Jazz at Riemergasse


A short story of Swing in RiemergasseParis 1942, Club Vendatour, is were the actual story of Jazz for Riemergasse begins. The five steady musicians of that place are being arrested during a Gestapo(secret state police) raid and transferred to Vienna for compulsory work under the Nazi regime. They found a way to reactivate their Parisian quintet and added another French musician, Touca on saxophon. This sextet consisted of: Roby Davis (clarinet/tenorsax), Roger Godet (violin), the brothers Roger & Marcel Etlens (accordeon/guitar + bass) and drummer Arthur Motta.

On weekends they would perform in the Vienna area in work camps together with a variété group. Bandleader Motta was even featured on radio in 1944.
It was him, who would show some tricks to young drummers for a few cigarettes, while stopping by at fellow Viennese underground musicians’ sessions in the 5th district - the Panther Babies (Uzi Förster, Roland Kovac and Helmut Qualtinger).
The French musicians were rather disappointed by the poor quality of Jazz here compared to Paris. The Nazis observed the musicians’ activities, but didn’t intervene; and after a while, there were regular performances at "a place in Riemer gasse”, as sax player Rudy Kregcyk remembers. Landl, Mytteis and the brothers Stumvoll were other Viennese musicians playing there besides Kregcyk. A photography of that time, gives extra proof, that the place in Riemergasse had to be the souterrain of Rondell.
The French musicians returned back home, when the war was over and Arthur Motta started to play with Django Reinhardt and clarinettist Hubert Rostaing. Around 1950 Hannes Thanheiser (architect, musician and art lover) provided in his own apartment (in Gersthoferstr.) a nightly meeting point for young artists like Helmut Qualtinger and his friend were the ingredients for something one would call ‘party’ these days.

Thanheiser (later actor awarded w/ the Fellini prize) decided to move his events to a club, which resulted in a cooperation with two Swiss business men (one of them named Amann), who owned the Domino in downtown Krugerstr. Thanheiser showed responsible for musicians and audience, while Amann & partner ran the bar. New Year’s Eve was opening nite (?year?).
Postwar Vienna was hungry for Americanisms and downtown Vienna was full of various live music spots. For instance the basement of Café Landtmann, the Theater on Parkring, Café Giselahof, the Künstlerclub and the legendary Strohkoffer (‘straw box’) – space of the Art Club.

Spontanious jamsessions took also place in other parts of town. After his Domino episode, Hannes Thanheiser found a partner for his idea to present Jazzmusic publicly: Fritz Feichtinger. He was the leaseholder of the Rondell. The exact beginning date of their activities in Riemergasse 11 wasn’t reconstructable.- (e.g. the "Strohkoffer’s” lease was finished Feb. 15, 1953, but there was still a ‘monster session’ including saxophonists Karl Drewo and Hans Salomon, in the fall of 1953. Whenever there wasn’t anything going on there, we went to Rondell’s, Otto Fessl recalls). Thanheiser named his Jazz location: Studio 1. Jazz ambitious musicians like Hans Salomon have played there; but one had to be ambitious, because there was no salary for the artists, and busy people like drummer Viktor Plasil wouldn’t play there, rather debutants and amateurs, Hans Salomon says. Friedrich Gulda has appeared there quite frequently too. Regardless the fact, that he lived across the street from Studio 1, it was a particular piano, that Thanheiser bought, knowing of Gulda’s weakness for it. The two even performed often together, (Thanheiser on violin, Gulda on the ‘Reisinger’ wing). Highlights of the mostly improvised program at Rondell’s were Gulda’s and Joe Zawinul’s concerts. Pieces for four hands, which they named "Akkordschmäuse” (sth. like ‘chords’ feast’). Furthermore appearances by pianist Paul Winzig (later known as Paul Wayne) and bassist Johnny Fischer (from 1955 on member of Hans Koller’s New Jazz Stars) or pianists Roland Kovac and Alexander Jenner, as well as allround talent Uzi Förster. Hannes Thanheiser ended his non prosperous partnership at Rondell soon, although the place got packed (more than 200 visitiors) quite often and prominent people like actor Albin Skoda or members of the Argentinian embassy became regulars.
Knowing of the inevitable finish of Studio 1, hardly anybody showed up for the ‘farewell evening’. This triste atmosphere, with 4 or 5 guests, wasn’t very inspiring for the 3 musicians (Zawinul, Thanheiser, Johnny Fisher ?). So Zawinul took Thanheiser’s violin and Thanheiser sat at the piano, soon everybody left and witness Otto Fessl and the other musicians, partied somewhere else … Uzi Förster kept an irregular Jazzlife at Riemergasse going until 1955.

His band consisted of Gerhard Hönig (back than the most modern trumpet player in Vienna), Hello Kolbe (also record-, radio- producer and Jazz critic), singer Walter Böcksteiner, bassist Alex Speath ? and later trombonist Walter Terharen (of the ‘Wirkliche Jassband’(=true Jazz band), a Viennese New Orleans formation).

When the author of these lines, informed about Rondell’s vital Jazz history and highly interested, entered the souterrain of Riemergasse 11 in 1956, he left quickly after discovering a jukebox instead of live music.
This text is a summarized version of Klaus Schulz’s story "Jazz at Riemergasse”.