WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.200 So imagine Vienna in 1947. Okay. The war has 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.339 been over for about two years, right? But the 00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:10.619 city is still totally divided into occupation 00:00:10.619 --> 00:00:12.740 zones. Right. You've got the Russians, the Americans, 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:15.740 the British, the French. Exactly. And the physical 00:00:15.740 --> 00:00:18.100 state of the city is just, I mean, the opera 00:00:18.100 --> 00:00:21.140 house is a shell. The economy is in absolute 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:24.059 ruins. Very much that classic, the third man 00:00:24.059 --> 00:00:27.859 atmosphere. Yes. Shadows, rubble, black markets, 00:00:27.879 --> 00:00:32.759 just this desperate need for something new, something 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:35.039 that actually feels alive. Yeah, the cultural 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:37.259 vacuum there must have been staggering. And right 00:00:37.259 --> 00:00:40.100 in the middle of this fractured, broken city, 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.380 there is a 20 -year -old kid. Just a kid. Right. 00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:46.539 And he's holding a clarinet. But he's not looking 00:00:46.539 --> 00:00:49.340 backward at the ruins. He's listening to the 00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:51.280 American radio broadcasts. He's looking for the 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:53.780 rhythm. Exactly. He is looking for the rhythm. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:55.899 It really is a striking image to start with. 00:00:55.979 --> 00:00:57.939 It is. And honestly, it is the perfect place 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:00.840 to start our deep dive today. Because the figure 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:02.659 we are going to be discussing, Franz and Georg 00:01:02.659 --> 00:01:04.810 Pressler. Which is a name we'll get into. We'll 00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:07.129 definitely get into the name. But he didn't just 00:01:07.129 --> 00:01:09.969 exist in that post -war environment. He completely 00:01:09.969 --> 00:01:13.069 metabolized it. Yeah. He took that chaotic mix 00:01:13.069 --> 00:01:15.930 of, you know, old Viennese tradition and the 00:01:15.930 --> 00:01:18.090 new American occupation. Yeah. And he turned 00:01:18.090 --> 00:01:21.069 it into a career that basically defined Austrian 00:01:21.069 --> 00:01:24.950 jazz for three decades. Three entire decades. 00:01:25.409 --> 00:01:28.530 So for you listening, today's deep dive is all 00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:31.069 about the life and career of Franz Pressler. 00:01:31.390 --> 00:01:33.290 Though, as you hinted, almost no one actually 00:01:33.290 --> 00:01:35.329 called him that. No, not at all. To the world 00:01:35.329 --> 00:01:38.810 and even to history, he is known simply as Fatty 00:01:38.810 --> 00:01:41.469 George. Fatty George. I mean, it's a name that, 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:44.870 frankly, you just cannot ignore. You really can't. 00:01:44.950 --> 00:01:46.930 It dominates the conversation right off the bat, 00:01:46.989 --> 00:01:48.870 much in the same way he dominated the bandstand. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:51.379 So let's talk about the source material we're 00:01:51.379 --> 00:01:53.379 using today to unpack all of this. Yeah, what 00:01:53.379 --> 00:01:55.120 are we working with? We have a really fascinating 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:58.040 stack of material. It's essentially a biographical 00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:01.760 profile from Wikipedia. Okay. But it's very dense. 00:02:01.780 --> 00:02:05.819 It's drawing from some highly specific biographical 00:02:05.819 --> 00:02:08.539 dictionaries and jazz encyclopedias. Right, which 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:10.719 are referenced throughout the text. Exactly. 