Ernst van 't Hoff (13 July 1908 – 17 May 1955) was a Dutch

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, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

pianist and bandleader. Ernst Van 't Hoff was born on 13 July 1908 in

Zandvoort Zandvoort () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach. It is bordered by coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park and the Amsterdam ...

, Netherlands. He played with his own orchestra in the late 1920s, and in 1934 joined

Robert De Kers Robert De Keersmaeker, better known as Robert De Kers (August 10, 1906, Antwerp - January 16, 1987, Brussels) was a Belgian jazz trumpeter and bandleader. Kers learned to play piano as a child, and began playing jazz with local musicians while in h ...

's orchestra. In 1936 he worked with

Jean Omer Jean Omer (September 9, 1912, Nivelles – May 30, 1994, Brussels) was a Belgian jazz reedist and bandleader. Omer played violin before switching to clarinet and saxophone, playing with local groups in Strassburg and Brussels. He worked in France ...

, then played in the dance orchestra of the

Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broad ...

under Hans Mossel. In 1940, after the Netherlands became Nazi-occupied territory, van 't Hoff was ordered to start a big band to play state-approved dance music, but he played some jazz anyway, recording songs such as "

Pennsylvania 6-5000 PEnnsylvania 6-5000 is a telephone number in New York City, written in the 2L+5N (two letters, five numbers) format that was common from about 1930 into the 1960s. The number is best known from the 1940 hit song " Pennsylvania 6-5000", a swing j ...

" and "

In the Mood "In the Mood" is a popular big band-era jazz standard recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. "In the Mood" is based on the composition "Tar Paper Stomp" by Wingy Manone. The first recording under the name "In the Mood" was released by E ...

".Wim van Eyle, "Ernst van 't Hoff". '' 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 U ...

. He recorded for

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

and played at the Delphi Palast in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, but in 1942 he was chastened by the

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

for playing

degenerate music Degenerate music (german: Entartete Musik, link=no, ) was a label applied in the 1930s by the government of Nazi Germany to certain forms of music that it considered harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concerns about degenerate music were a ...

. He was repeatedly taken into custody by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and eventually, in April 1944, was dismissed from his post and moved back to Belgium. Once Allied troops had retaken western Europe, he began playing for American servicemen. He disbanded his group in 1946, but formed a new group in 1951, which played in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, and another in 1953 which played at the

Ancienne Belgique Ancienne Belgique ( French for "Old Belgium") is a concert hall for contemporary music in Brussels, Belgium. Located in the historic heart of Brussels, it is one of the leading concert venues in Belgium, hosting a wide variety of international and ...

. He died of a sudden

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

on 17 May 1955 in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vant Hoff, Ernst Dutch jazz bandleaders Dutch jazz pianists 1908 births 1955 deaths 20th-century pianists