Polish Swing 1938: Henryk Wars Orch. & Mieczysław Fogg - Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen

Mieczysław Fogg & Orkiestra Henryka Warsa – Czy wiesz, mała Miss? (Do You Know, Little Miss?) [org.. title: Bei Mir bist Du Schoen] Fokstrot (Secunda – Friedwald), Syrena-Electro 1938 (Polish) NOTE: This record, quite seriously scratched during the first 15’’ (I did my best to revive the beginning and make it audible) is however a valuable and rare example of recording of Polish swing in the late 1930s. Henryk Wars – the excellent pianist & mogul of prewar Polish composers of the film- and revue music - leads the orchestra which makes on this side a really successful swing-version of the world-hit “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen”. In prewar Poland, the traditional tastes of the most of the record buyers made the producers rely rather on the tangos and sentimental cabaret ballads than the hot Anglo-Saxon rhythms. Younger generation of the jazz musicians in Poland – such as later world-famous trumpeter Adolf Rosner, Franciszek Związek, Łopatowski Brothers and the whole bunch of others complained in their memoirs, that prewar studios of the most influential record companies (Syrena Records, Odeon) were virtually closed before them. The powerful trio in the record market in Poland, that is: Henryk Wars, Henryk Gold and Jerzy Gert (the third being the music director in Polish branch of Odeon) would not allow the new trends in dance music prevail over the “Polish tango” monopoly. Interestingly: being formally against the jazz-influences in record industry during the 1930s, privately all of them were jazz fans, who in the 1920s led the first jazz/dance bands in Poland. Well, the pass of time changes our tastes, indeed.