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:15.780 So on the surface, it's the kind of dry, factual 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:19.969 text. that just lists dates and band names and 00:02:19.969 --> 00:02:22.069 venues sure the standard reference book style 00:02:22.469 --> 00:02:24.810 But if you read between the lines, the story 00:02:24.810 --> 00:02:27.509 it tells is just screaming with drama. It really 00:02:27.509 --> 00:02:29.770 is. I mean, we are talking about a guy who goes 00:02:29.770 --> 00:02:32.210 from the incredibly prestigious Vienna Academy 00:02:32.210 --> 00:02:36.090 to running a literal nightclub called Fatty's 00:02:36.090 --> 00:02:37.689 Saloon. Which seems like a total contradiction 00:02:37.689 --> 00:02:40.030 on the surface. Totally. But when you look closer 00:02:40.030 --> 00:02:42.449 at the facts provided in these encyclopedias, 00:02:42.469 --> 00:02:45.509 it actually makes perfect sense. How so? Well, 00:02:45.530 --> 00:02:47.229 we are really looking at the difference between 00:02:47.229 --> 00:02:50.430 a musician. And for lack of a better word, an 00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:52.870 architect. OK, I like that. Most people in this 00:02:52.870 --> 00:02:55.129 scene, they just play the music. Fatty George, 00:02:55.289 --> 00:02:57.629 he built the actual infrastructure that allowed 00:02:57.629 --> 00:03:00.030 the music to happen in Austria. That's a great 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:02.090 way to frame it. And that is exactly our mission 00:03:02.090 --> 00:03:04.729 for this deep dive. To map out that architecture. 00:03:04.889 --> 00:03:07.150 Right. We want to reconstruct this entire career 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:10.349 arc. We want to understand how a formally trained 00:03:10.349 --> 00:03:12.969 clarinetist ends up leading something called 00:03:12.969 --> 00:03:16.069 the Chicago Jazz Band in the 1980s. Which is 00:03:16.069 --> 00:03:18.849 a wild stylistic journey. And we also need to 00:03:18.849 --> 00:03:20.590 talk about the people he dragged along with him 00:03:20.590 --> 00:03:23.469 on this journey. The personnel. Yes. Names like 00:03:23.469 --> 00:03:26.490 Joe Zawinul, who, as many of you probably know, 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:28.990 went on to change the entire landscape of global 00:03:28.990 --> 00:03:32.729 jazz. The Zawinul connection is absolutely critical 00:03:32.729 --> 00:03:35.830 to this story. It is. But we also really need 00:03:35.830 --> 00:03:38.389 to look at the business side of things. The venues? 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:41.409 Yes, the venues. Because this is a story about 00:03:41.409 --> 00:03:44.090 sheer entrepreneurship, just as much as it is 00:03:44.090 --> 00:03:46.379 about melody and harmony. All right. So let's 00:03:46.379 --> 00:03:49.099 jump right in. Part one, the origins. Let's do 00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:51.400 it. So we have the birth date from the sources, 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:58.219 April 24th, 1927. 1927, which places him squarely 00:03:58.219 --> 00:04:00.800 in that classic interwar generation. Right. Between 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:03.560 the two world wars. Exactly. Think about what 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:06.400 that means for his development. He is a child 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:08.360 during the rise of all those intense political 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:10.939 tensions in Europe in the 30s. Right. He's a 00:04:10.939 --> 00:04:13.659 teenager. During the actual war. Which is intense 00:04:13.659 --> 00:04:15.580 enough on its own. And then he becomes a young 00:04:15.580 --> 00:04:18.180 adult the exact moment the death settles. The 00:04:18.180 --> 00:04:20.500 timing there is just everything, isn't it? It 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:23.579 really is. If he had been born, say, 10 years 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:25.879 earlier. He would have been drafted. His prime 00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:28.439 early career would have been totally crushed 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:31.279 by the war. Wow, yeah. But if he's born 10 years 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:35.300 later, he misses that initial crazy explosion 00:04:35.300 --> 00:04:37.740 of the American cultural occupation in the late 00:04:37.740 --> 00:04:41.500 40s. So he hits this. absolute sweet spot. He 00:04:41.500 --> 00:04:43.800 does. He's exactly the right age to step into 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:46.639 the cultural vacuum of post -war Vienna and help 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:49.120 fill it. Now, we have to address the elephant 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:51.680 in the room, or I guess the name on the gravestone. 