NINON FLEURON JAZZ LADIES, The.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Album of mementos and ephemera. A delightful Jazz Age scrapbook that doubles as liber amicorum and guest book, assembled by the pianist and singer Anny Gloss, recording, in part, her career with the Ninon Fleuron Jazz Ladies, opening a window into the experiences of European women in jazz during the music's formative years.The first set of newspaper clippings record that in 1928 Gloss was teamed with the American "Jazz Queen" Elsie Teele at the "charming and elegant" Viennese bar, the Bonbonnière (with Teele billed as "the female Whiteman" - she gave the Austrian premier of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in 1927). Much of the album is then devoted to Gloss's experiences at Hotel Radetzky in Hinterbrühl, Lower Austria, where she performed as part of the Ninon Fleuron Jazz Ladies. At the time, the other members of the band were the eponymous Ninon Fleuron (drums, pseudonym of Rosa Sophie Radio, 1899-1974), Mariska Gerö (violin), and Gretl Heller (piano). One advert mentions them "Singing the Latest American Song-hits", while a newspaper clipping praises their "rendering of classical music".The album contains numerous messages (sometimes addressed to her directly) from friends, audience members, and well-wishers. While most of these are in German, some are in English ("Your music makes me feel 10 years younger"). The Ninon Fleuron Jazz Ladies (which had various personnel) came to an abrupt end with Hitler's invasion of Austria in 1938. Gloss also performed under the name Anni Hölzl

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