Nica de Koenigswarter
Encyclopedia
Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter (10 December 1913 – 30 November 1988) was a British-born jazz patroness and writer. She was a scion of the prominent Rothschild
international financial dynasty.
Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild was born in December 1913, the daughter of Charles Rothschild and the Hungarian baroness Rozsika Edle von Wertheimstein. She was born into perhaps the wealthiest family in the world. She grew up in Waddesdon Manor
, among other family houses. The name "Pannonica" (nicknamed "Nica") derives from Eastern Europe's Pannonian plain. Her friend Thelonious Monk
reported that she was named after a species of butterfly her father had discovered, although her great niece has found the source of the name is a rare kind of moth. She was a niece of Walter Rothschild
, the 2nd Baron Rothschild, and her brother Victor Rothschild
became the 3rd Baron Rothschild. (According to thepeerage.com, she was granted the rank of the daughter of a baron on 15 March 1938.) Her elder sister Dame Miriam Rothschild was a distinguished scientist and zoologist.
In 1935 she married French diplomat Baron Jules de Koenigswarter
, later a Free French hero. They lived together in a château
in North-West France. She worked for Charles de Gaulle
during World War II. The couple separated in 1951 and she moved to New York City, renting a suite at the Hotel Stanhope on Fifth Avenue. As a result of their separation, Pannonica was disinherited by her family, the Rothschilds. The couple eventually divorced in 1956. In 1958, she purchased a house with a Manhattan skyline view, that was built for film director Josef von Sternberg
at 63 Kingswood Road in Weehawken, NJ.
and Charlie Parker
among others. Following Parker's death in her Stanhope rooms in 1955, Koenigswarter was asked to leave by the hotel management; she re-located to the Bolivar Hotel at 230 Central Park West, a building commemorated in Thelonious Monk's 1956 tune "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are".
She was introduced to Thelonious Monk by jazz pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams
in Paris while attending the "Salon du Jazz 1954", and championed his work in the USA, writing the liner notes for his 1962 Columbia album Criss-Cross, and even took criminal responsibility when she and Monk were charged with marijuana possession by the police. After Monk ended his public performances he retired to Nica's house in Weehawken, New Jersey
and died there in 1982.
"Nica's Tempo
", Sonny Clark's
"Nica", Horace Silver's
"Nica's Dream", Kenny Dorham's
"Tonica", Kenny Drew's
"Blues for Nica", Freddie Redd's
"Nica Steps Out", Barry Harris's
"Inca", Tommy Flanagan's "Thelonica" and Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica" were all named after her. The San Francisco art rock band Oxbow
released a recording entitled "Pannonica" name checking Koenigswarter (unrelated to the Thelonius Monk composition) with reissues of their 1991 album King of the Jews.
Her photographies were exposed in 2007 at Rencontres d'Arles festival (France).
in the 1988 Clint Eastwood
film Bird
. In the Eastwood-produced film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser
(1988) she is seen in library footage and heard in an interview.
. It was released in the U.S. on HBO
on November 25, 2009.
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
international financial dynasty.
Personal
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...
, among other family houses. The name "Pannonica" (nicknamed "Nica") derives from Eastern Europe's Pannonian plain. Her friend Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
reported that she was named after a species of butterfly her father had discovered, although her great niece has found the source of the name is a rare kind of moth. She was a niece of Walter Rothschild
Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild FRS , a scion of the Rothschild family, was a British banker, politician, and zoologist.-Biography:...
, the 2nd Baron Rothschild, and her brother Victor Rothschild
Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild
Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, GBE, GM, FRS was a biologist by training, a cricketer and a member of the prominent Rothschild family...
became the 3rd Baron Rothschild. (According to thepeerage.com, she was granted the rank of the daughter of a baron on 15 March 1938.) Her elder sister Dame Miriam Rothschild was a distinguished scientist and zoologist.
In 1935 she married French diplomat Baron Jules de Koenigswarter
Baron Jules de Koenigswarter
Lt.-Col. Baron Jules de Koenigswarter , was a French soldier and diplomat.He was the son of Baron Louis de Koenigswarter. He studied at the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, becoming a civil engineer and diplomat by profession...
, later a Free French hero. They lived together in a château
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
in North-West France. She worked for Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
during World War II. The couple separated in 1951 and she moved to New York City, renting a suite at the Hotel Stanhope on Fifth Avenue. As a result of their separation, Pannonica was disinherited by her family, the Rothschilds. The couple eventually divorced in 1956. In 1958, she purchased a house with a Manhattan skyline view, that was built for film director Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
at 63 Kingswood Road in Weehawken, NJ.
Jazz
In New York, she became a friend and patron of many prominent jazz musicians, hosting jam sessions in her hotel suite. She is sometimes referred to as the "bebop baroness" or "jazz baroness" because of her patronage of Thelonious MonkThelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
among others. Following Parker's death in her Stanhope rooms in 1955, Koenigswarter was asked to leave by the hotel management; she re-located to the Bolivar Hotel at 230 Central Park West, a building commemorated in Thelonious Monk's 1956 tune "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are".
