Pannonica de Koenigswarter

Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica 'Nica' de Koenigswarter(néeRothschild;10 December 1913 – 30 November 1988) was a British-born jazzpatronand writer. A leading patron ofbebop,she was a member of theRothschild family.

Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter
Pannonica de Koenigswarter in 1947
Born	Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild (1913-12-10)10 December 1913 London,UK
Died	30 November 1988(1988-11-30)(aged 74) New York City,US
Known for	Patronage of jazz
Notable work	Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats
Spouse	Jules de Koenigswarter ​ ​ (m.1935;div.1956)​
Parent(s)	Charles Rothschild Rózsika Rothschild

Personal life

Her childhood home, Waddesdon Manor

Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild was born in December 1913, in London, the youngest daughter ofCharles Rothschildand his wife, Hungarian baronessRózsika Edle von Wertheimstein,daughter of Baron Alfred von Wertheimstein ofBihar County.She was born into a branch of the wealthiest family in the world at the time.Her paternal grandfather wasNathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild.She grew up inTring Park Mansionas well asWaddesdon Manor,among other family houses. The name "Pannonica" (shortened to "Nica" as a nickname) derives from Eastern Europe'sPannonian plain.Her friendThelonious Monkreported that she was named after a species of butterfly her father had discovered, although her great-niece has found that the source of the name is a rare species of moth,Eublemmapannonica.She was a niece ofWalter Rothschild,the 2nd Baron Rothschild, and her brotherVictor Rothschildbecame the 3rd Baron Rothschild. Her elder sister was the zoologist and authorDame Miriam Rothschild.

In 1935, she married French diplomatBaron Jules de Koenigswarter,later aFree Frenchhero.In 1937, they bought and moved to theChâteau d'Abondant,a 17th-century château in north-west France they acquired from the family of American bankerHenry Herman Harjes(who had acquired the château in 1920 from theDuchesse de Vallombrosa).She worked forCharles de Gaulleduring World War II. The couple, who had five children, separated in 1951, and she moved to New York City, renting a suite atThe Stanhope Hotel.The couple eventually divorced in 1956.In 1958, she purchased a house inWeehawken, New Jerseywith a Manhattan skyline view, originally built for film directorJosef von Sternberg.

Koenigswarter died of heart failure in 1988, aged 74, at theColumbia-Presbyterian Medical Center,in New York City. She had five children, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Participation in the Free French Army

She joined theFree French Armyto fight againstNazi GermanyduringWorld War II.She had refused to participate in theNorth African Campaign,but she joined clandestinely to fight alongside her husband. The war imposed a suspension of her marital and family duties but she managed to send her children from France to America, secretly moving across continents.She served as a decoder, ambulance driver, and radio host for the Free French.At the close of the war she was decorated as a lieutenant by the allied armies.

Jazz

In New York, de Koenigswarter became a friend and patron of leading jazz musicians, hosting jam sessions in her hotel suite, often driving them in her Bentley when they needed a lift to gigs,as well as sometimes helping them to pay rent, buy groceries, and making hospital visits.Although not a musician herself,she is sometimes referred to as the "bebopbaroness "or "jazz baroness"because of her patronage ofThelonious MonkandCharlie Parkeramong others. Following Parker's death in her Stanhope rooms in 1955,de Koenigswarter was asked to leave by the hotel management; she re-located to the Bolivar Hotelat 230 Central Park West, a building commemorated in Thelonious Monk's 1956 composition "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are".

She was introduced to Thelonious Monk by jazz pianist/composerMary Lou Williamsin Paris while attending the "Salon du Jazz 1954".She championed his work in the United States, writing the liner notes for his 1962ColumbiaalbumCriss-Cross.She even took criminal responsibility when she and Monk were charged with marijuana possession by Delaware police in 1958, spending a few nights in jail.De Koenigswarter was sentenced to three years in prison. After a two-year legal battle that was financed by her family, the case was dismissed in a court of appeals on a technicality.

She was a regular visitor to many of New York's jazz clubs, including theFive Spot Café,Village Vanguard,andBirdland.In 1957, she bought a new piano for the Five Spot because she thought the existing one was not good enough for Monk's performances there.She also did the cover art forBud Powell's albumA Portrait of Thelonious.During the 1950s, she was licensed as a manager by theAmerican Federation of Musicians.Her clients includedHorace Silver,Hank Mobley,Sir Charles Thompson,andThe Jazz Messengers.Horace Silver said about her: "I recall playing a week with the Jazz Messengers at a jazz club inYoungstown, Ohio.The club owner refused to giveArt Blakeyany money because the band had started late several times and we hadn't drawn a crowd. There we were in Youngstown, Ohio, with a week's hotel bill to pay and none of us had any money. I could just picture myself being put in jail because I couldn't pay my hotel bill. But Art called the Baroness, and she wired us some money so we could pay our hotel bills and return to New York. She was a great lover of jazz music and a wonderful person. "

Hampton Hawesrecalled in his memoirRaise Up Off Me:

Her place became a pad to drop in and hang out, any time, for any reason. She'd give money to anyone who was broke, bring bags of groceries to their families, help them get theircabaret cards,which you needed to work in New York. This bitch was so rich she had permanent tables reserved at all the clubs and a number you could call from anywhere in New York to get a private cab. If I was sick or fucked up I'd call the number and the cab would come and carry me direct to her pad. On my off nights she'd sometimes pick me up in her Bentley and we'd go around to the clubs. I suppose you would call Nica a patron of the arts, but she was more like a brother to the musicians who lived in New York or came through. There was no jive about her, and if you were for real you were accepted and were her friend.

