German director Valeska Grisebach won a prize at Cannes this year for her new film “Das geträumte Abenteuer”. Her work is interesting and worth a look. I recently watched her previous film “Western” with my family and we all liked it, although we have very different tastes in films now. “Western” tells the story of a group of German builders sent to Bulgaria to build a power plant close to a small village. You quickly get sucked into the story and the characters are so true to life you forget you are watching a film and not a documentary. Here’s the trailer for “Western”, an interview with Grisebach about the film (both with English subtitles) and Peter Bradshaw’s glowing review in the Guardian.
A real documentary about Jutta Hipp, an accomplished jazz pianist who enjoyed considerable success in the 1950s, is about to be released. Ilona Haberkamp’s book “Plötzlich Hip(p)” from 2023 sparked a new interest in Hipp’s life and work and so the documentary was made. Hipp began playing jazz professionally just after the war ended. Since the Nazis had forbidden jazz music, playing jazz was regarded as particularly exciting by younger Germans and represented a taste of newly found freedom. Hipp played with several bands and her unique talent was quickly recognized. She received several prizes and became well-known in Germany. The influential jazz producer and journalist Leonard Feather invited her to the US with the aim of launching her international career. Hipp went to New York, but while she did play with many of the great jazz musicians of the time, her career ended rather abruptly in 1958. Hipp decided she would stop working as a musician and took on a menial job in a textile factory. For a short while, she still played in small jazz clubs at the weekend, but then she gave up playing the piano altogether. This decision seems inexplicable at first, but the more we learn of her, and of her experiences as one of only a handful professional female jazz musicians, the more understandable her decision becomes. If playing jazz had political overtones in Germany, this was even more true in the US. As a celebrated white musician Hipp unwittingly posed a threat to her mainly Afro-American colleagues. Occasionally she found herself in very uncomfortable situations that she later blamed herself for, although in reality they had nothing to with her.
Haberkamp met Hipp in person in the mid-80s. She knows Hipp’s work well and admits to being shocked and put out when Hipp steadfastly refuses ever to play again, or voice regret about discontinuing her career. Hipp herself insists that her decision saved her. She says the unsteady lifestyle of a musician didn’t suit her and that she had no head for business. Her often financially precarious situation as well as her own insecurities resulted in her drinking too much which let to further problems. All of these reasons are easy to understand, but interestingly, Hipp has also convinced herself that her talents were overrated, that she was average while the others excelled and that she just couldn’t live up to people’s expectations. Haberkamp, who is a jazz musician herself, begs to differ, but Hipp insists on this view of her talent and work.
The book Plötzlich Hip(p) is fascinating portrait of a talented and determined female musician who sacrifices much in order to have a career. She rises to unexpected heights only to fall pretty low. While Hipp’s decision to completely stop playing the piano does seem like a self-inflicted wound, her new work did help her to stay off the alcohol and get her life back into order. Hipp also continued to be creative. Before turning to music, Hipp had gone to art school and she kept painting, sketching and drawing caricatures in her free time until she died. She also exhibited her work, and four of her paintings made it into the “Permanent Collection” of the Museum of the City of New York. Hipp also wrote poetry, sometimes combining caricatures with a poems. Some of these combinations are interesting vignettes of famous colleagues. While Hipp stopped playing the piano from one day to the next, she never stopped being an artist.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing the documentary on Hipp’s life and listen to more of her music.
Yad Vashem is going to open a branch in Munich, it’s first outside Israel.
A real documentary about Jutta Hipp, an accomplished jazz pianist who enjoyed considerable success in the 1950s, is about to be released. Ilona Haberkamp’s book “Plötzlich Hip(p)” from 2023 sparked a new interest in Hipp’s life and work and so the documentary was made. Hipp began playing jazz professionally just after the war ended. Since the Nazis had forbidden jazz music, playing jazz was regarded as particularly exciting by younger Germans and represented a taste of newly found freedom. Hipp played with several bands and her unique talent was quickly recognized. She received several prizes and became well-known in Germany. The influential jazz producer and journalist Leonard Feather invited her to the US with the aim of launching her international career. Hipp went to New York, but while she did play with many of the great jazz musicians of the time, her career ended rather abruptly in 1958. Hipp decided she would stop working as a musician and took on a menial job in a textile factory. For a short while, she still played in small jazz clubs at the weekend, but then she gave up playing the piano altogether. This decision seems inexplicable at first, but the more we learn of her, and of her experiences as one of only a handful professional female jazz musicians, the more understandable her decision becomes. If playing jazz had political overtones in Germany, this was even more true in the US. As a celebrated white musician Hipp unwittingly posed a threat to her mainly Afro-American colleagues. Occasionally she found herself in very uncomfortable situations that she later blamed herself for, although in reality they had nothing to with her.
Haberkamp met Hipp in person in the mid-80s. She knows Hipp’s work well and admits to being shocked and put out when Hipp steadfastly refuses ever to play again, or voice regret about discontinuing her career. Hipp herself insists that her decision saved her. She says the unsteady lifestyle of a musician didn’t suit her and that she had no head for business. Her often financially precarious situation as well as her own insecurities resulted in her drinking too much which let to further problems. All of these reasons are easy to understand, but interestingly, Hipp has also convinced herself that her talents were overrated, that she was average while the others excelled and that she just couldn’t live up to people’s expectations. Haberkamp, who is a jazz musician herself, begs to differ, but Hipp insists on this view of her talent and work.
The book Plötzlich Hip(p) is fascinating portrait of a talented and determined female musician who sacrifices much in order to have a career. She rises to unexpected heights only to fall pretty low. While Hipp’s decision to completely stop playing the piano does seem like a self-inflicted wound, her new work did help her to stay off the alcohol and get her life back into order. Hipp also continued to be creative. Before turning to music, Hipp had gone to art school and she kept painting, sketching and drawing caricatures in her free time until she died. She also exhibited her work, and four of her paintings made it into the “Permanent Collection” of the Museum of the City of New York. Hipp also wrote poetry, sometimes combining caricatures with a poems. Some of these combinations are interesting vignettes of famous colleagues. While Hipp stopped playing the piano from one day to the next, she never stopped being an artist.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing the documentary on Hipp’s life and listen to more of her music.
Yad Vashem is going to open a branch in Munich, it’s first outside Israel.
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