| I entered that
scene playing at the opening night of the jazz club Storyville in
“folkekøkkenet” in Hambroesgade, a wooden building
popularly called The Negro Hut. That was in September 1952, but the
initiative was taken by a group, who already for some years had
dedicated themselves to the revival of the original jazz. Among them
were the cornettist Gunnar Jonsson and the clarinettist Henrik
Johansen, who were the front line in the New-Orleans band that came to
bear my name and was one of the regular bands in Storyville. But the
central figure was Karl Emil. He used to be a first-class
football-player, but came down with meningitis, which left him
physically somewhat frail but never reduced his zest and initiative. He
took a special interest in our band, which contained members of the
original group. He always partook in our gatherings and sometimes
attended our rehearsals. I remember him as he always arrived in a heavy
overcoat, carrying two heavy briefcases with records and stuff, plus a
couple of newspapers stuck under his arm. At that time the only way to
learn the tunes and the way of playing was by listening to the old
78-records, many of them acoustic recordings and always thoroughly
scratched. A special kind of record was called a psychopath-record,
meaning that you could here nothing but scratch and suspect some dim
notes in the background. (It was often the dearest
possession of the collector as it could be an original Gennet from
1923.)
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Karl Emil did not have many of
those, but he had an extensive collection of all kinds of jazz-records,
which he let us use to our purpose. He also suggested numbers, we should play and commented our way of
playing them. One day he came to me and said: “I have found a
blues singer for you”. That was Lise West, who came to sing
regularly with the band. To the opening night of Storyville Jazzclub
was invited Chris Barber, who played with the popular Danish jazz-group
The Ramblers. Out of that came two 78-records Chris Barber with the Ramblers,
as far as I know the first records, which Karl Emil produced. He
then founded Storyville Records, which merged with Anders Dyrup’s
Sonet and became the
leading (maybe the only?) company that published Danish Revival Jazz..
In the beginning he recorded much of the music himself, and wherever
something interesting was going on, Karl Emil and his tape recorder
could usually be seen. When my first orchestra disbanded in 1955, Karl
Emil went with Henrik Johansen as manager of his new band, and I did
not see him so much after that time. Except in
the recording studios and in connection with visits by American
jazz-musicians which he also arranged together with Anders. But
the old friendly way with each other lasted until his death.
Adrian Bentzon May
2007
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