After Monk ended his public performances in the mid-1970s, he retired to de Koenigswarter's house in Weehawken, New Jersey, where he died in 1982.

She used her wealth to pay for the funerals and burial grounds for several jazz musician friends, includingBud Powell,Sonny ClarkandColeman Hawkins.

Dedications

There are many compositions dedicated to her: Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica",Gigi Gryce's "Nica's Tempo",Sonny Clark's "Nica",Horace Silver's "Nica's Dream",Kenny Dorham's "Tonica",Kenny Drew's "Blues for Nica",Doug Watkins' "Panonica",Freddie Redd's "Nica Steps Out",Barry Harris's "Inca",Tommy Flanagan's"Thelonica",Frank Turner's "Nica" and more were all named after her.The San Francisco art rock bandOxbowreleased a recording entitled "Pannonica" (unrelated to the Thelonious Monk composition) with reissues of their 1991 albumKing of the Jews.A famous jazz club inNantes,France, is called "Le Pannonica".

Literature

De Koenigswarter (Nica) appears prominently in "El perseguidor", a one-hundred page story byJulio Cortázarin the bookLas armas secretas(The Secret Weapons,1959). The latter four stories of this book appeared in translation in the volumeBlow-up and Other Stories(alternatively titledThe End of the Game and Other Stories); "El perseguidor", ( "The Pursuer" ), is a homage to Charlie Parker.

In October 2006, the French company Buchet Chastel published de Koenigswarter's bookLes musiciens de jazz et leurs trois vœux( "The jazz musicians and their three wishes" ). Compiled between 1961 and 1966, it is a book of interviews with 300 musicians who told her what their "three wishes" would be, and is accompanied by herPolaroidphotographs. The book was edited for publication by Nadine de Koenigswarter, whom Nica always introduced to people as her granddaughter but who was in fact her great-niece.An English-language version was published in 2008 asThree Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats.In October 2023, Buchet Chastel published de Koenigswarter's bookL'Oeil de Nica( "The Eye Of Nica" ). A photobook of her photographs capturing jazz musicians but also views of Manhattan, moments captured in jazz clubs and deep America shots. A visual testimony to the American and particularly New York 1950-1960s, enhanced by the singular colors of the Polaroid. The photographs are from different boxes that were recently repatriated to France. Buchet Chastel also reissued the French edition ofThree Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats.

Her photographs were exhibited in 2007 at theRencontres d'Arlesfestival.

Media depictions

Film

Nica was played byDiane Salingerin theClint Eastwoodbiographical filmBird(1988) aboutCharlie "Bird" Parker.In the Eastwood-produced documentary filmThelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser(1988) she is seen in library footage and heard in an interview.

Television

In April 2009, a television portrait entitledThe Jazz Baroness,written and directed by her great-nieceHannah Rothschild,was broadcast on the television channelBBC Fourand repeated on 19 February 2012. It was broadcast in the US byHBOon 25 November 2009.A radio documentary by Rothschild of Nica,The Jazz Baroness,was broadcast onBBC Radio 4on 12 February 2008.Rothschild has also written the biography detailed below.

Biographies

• Youssef Daoudi,Monk!: Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution(2018)
• Hannah Rothschild,The Baroness: The Search for Nica the Rebellious Rothschild(2012)
• David Kastin,Nica's Dream: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness(2011)

Published works

• Koenigswarter, Pannonica de (2008).Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats(English ed.). Abrams Image.ISBN978-0810972353.
• Koenigswarter, Pannonica de (2023).L'Oeil de Nica.Buchet Chastel.ISBN978-2283038994.

Further reading

• The Women of Rothschild: The Untold Story of the World's Most Famous Dynasty,Natalie Livingstone (2021)ISBN978-1529366716

Further reading

• Kastin, David (2006). "Nica's Story: the Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness",Popular Music & Society,Volume 29, Number 3, July 2006, pp. 279–298.
• Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (1996),The Daily Telegraph Book of Obituaries: a Celebration of Eccentric Lives.London: Pan.
• "La baronne du jazz" - La vraie vie de légende de Pannonica de Koenigswarter by Stéphane Tamaillon and Priscilla Horviller (2020, French)

External links

• Nica De KoenigswarteratIMDb
• Mesplé, Louis (7 July 2007)."Quand Pannonica recueillait les trois vœux des grands du jazz".Rue89(in French). Archived fromthe originalon 1 March 2015.Retrieved1 March2015.
• Singer, Barry (19 October 2008)."Three Wishes: an Intimate Look at Jazz Greats – New York Times book review in English".The New York Times.Retrieved21 May2010.
• The Jazz Baroness: the patron saint of bebopatIMDb