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:54.360 Yes, the name. The sauce material is highly specific 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:57.199 about this. It notes that he is, quote, known 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.639 by the stage name Fatty George. Right. But then 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:02.920 it explicitly points out that he is depicted 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:05.879 as Fatty George on his own gravestone. Which 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:08.800 is just a profound detail when you stop and think 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:11.139 about it. I mean, usually a stage name is just 00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:13.600 it's a mask, right? A professional tool. Yeah. 00:05:13.660 --> 00:05:15.500 It's a mask you take off when you go home at 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:17.439 night. Like you're The Rock on television, but 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:19.680 you are Dwayne Johnson to your family. Or you're 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:23.040 Sting on stage, but your passport says Gordon 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:26.379 Sumner. Exactly. But for Franz Bressler, the 00:05:26.379 --> 00:05:29.519 persona of Fatty George seems to have just consumed 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:32.579 the man entirely. It became who he was. Do you 00:05:32.579 --> 00:05:35.000 think that was a calculated branding decision 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.879 on his part? Or was it just the reality of living 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:40.620 the jazz life 24 -7 back then? I think it started 00:05:40.620 --> 00:05:43.459 as a survival strategy, and then it just calcified 00:05:43.459 --> 00:05:45.540 into an identity. What do you mean by survival 00:05:45.540 --> 00:05:48.500 strategy? Well, think about the late 40s and 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:51.379 early 50s in Europe. If you wanted to play jazz... 00:05:51.709 --> 00:05:53.949 And actually be taken seriously by the crowds. 00:05:54.170 --> 00:05:57.430 You had to be American. Or seem American. Exactly. 00:05:57.430 --> 00:06:00.110 You had to have that American spirit. Franz Pressler 00:06:00.110 --> 00:06:02.589 sounds like, I don't know, an accountant. Or 00:06:02.589 --> 00:06:05.029 a classical oboist. Right. It sounds very traditional 00:06:05.029 --> 00:06:08.029 Viennese. But Fatty George. That sounds like 00:06:08.029 --> 00:06:09.689 a guy who knows how to swing. It sounds like 00:06:09.689 --> 00:06:11.930 a character straight out of a noir novel. Or 00:06:11.930 --> 00:06:14.810 some guy hosting a Harlem rent party. It really 00:06:14.810 --> 00:06:17.050 does. It sends an immediate signal to the audience. 00:06:17.209 --> 00:06:18.889 It tells them, before they even hear a note, 00:06:19.069 --> 00:06:22.670 this is not Strauss. This is jazz. So it's this 00:06:22.670 --> 00:06:25.910 brilliant act of self -mythologizing. Precisely. 00:06:26.230 --> 00:06:29.350 And by the time he died, the myth simply was 00:06:29.350 --> 00:06:31.610 the reality. There was no going back to being 00:06:31.610 --> 00:06:34.899 Franz. Okay, so before he becomes the myth. before 00:06:34.899 --> 00:06:37.420 the stage name takes over. He obviously has to 00:06:37.420 --> 00:06:39.959 learn the actual craft of music. The foundation. 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:43.439 Yes. And the encyclopedic notes we have highlight 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:47.040 this really fascinating duality in his musical 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:49.720 education. The two instruments. Right. On one 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:52.639 side we have the saxophone. The text specifically 00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:56.420 says he began playing alto sax as a teenager. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:59.819 And that phrasing, as a teenager, usually implies 00:06:59.819 --> 00:07:02.620 a more informal kind of training. Like self -taught. 00:07:02.889 --> 00:07:05.290 Likely, yes. Or at least picking it up outside 00:07:05.290 --> 00:07:07.910 of a rigid academic setting. How would a teenager 00:07:07.910 --> 00:07:10.949 in wartime or immediate post -war Vienna even 00:07:10.949 --> 00:07:13.329 learn jazz sax? He was probably listening to 00:07:13.329 --> 00:07:15.660 whatever records he could find. Maybe those V 00:07:15.660 --> 00:07:17.639 -discs that the American soldiers brought over. 