Bernard Etté (September 13, 1898, in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

– September 26, 1973, in

Mühldorf Mühldorf am Inn (, ; Central Bavarian: ''Muihdorf am Inn'') is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Mühldorf (district), district Mühldorf on the river Inn (river), Inn. It is located at , and had a population of ab ...

) was a German

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and light music violinist and conductor. Etté was the son of a

hairdresser A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A hairdresser may also be re ...

and studied music formally at the Louis Spohr Conservatory in

. He initially worked with Carl Robrecht as an instrumentalist, playing piano and banjo in addition to violin. In the early 1920s he assembled his own ensemble, which took up a residency in Berlin and performed on radio in the early 1920s. The group also recorded in the 1920s, often with traveling American musicians."Bernard Etté". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed.

Barry Kernfeld Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians. Education In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at ...

. During the 1930s, as the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

rose to power, Etté shifted away from jazz to light music, leading a large orchestra; during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he played for wounded soldiers on behalf of the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt in 1940 and for prison overseers at

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

in 1944. After the war, he moved to the United States and attempted a new career, but was unsuccessful in adapting to new stylistic trends. He returned to Germany, leading bands for luxury retreats in the

East Frisian Islands The East Frisian Islands (, ; ; ) are a chain of islands in the North Sea, off the coast of East Frisia in Lower Saxony, Germany. The islands extend for some from west to east between the mouths of the Ems and Jade / Weser rivers and lie about ...

and schlager and

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

backing bands in central Germany. By the end of the 1950s he had quit actively playing music, and lived out his last years in an old folk's home.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ette, Bernard German jazz bandleaders German conductors (music) German male conductors (music) 1898 births 1973 deaths 20th-century German violinists 20th-century German male musicians German male jazz musicians