‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’: Afro-Danish jazz band Harlem Kiddies and discourses of race and resistance in 1940s Denmark

Abstract

In 1940, three young Afro-Danes came together to form what was to become one of the most popular swing bands in Scandinavia, the Harlem Kiddies. This essay seeks to investigate the performance and reception history of the orchestra, especially during the years of the German occupation. This essay argues that the Harlem Kiddies became double signifiers of resistance, and their performance strategies complicate and contradict essentialist notions of race, nation, and cultural identity.

Keywords:

• Denmark
• jazz
• race
• German occupation
• cultural identity
• performance

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the editors and reviewers of this essay for insightful comments and amendments along the way. I am also very grateful to the people at Little Beat Records, in particular Leif Bjerborg for sharing his knowledge and wonderful stories about the Harlem Kiddies.

A substantial part of my research material consists of primary sources collected by jazz historian Erik Wiedemann, now gathered in the Archive for Danish Jazz History (ADJH, 1920–1975) at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. However, most of these are news clippings or photocopied pages from musicians’ scrapbooks, often without details such as author, dates or pagination. For this material I have chosen to forego the in-text citation, referencing instead in the endnotes with as many details as are available, but with just a single reference to the archive in the bibliography. Also, the main source for biographic details on the lives of Timmermann and especially the Campbells is an unpublished manuscript (with no pagination), researched and written by Leif Bjerborg of Little Beat Records, on the lives of Jimmi and Jonny Campbell.

Notes

1. This and all subsequent translations from Danish by author unless otherwise noted.

2. See also Tobias Nagl's (2005) account of Afro-German actor, Louis Brody, who's career, despite the Nazi ordonance against public performances of black artists, continued to progress during the war years.

3. The Danish government deemed it prudent to collaborate with the German occupation forces in order to spare the country's resources and people, forming an official ‘Policy of Negotiation’ (Dethlefsen 1990).

4. It should be noted, however, that in the years preceding the war and for some time during the war, the Danish Broadcasting Company and the Danish Broadcasting Council were conservative bodies that were generally reluctant to admit jazz and other modern follies onto the Danish airwaves. Also, in the first months of the occupation, times were deemed too serious for frivolous entertainment and dance music (Mortensen 2010, 24–25).

5. The ban against ‘Lili Marleen’ was issued in a memorandum from the department of the public prosecutor, dated 4th February 1942 (‘Memorandum.’ 1942. [Scrapbook page] ADJH, Harlem Kiddies Folder).

6. ‘Tomhed, Tomhed, Tomhed.’ In Fædrelandet, 4 March 1942. [News clipping] ADJH, Nazismen Folder; ‘Hetzmøder omkring Sabbar-band i “Blue Heaven”.’ In Fædrelandet, 13 March 1942. [News clipping] ADJH, Nazismen Folder.

7. Albeck Freddy. 1942. ‘Stor Politisk Demonstration vid Swingkoncert.’ In Orkester Journalen, October 1942. [Newspaper clipping] ADJH, Orkester Journalen Folder.

8. This also points to the pliable or ambiguous racial identity afforded by the mixed race and light brown skin of the Campbells and Timmermann. See also Jane M. Gaines’ (2005) article on Noble Johnson and his performance in-and-out-of-race as a critique of race as a stable signifier.

9. Joseph Tchicai passed away in 1954, but before this he had another musical son in 1936, John Tchicai, who became an important modern jazz and avant-garde musician, in Denmark and abroad. According to John Tchicai, the correct spelling of his father's name was Joseph Lucianus Tschicaya (Brown et al., forthcoming).

10. Wiedemann, Erik. 1977. ‘Interview W. Kai Timmermann.’ [Cue sheet] ADJH, Kai Timmermann Folder.

11. The ‘Harlem Dancers’ was apparently a visiting show, but I have not been able to locate any further information on them. Wooding's orchestra first visited in 1925 and again in 1930–1931 as they toured in Denmark for 3 months (Wiedemann 1982, 77–81, 149–50).

12. Møller, Børge J. C. 1945. ‘Usædvanlig Jazz Koncert.’ [News clipping] ADJH, Koncerter Folder.

13. Møller, Børge J. C. 1945. ‘Danska Nyheter.’ [News clipping] ADJH, Orkester Journalen Folder.

14. ‘Kæmpejam i Forum.’ n.d. [Scrapbook page] ADJH, Koncerter Folder; Albeck, Freddy. 1941. ‘Dansk Säsongstart.’ In Orkester Journalen, October [News clipping] ADJH, Orkester Journalen Folder.

15. ‘Dansk Jazz Under Mörkläggning.’ 1943. In Estrad, December [News clipping] ADJH, Estrad Folder.

16. ‘Jazz Show i World Cinema.’ 1942. [News clipping] ADJH, Harlem Kiddies Folder.

17. Eric Lott (1993) of course has made that abundantly clear, but also Paul Gilmore's (1997) reading of William Wells Brows strategic use of minstrelsy and abolition is relevant here.

18. Albeck, Freddy. 1943. ‘Danska Nyheter.’ In Orkester Journalen, February [News clipping] ADJH, Orkester Journalen Folder.

19. Aagard, Cecil. 1940. ‘Danska Nyheter.’ In Orkester Journalen, December [News clipping] ADJH, Orkester Journalen Folder; ‘Harlem Kiddies.’ 1945. In Orkester Journalen, September [News clipping] ADJH, Orkester Journalen Folder.

20. ‘Janitshar Danner Orkester.’ In Ekstrabladet. 11 October 1940. [Scrapbook page] ADJH, Harlem Kiddies Folder.

21. ‘Mine Forfædre har spillet Tam-Tam i 50 Tusind Aar.’ 1941. [Scrapbook page] ADJH, Kai Timmermann Folder.

22. Hetch, Haagen. 1946. ‘Da Radioen kom til Verden Blev Mennesket Stumt.’ In Det Ny Radioblad, 22 November 1946. [News clipping] ADJH, Kai Timmermann Folder.

23. Her parents were both Russian Jews who separately fled to Denmark in 1906 during the 1903-06 pogroms (Rasmussen 2003).

24. German civil servants leaked information of plans to deport all Danish Jews in the fall 1943. A nationwide rescue action ensued, ensuring the passage of 7,000 Danish Jews to Sweden on a fleet of small vessels (Vogelsang and Larsen 2002).

25. Advertisement. 1941. [News clipping] ADJH, Koncerter Folder; Odeon Advertisement. n.d. [Scrapbook page] ADJH, Harlem Kiddies Folder.

26. Hyssing, Gustav. 1941. ‘Fin Rumba – Som Ingen Danser.’ In Illusteret Familiejournal, 6. May, 1941. [Scrapbook page] ADJH, Harlem Kiddies Folder.

27. Brøvig-Hanssen and Harkins further write: ‘The incongruity in mash-ups is not only that two individually pre-existing songs are combined and moved from their original contexts; it is also between social conventions. Mash-ups often blend samples from what might be perceived to be resolute categories, such as high and low, serious and playful, black and white, rock and pop.’ (2012, 90).

28. All of Harlem Kiddies’ recordings from the period of 1940–1945 were reissued on the Danish label, Little Beat Records, in 2004 (LBR CD 05001).