine Peuschgens and Rita Dalvano played all kinds of styles - also jazzy dance music, but the regular stuff was in the light-classical or light music. In a Dutch documentary, produced in 1989, made by Netty Van Hoorn, entitled Sweet and Hot Music - Nederlandse damesorkesten uit de jaren ‘30 they are well portraited as the last surviving 1930s artists that played in that kind of Dutch ladies bands. ( More about that in the next contribution)
Pschorr - Rotterdam ( 1930s)

Clara de Vries was born in Schoonhoven, a small city near Gouda, on the last day of 1918 and became a well known trumpet player. She got lessons from her father, who directed several brass bands and was a younger sister of Louis and Jack De Vries, who became well known musicians too. Louis, nicknamed The Dutch Armstrong, also played the trumpet in the Excellos Five, a band that was recorded in the mid 1920s in Berlin. Later he played in the band of his brother Jack. Jack, who played the bass and sousaphone (and sometimes trombone ) became a band leader and one of his bands was named Jack en Louis' International Band. Clara became a member of the Blue Jazz Ladies directed by Leo Selinsky in the early 1930s and this band seems to have been very popular - it played, except in The Netherlands, in Berlin, Stuttgart, Essen, Prague and München-Gladbach.
Vlissingsche Courant ( 2nd of June, 1932) (source: KrantenbankZeeland)

In June 1932 the band played at the Moeder en Kind Beurs ( = Mother and Child fair), a kind of home fair in Amsterdam and they seem to have been a very popular attraction. In a giant ad their concerts were promoted. The Vlissingsche Courant, a regional news paper, reads on the 2nd of June, 1932: Reusachtige Weensche tuin met het beroemde damesorkest The Blue Jazz Ladies. (= A giant Wiener garden with the famous ladies band The Blue Jazz Ladies.) Geopend tot 1 uur. (= Open up to 1 a.m.) Dansmuziek tot 12 uur. (= Dance music up to midnight ) 2 Dansvloeren ( = Two dance floors). Schitterende Show op het tooneel.(= A great show on stage). Gratis koffie, thee en frissche dranken.(= Free coffee, tea and fresh drinks). The editor makes objections against this ......... : Is dat alles niet écht iets voor Moeder en Kind, - dansen en gratis drinken? ( = Is this really someting for Moeder en Kind? Dancing and free drinks?) Bèl, bèl 't is toch!

In the second part more about the Dutch ladies bands of the 1930s in Dutch Blue Jazz Ladies: She Could Play That Horn

Thanks to Piet Van 't Zelfde, who pointed me to the Sweet and Hot Music documentary. Sources: Heb je wel gehoord van Clara de Vries by Hans Langeweg ( Dr. Jazz magazine 71 p. 25 - 29) - Heb je wel gehoord van Annie van 't Zelfde by Hans Langeweg (Dr. Jazz Magazine 72. p. 8 - 12) - Annie van't Zelfde ( NJA Bulletin 45 p. 18-19)

It's a pity that no film or audio fragments have survived from these great Dutch instrumentalists, but you can find numerous fragments of US All-Girls bands on YouTube. So I love to share with you a fragment from a concert by the The Ingenious playing The Tiger Rag(1929)

Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl

During the 1930s ladies bands were very popular in The Netherlands. Most bands played light classical music, Wiener songs and waltzes, polka's and tango's. Clara De Vries and Annie Van 't Zelfde played a more swinging repertoire, inspired by American All-Girl bands that had visited Europe. They became very popular and played in venues like Heck's Lunchroom and Pschorr in Rotterdam, but their music, which was never recorded, is now complete forgotten. Keep Swinging loves to point you to that part of the music history. If you don't want to miss any contribution, ask for its free newsletter.




Retrospect
Oscar Aleman Choro Music Flexible Records Hit of the Week-Durium Friends of the Keep Swinging blog Keep Swinging Contributions