Swing Under the Nazis: Jazz as a Metaphor for Freedom

by Mike Zwerin

For a brief time in a Europe threatened and then occupied by Nazi Germany, jazz was heard as ubiquitously as rock ' n' roll is today. In a personal search for the story of that time, Mike Zwerin spent two years traveling across Europe talking with individuals who performed and enjoyed jazz in Hitler's dark shadow, including the Ghetto Swingers, a Jewish jazz band that "toured" Auschwitz and Theresienstadt; the Luftwaffe pilot who listened to Glenn Miller while bombing London; Django Reinhardt, the brilliant guitarist who refused to flee Nazi-controlled France; and many others.

Genres: Music, History, Jazz, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este ensayo sobre el Swing y el Jazz en la Europa ocupada por los nazis es mucho más de lo que parece. Comienza siendo un repaso a cómo la música y los músicos sobrevivieron a la prohibición para convertirse en la exaltación de una música que ha representado la libertad en otros regímenes totalitarios como la Sudáfrica del apartheid o los países del bloque del Este.

El texto está plagado de anécdotas, muchas veces personales del propio Zwerin, que convierte la estructura del texto en una improvisación. Entre los bloques dedicados al jazz en los diferentes países, los bolos que se hacían, la difusión periodística, las adaptaciones para sobrevivir, aparece uno inesperado que, mientras va y viene entre ellos, domina la segunda parte del libro: la vida y obra de Django Reinhardt, el guitarrista gitano que es el único europeo en el panteón de la Edad de Oro del jazz. Aunque esta manera de enfocar Swing frente al nazi refuerza las ideas que está contando, y da pie a un estilo fresco entre lo periodístico y lo autobiográfico, con abundantes gotas de sarcasmo, en ocasiones Zwerin se pierde y da lugar a digresiones que se van un poco de madre. Después recupera, pero las transiciones terminan siendo hachazos que se podrían haber reducido levemente.

[Diego Moral Pombo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un poco caótico, como la música en torno a la que gira pero sobre la que a veces no parece muy centrado. En su lugar divaga sobre el papel del arte bajo una dictadura, con sus contradicciones y sus hipocresías. En ese sentido no juzga demasiado a los personajes que van saliendo en sus páginas, pero sí reflexiona sobre ellos y las anécdotas que cuenta tienen un humor negro bastante fino a menudo. En la segunda mitad se vuelve una especie de biografía algo deshilachada, aunque interesante, de Django Reinhardt.

[Smoothfin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author starts off with a great idea, "Jazz as a Metaphor for Freedom", and the book does support this for the most part, covering a narrow slice of life in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied western Europe. But the author also seems to be struggling with some sort of internal crisis that's making him lose weight, why I don't know. I think it was because he found the task of writing a book so stressful, but why it should be so stressful is beyond my comprehension. It's not like he was writing in wartime, or suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, so his weight-loss and other emotional issues seem a bit silly. It was just a book about jazz and jazz musicians and aficionados dealing with suppression under the Nazis after all. His chapter on South Africa initially struck me as a pretty far stretch, but he ultimately makes the case of jazz there as being the metaphor for freedom. His chapter on the Zazous starts off great but suddenly degenerates into what seemed to me to be incomprehensible babble. I have no idea what he was going on about, and it pretty much ruined the chapter. I think maybe his editor just didn't bother to read that part. If the book ended halfway through that chapter, it would have been a better read. BUT! there is stuff in here that's worth reading, and I think the concept itself is a good one. The chapters on Django Reinhardt are good (anything about Django Reinhardt is fun reading).

[Jim Willse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I hoped for. It's a meandering, reflective assortment of half-formed thoughts, interviews and bits of history, most satisfyingly of Django Reinhardt. Disappointing.

[ProofProfessor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this and learned a huge amount as well as enjoying it. Really quirky style, too.