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Anyhone else see last night's BBC documentary about Pannonica by Hannah Rothschild, her great niece? Good stuff with lots of talking heads and quite a lot I never knew.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jwcr6

(this is a repost from the Thelonica thread)

Here it is again...

Just stumbled on this on Youtube (via Reddit) -- an 80-minute documentary about Nica of Nica's Dream (Pannonica Rothschild de Koenigswarter)

Click: Storyville The Jazz Baroness

The Youtube description says...

Documentary: 'The Jazz Baroness'

Storyville, BBC Four's flagship international documentary department, aired this beautiful documentary about Pannonica Rothschild de Koenigswarter on March 12th, 2010. The film is rare and not available online, so I've uploaded it from my personal collection to my youtube channel for all of you to enjoy.

Pannonica Rothschild was born with everything, got married and had five children, but one track by a man she had never met inspired her to leave and start a new life in America: Thelonious Monk.

Nica first met Monk in Paris in June, 1954, during the 'Salon du Jazz 1954' concert. She was introduced to Monk backstage by a mutual friend, pianist Mary Lou Williams, and remained lifelong friends.

For periods of time, the Baroness supported for Monk, his wife Nellie and his family; she helped get his cabaret card reinstated after it was revoked on at least two different occasions, and provided financial assistance when Monk had trouble finding getting work. Then there was the notorious incident of the drug arrest in Maryland. She took the blame. But whose drugs were they?

In 1972, when Monk became so ill that he needed special attention, he moved into a room in the Baroness's New Jersey home. Nellie came to the house most days to cook and take care of Monk. They both continued to take care of him until his death in 1982.

The exact nature of Nica and Monk's relationship is still a source of fascination. Were they lovers or friends? Was she a patron or a groupie? This film solves the problem by giving the opinions of close friends and his relations.

Please check my jazzblog at http://jazzpages.tumblr.com.

This relates to this thread (Who knew this? ), but I didn't want to bury it there where folks wouldn't necessarily see it.

(I'm on a PC without any sound, so I'll have to check this out in a couple weeks when I get to DC. FYI, I'll be off the Internet the whole week of June 6th.)

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tumblr_lgr6n7MyxP1qep0zno1_400.jpg

Charlie Rouse and Sonny Clark, one of the amazing photos from Nica de Koenigswarter's files published in the book 'Three Wishes; an Intimate Look at Jazz Greats'

There are several goodies! At the book party at Hermes in NYC Nica's original photos - old polaroids - (uncropped) were on display as well as several others that didn't make it into the book.

I've seen Nica's telephone/address book. Pretty amazing....

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the text is in german (which is fine with me but...) here you can see a good bunch of the photos from the book...

http://www.reclam.de/data/blickinsbuch/978-3-15-010653-2.pdf

These photos are wonderful! My favorite: Rouse and Sonny. I wish I could read the German text. Gleaned a bit, though.

I was in the 'cathouse' in 1983 when Barry Harris asked me to come out and help with an upcoming concert. I was supposed to go around the neighborhood and write down addresses he could send flyers to. Evidently he felt it would be weird to have the neighbors see him walking around doing that. Nica had a servant who fetched Barry and myself breakfast before I set out to my chore. And, naturally, cats were running around everywhere. They really owned the joint.

Barry was busy writing at the piano and I needed to be out of his face, so he asked if I wanted to see Monk's room (he had died a year before). It was a tiny warren abutting the 2nd floor loft Barry lived in, railroad apartment-style. It looked like the room's contents and sparse furnishings had been untouched, nothing of Monk's moved an inch. All those famed hats were sitting in a stack, frozen in time....

The other thing I remember that was funny was that after I finished my rounds I came back upstairs and was looking through Barry's LP collection. There was a Bill Evans album with a foldout sleeve that hadn't been cracked in so long the two sleeve sides were fused together. We both cracked up over that. ^_^

Edited by fasstrack
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the text is in german (which is fine with me but...) here you can see a good bunch of the photos from the book...

http://www.reclam.de/data/blickinsbuch/978-3-15-010653-2.pdf

Nice photos! Thanks!

Just looked at these again. Truly amazing. We can only imagine the riches of the private collection of recordings from her jam sessions---that the family will never release (on her instructions). We have the photos, at least.

I wish now I would have spoken more to Nica the one time I sat with her at the JCT. I guess I was a bit star-struck at my tender age. But, referring to my sitting next to someone of her pedigree, I made a weak joke to the effect of 'well, I always wanted to make a royal ass of myself'. She laughed anyway. And I shut up....

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