Title:
Dajos Béla Tanzorchester plays tango from Berlin, 1929

Description:
DAJOS BÉLA (Leo Golzmann), violinist and a bandleader of the Weimar Republic. Born in Jewish Russian/Hungarian family in Kiev (1897), died in La Falda, Argentine (1978). As a 9 y.o. boy he gave his first violin public performance in Kiev. During WWI he was a soldier of the Tzarist army and when the war was over, he attended conservatory studies in Moscow, in the violin class of prof. prof. Michajl Press and Issay Barmas. After completing education, he left for Germany, where he started performing as violinist in the night cafes and clubs of North Berlin, using a pseudonym „Dajos Béla" (Dajos was his Hungarian mother's maiden name). It did't take long when he was invited to record his first sides for Carl Lindström Aktien Gesellschaft (labels: Odeon, Parlophon and Beka), using the nick names of Take Banescu, Arpád Városz, Jenő Fesca, Sándor Jószi) and, in following years, for Homocord label as Giorgi Vintilescu, Nicu Vladescu, or Joan Florescu for Grammophon. Also the bands he conducted had many etiquette-names: Dajos Béla Künstler-Kapelle, Dajos Béla Tanzorchester, Dajos Béla Geigen-Primas, Dajos Béla Salon-Orchester, etc. In later 1920s his orchestra -- due to the hundreds of recordings and numerous public performances, to the cosmopolitan and thirsty for international noveltes Berliner audiences, where he presented American or British hot dance jazz nubers - Dajos Béla's band becomes ex aequo with Marek Weber, Paul Godwin, Julian Fuhs, Mitja Nikisch - one of leading Berlin bands of the late 1920s/beginning 1930s. In 1927 his band becomes an international ensamble, when he employs Rex Allen as a pianist and singer, together with a phenomenal banjoist - Mike Danzi. To emphasise their cosmopolitan style, they record many international schlagers for the Odeon label as: The Odeon Five, Mac's Jazz Orchestra or Clive Williams Jazzband. In March 1933 his career is Germany is ended. Being well aware what means the Hitler's Nazi party victory in the national election, Dajos Béla never returns to Germany from his Holland tournee. Instead of Berlin, he goes to Paris, to perform in the casino „Monseigneur" and afterwards to London, to give concerts in „Palladium". After the stop in Wien, where he records music for the 1935 Tonfilm „Tanzmusik", he emigrates to Argentina. In Buenos Aires he works for Radio Splendid and Radio El Mundo, running various music programs. He also continues performing in the cafes and promenade concerts. In the 1970s he was invited to Germany by the Berlin Senate, and as a honourable guest, he visits „his" Berlin once more, and for the last time. He died in age of 80, and is buried in the Jewish cemetery La Tablada, in Buenos Aires. Recording: Dajos Béla Tanzorchester mit refraingesang - Sie seh'n heut wieder reizend aus, Gnadige Frau (Willi Engel-Berger), Odeon 1929

Author:
240252

Tags:
1920s, 78s, Berlin, German, nostalgie, Roaring, schellack, tango, Twenties, Weimar,