German Tango: Eugen Wolff Orch. - Nachtliche Gitarren, 1945

Nocne gitary (Nachtliche Gitarren) Tango (J.Rixner) - Orkiestra Stanisława Godarskiego (Eugen Wolff m.s. Tanz-Orchester) Melodje 1945 (Polish pressing) Odeon 1940 (German matrix)

NOTE: In Poland, in short period 1945-47, when the Soviet-style Stalinism was not yet fully installed, a privately owned little record factory „Melodje" located in a small apartment house in the heart of the Old Town of Poznań, issued many very good recordings of the post-WWII Polish jazz & swing orchestras (e.g. Bracia Łopatowscy, Charles Bovery or Kazimierz Bryzek's bands) as well as the excellent jazz and non-jazz Polish singers (Marta Mirska, Tadeusz Miller, the revellers choir Cztery Asy). Also issued were the sides re-pressed from miraculously saved prewar matrixes of Syrena Rekord or Odeon companies. Among them, sometimes you could find the intruguing and, usually, being on the highest artistical level jazz or just the dance numbers, performed by the mysterious band „Orkiestra Stanisława Godarskiego" (Stanisław Godarski's Orchestra).

The problem is: such bandleader or such orchestra did never exist! The name was pure hoax, and the sides holding such label were re-recordings of popular nazi-Germany orchestra tunes (God knows in what kind of technology?!) from the matrixes, or from actual records, that were left in Poland by the nazis during their panick evacuation back to Germany, in January 1945. The usage of the label name „St. Godarski" entitled the owners of "Melodje Records" to avoid payments of royalties as well as it protected them from political accusals of being any kind of a pro-nazi conspiracy...

I was fortunate to have identified this very side, as German Eugen Wolff's dance orchestra, originally recorded by Odeon, Berlin 1940. Another great tango of Josef Rixner - one of best composers in Germany in late 1930s, also the composer of "Blauer Himmel" - can be listened to if you go http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=lzDlDZmSHEg

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Tango
• Third
• Reich
• Thirties
• Forties
• 1930
• 1940
• Germany
• nazi
• Deutschland
• Belin
• tanz
• orchester
• dance
• band
• Joe
• Rixner
• 78rpm
• schellack

[zwerskij]

Magnificent research, great story.Thank you very much.

[svkorban]

потрясающе сделан видеоряд! спасибо вам!

[argiemerc]

@nagileon

The only thing to understand my friend is whoever said that is plain stupid.

[gyacht007]

Thanks a lot. You are doing a great job keeping real masterpices from beeing forgotten.

[nagileon]

I don't understand why is it a 'Nazi' tango ?

[krakowia88]

Poland was Socialist not Communist!

[zwerskij]

Great text of introduction, wonderful pictures. Wonder if the Soviets did the same thing after WWII,reissuing some oldWestern records.

[dumowska]

Piękne jest to tango , niedawno się dopiero dowiedziałem, że taki ktoś jak Godarski nigdy nie istniał.

[cushing1163]

Interesting story about this delicious record! When I had heard the record once, I had this déja-vu feeling. I searched my Schellac collection and found the 1940 recording you mentioned. As you said, Eugen Wolff and his orchestra are playing the same tango on Odeon O-31 613b (Be 12602).

Thank you for your efforts to bring light into these unknown facts...