Lester Koenig

[paul secor]

I was reading an article on cinematographer Gregg Toland in the June 19, 2006 New Yorker, and came across a mention of "the writer and producer" Lester Koenig. I wondered if this was the man behind Contemporary Records, did a quick google search, and found that they were one and the same. Lester Koenig was an assistant producer to William Wyler. He refused to testify before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee when called to do so and was blacklisted in the film industry. He started Contemporary Records and began a full time career in the jazz record business after his blacklisting - he had started Good Time Jazz previously.

The film world's loss became the jazz world's gain. The world of jazz recording might well have been different had he not been blacklisted.

I had no knowledge that Mr. Koenig was involved in the Hollywood film industry before reading the Toland article. I just thought I'd share this with any others who didn't know. I respected him as a man who presented many fine (and well recorded) recordings to the jazz community. I now respect him at least as much, if not more so, for his non-cooperation with HUAC.

I don't know whether this belongs in the Misc. Music, Misc. Non-political, or Political threads, so I put it here. Jim - If you feel that it belongs elsewhere, please move it.

[sidewinder]

Interestingly, that Sonny Simmons DVD I was recently viewing made mention (by Sonny) of Lester Koenig's blacklisting by the film industry and his subsequent move into jazz production. Sonny says many nice, very complementary things about him in the film.

[JohnS]

Thanks for sharing Paul

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

who is that hot chick in your avatar

[Ron S]

He was also a lawyer, iirc. (Gotta take the good press when we can. )

[mikeweil]

who is that hot chick in your avatar

That's Gitte Haenning from Denmark, as seen on the original cover of her Lp with the Clarke-Boland Big Band.

I have oversized scans of both sides of this cover - PM me your e-mail if you want 'em.

[BruceH]

Wow, that is interesting Paul. I had no idea.

[Michael Weiss]

What I've always wanted to know is who is this??

[sidewinder]

Indeed !

Anyway, back to Lester Koenig...

Edited June 22, 2006 by sidewinder

[king ubu]

I only recently found out about Koenig's film career... it's mentioned in the liners to the 4CD Contemporary Story set, which the 2001 crooks had for a few euro-zlotys, recently. Don't have it at hand, but it's pretty obvious that he was talented there, too, working with William Wyler (swiss origin, btw, swiss name, at least).

*****

Is that Gitte CD reissue worth the many $$ it goes for? She's mostly been associated with what's the worst offense to culture them Krauts invented ever since 1945... yuck!

[sidewinder]

Yes, there's a good writeup on Koenig's career in that excellent booklet to the Contemporary Story 4CD set. The quality of that package is a fitting tribute - incredible that such state-of-the-art recordings were done in his back-room, often with crates of LPs littered around.

Hasn't the Gitte CD recently been reissued in Germany at a fairly low price? The original vinyl on Hor-zu took some getting hold of but the CD should be easy to find over there in the shops. I'm not familiar with the rest of Gitte's output for the German public but she sounds pretty damn good on this Clarke/Boland set (in which Jimmy Woode seems to have had a major directing role). For samples, I'd recommend checking out one of the programmes in Ghost of Miles' 'Night Lights' archive, which has some of the tracks.

Anyway, back again to Lester..

Edited June 22, 2006 by sidewinder

[brownie]

Very interesting page about Contemporary Records (and Lester Koenig)...

History of Contemporary Records

[mikeweil]

Yes, there's a good writeup on Koenig's career in that excellent booklet to the Contemporary Story 4CD set. The quality of that package is a fitting tribute - incredible that such state-of-the-art recordings were done in his back-room, often with crates of LPs littered around.

Hasn't the Gitte CD recently been reissued in Germany at a fairly low price? The original vinyl on Hor-zu took some getting hold of but the CD should be easy to find over there in the shops. I'm not familiar with the rest of Gitte's output for the German public but she sounds pretty damn good on this Clarke/Boland set (in which Jimmy Woode seems to have had a major directing role). For samples, I'd recommend checking out one of the programmes in Ghost of Miles' 'Night Lights' archive, which has some of the tracks.

Anyway, back again to Lester..

Yes the Gitte album is on CD. Nice album, I even had a copy of the LP but sold it to some board member - if I compare this with Carmen McRae's album with the CBBB, Gitte does not stand up to the comparison, I'm afraid.

[sidewinder]

Mike - Does Gitte still perform on German TV etc?

[johnlitweiler]

Very interesting page about Contemporary Records (and Lester Koenig)...

History of Contemporary Records

And that link leads to another link, http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/MemberSpot/koenig.htm, that is mainly about John Koenig but also fills in some more information re his father. It would be interesting to know more about his stepmother.

[mikeweil]

Mike - Does Gitte still perform on German TV etc?

Yes, she even made a more or less jazz oriented tour with her father a few years ago. But I skipped the 2004 "Jazz" album, found it more easy listening

than jazz. I think she should have kept singing part jazz over all the years, ahe lost too much of her jazz shops. Her Schlager fans think it's jazz, though ...

This 2007 CD of "unreleased recordings" is more pop than jazz, although it is jazz tunes - you can find sound samples on German amazon. I think it's bland ...

[sidewinder]

Thanks for that. We don't get exposed at all over here to Schlager - that's something that is very German/'Continental'. I'll pass on the 'jazz' CD, based on your comments.

[fasstrack]

I was reading an article on cinematographer Gregg Toland in the June 19, 2006 New Yorker, and came across a mention of "the writer and producer" Lester Koenig. I wondered if this was the man behind Contemporary Records, did a quick google search, and found that they were one and the same. Lester Koenig was an assistant producer to William Wyler. He refused to testify before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee when called to do so and was blacklisted in the film industry. He started Contemporary Records and began a full time career in the jazz record business after his blacklisting - he had started Good Time Jazz previously.

The film world's loss became the jazz world's gain. The world of jazz recording might well have been different had he not been blacklisted.

I had no knowledge that Mr. Koenig was involved in the Hollywood film industry before reading the Toland article. I just thought I'd share this with any others who didn't know. I respected him as a man who presented many fine (and well recorded) recordings to the jazz community. I now respect him at least as much, if not more so, for his non-cooperation with HUAC.

I don't know whether this belongs in the Misc. Music, Misc. Non-political, or Political threads, so I put it here. Jim - If you feel that it belongs elsewhere, please move it.

Art Pepper wrote about it in Straight Life.

[Chuck Nessa]

Had a long series of letters with him in the early '70s when I was buying stock directly from him for my store. Wish I hadn't left the correspondence in the file drawer in Madison. Fine man with great "standards" for his "product".

[clifford_thornton]

Fascinating info in this post. Thanks Paul.

[paul secor]

Had a long series of letters with him in the early '70s when I was buying stock directly from him for my store. Wish I hadn't left the correspondence in the file drawer in Madison. Fine man with great "standards" for his "product".

Always hated that term, "product". It appears you do also.