She was introduced to Thelonious Monk by jazz pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Williams wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records...
in Paris while attending the "Salon du Jazz 1954", and championed his work in the USA, writing the liner notes for his 1962 Columbia album Criss-Cross, and even took criminal responsibility when she and Monk were charged with marijuana possession by the police. After Monk ended his public performances he retired to Nica's house in Weehawken, New Jersey
Weehawken, New Jersey
Weehawken is a township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 12,554.-Geography:Weehawken is part of the New York metropolitan area...
and died there in 1982.
Legacy
There are numerous compositions in her honour. Gigi Gryce'sGigi Gryce
Gigi Gryce was an American saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, educator, and big band bandleader.His performing career was relatively short and, in comparison to other musicians of his...
"Nica's Tempo
Nica's Tempo
Nica's Tempo is an album by Gigi Gryce recorded in 1955. The title track is a reference to Nica de Koenigswarter aka "The Bebop Baroness" or "The Jazz Baroness," a patron of jazz greats such as Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.-Track listing:#"Speculation" – 4:03 #"In a...
", Sonny Clark's
Sonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an American jazz pianist who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.-Biography:...
"Nica", Horace Silver's
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
"Nica's Dream", Kenny Dorham's
Kenny Dorham
McKinley Howard Dorham was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer born in Fairfield, Texas. Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention from the jazz establishment that many of his peers did...
"Tonica", Kenny Drew's
Kenny Drew
Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:Born in New York City, New York, he first recorded with Howard McGhee in 1949, and over the next two years recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Dinah Washington...
"Blues for Nica", Freddie Redd's
Freddie Redd
Freddie Redd is an American hard bop pianist and composer.His greatest success came in the late 1950s in the play and movie The Connection, in which he both played and acted in New York City, London, and Paris. He also played on the soundtrack album...
"Nica Steps Out", Barry Harris's
Barry Harris
Barry Doyle Harris is an American bebop jazz pianist and educator.-Biography:Harris left Detroit for New York City in 1960...
"Inca", Tommy Flanagan's "Thelonica" and Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica" were all named after her. The San Francisco art rock band Oxbow
Oxbow (band)
Oxbow is a long-lived Avant-Garde band out of San Francisco, California notable for a unique sound. Oxbow plays a blend of Noise rock, Avant-garde jazz, Musique concrète , and Blues, creating soundscapes caustic, or plangent, with overtones of paranoia, revulsion, exaltation.-Current line-up:*Dan...
released a recording entitled "Pannonica" name checking Koenigswarter (unrelated to the Thelonius Monk composition) with reissues of their 1991 album King of the Jews.
Literature
In October 2006 the French company Buchet Chastel published Nica's book Les musiciens de jazz et leurs trois vœux (The Jazz Musicians and their Three Wishes). Compiled between 1961 and 1966, it is a book of interviews with 300 musicians who told her what their "three wishes" would be, and is accompanied by her Polaroid photographs. The book was edited for publication by Nadine de Koenigswarter, whom Nica always introduced to people as her granddaughter but was in fact her great-niece. An English-language version has appeared in paperback as Three Wishes: an Intimate Look at Jazz Greats.Her photographies were exposed in 2007 at Rencontres d'Arles festival (France).
Death
Koenigswarter died in 1988, aged 74. She had five children, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.Film
Nica was played by Diane SalingerDiane Salinger
Diane Louise Salinger is an American actress, voice actress, and comedienne.-Filmography:* Creature as Melanie Bryce * Pee-wee's Big Adventure as Simone * The Morning After as Isabel Harding...
in the 1988 Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
film Bird
Bird (1988 film)
Bird is a 1988 American biographical film, produced and directed by Clint Eastwood of a screenplay written by Joel Oliansky. The film is a tribute to the life and music of jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker...
. In the Eastwood-produced film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser is a documentary about the life of Thelonious Monk. Produced by Clint Eastwood, Bruce Ricker, and directed/co-produced by Charlotte Zwerin, it features live performances by Monk and his group, and posthumous interviews with friends and family...
(1988) she is seen in library footage and heard in an interview.
Radio
The Jazz Baroness, a radio documentary profile of Nica, written and directed by her great-niece Hannah Rothschild, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 12 February 2008.Television
In April, 2009, a BBC television portrait entitled, like the previous radio programme, The Jazz Baroness was broadcast on the television channel BBC FourBBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
. It was released in the U.S. on HBO
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...
on November 25, 2009.
Sources
- Kastin, David (2006). "Nica's Story: the Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness," Popular Music & Society, Volume 29, Number 3, July, 2006, pp. 279–298
- Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (1996) "The Daily Telegraph Book of Obituaries: a Celebration of Eccentric Lives." London: Pan