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:19.779 Oh, the victory discs. Yeah. You listen to them 00:07:19.779 --> 00:07:22.600 endlessly and you figure it out by ear. And the 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:25.240 saxophone is a somewhat intuitive instrument 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:27.720 in that specific way. Meaning what exactly? Well, 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:29.620 you can make a sound on saxophone relatively 00:07:29.620 --> 00:07:31.939 easily compared to some other woodwinds. Now, 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:35.300 mastering it is incredibly hard. But getting 00:07:35.300 --> 00:07:38.319 started and playing by ear is accessible. It's 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:41.720 a very vocal, street -level instrument in the 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:43.519 jazz tradition. Okay. But then we have the other 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:46.509 side of his education. The clarinet. And this 00:07:46.509 --> 00:07:48.810 is where his story gets really rigorous. Because 00:07:48.810 --> 00:07:51.269 the source states very clearly that he was educated 00:07:51.269 --> 00:07:54.069 as a clarinetist at the Vienna Academy. Which 00:07:54.069 --> 00:07:56.410 is no small thing. Right. Today, that institution 00:07:56.410 --> 00:07:59.310 is known as the University of Music and Performing 00:07:59.310 --> 00:08:01.470 Arts Vienna. Yes. That is not a place where you 00:08:01.470 --> 00:08:03.589 just show up and jam in a basement. Definitely 00:08:03.589 --> 00:08:06.410 not. That is the absolute citadel of Western 00:08:06.410 --> 00:08:09.009 art music. Right. We are talking about endless 00:08:09.009 --> 00:08:13.009 scales, arpeggios, incredibly strict embouchure 00:08:13.009 --> 00:08:16.560 control. Sight reading. Yes, sight reading. Highly 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:19.819 complex classical repertoire. To even get accepted 00:08:19.819 --> 00:08:22.759 into the academy, you have to be elite. So Franz 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:25.579 Pressler, soon to be Fatty George, wasn't just 00:08:25.579 --> 00:08:28.040 some scrappy kid blowing a horn in a smoky cellar. 00:08:28.060 --> 00:08:30.800 No, he was a highly trained technician. You know, 00:08:30.819 --> 00:08:32.720 I've always wondered about the difficulty of 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:35.960 doubling on those two specific instruments. Saxophone 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:38.480 and clarinet. Yeah, because they're related, 00:08:38.620 --> 00:08:40.559 obviously they both use a single reed, but they 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:43.139 really aren't the same. Oh, they are notoriously 00:08:43.139 --> 00:08:45.419 difficult to balance at a truly high professional 00:08:45.419 --> 00:08:48.519 level. Really? Why is that? It comes down to 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:51.120 the embouchure. That's the way you form your 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.460 mouth and facial muscles around the mouthpiece 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:56.919 and the reed. Okay. The clarinet requires a much 00:08:56.919 --> 00:09:00.980 tighter, firmer embouchure. It takes more concentrated 00:09:00.980 --> 00:09:04.169 pressure. Got it. And the sax. The saxophone 00:09:04.169 --> 00:09:06.970 embouchure is generally looser, a bit more relaxed 00:09:06.970 --> 00:09:09.730 and open. So they fight against each other. Exactly. 00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:12.110 If you spend all day playing the saxophone, your 00:09:12.110 --> 00:09:14.769 mouth gets used to that loose feel and then your 00:09:14.769 --> 00:09:17.000 clarinet intonation can suffer. You might sound 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.740 flat or uncontrolled. And vice versa. Yeah. If 00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:21.879 you play too much strict classical clarinet, 00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:24.600 your sax tone can end up sounding really pinched 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:27.639 and thin instead of fat and robust. Wow. So for 00:09:27.639 --> 00:09:30.220 him to do both, to master the street style sax 00:09:30.220 --> 00:09:33.279 and the rigorous academy clarinet, it really 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:35.519 suggests a massive level of musical discipline. 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:38.220 It gave him a totally unique toolkit as a player. 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:41.080 How did he use that toolkit? Well, when he wants 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:44.240 to be raw, loud, and deeply emotive, he has the 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:47.129 alto sax ready to go. Right. But when he needs 00:09:47.129 --> 00:09:50.730 to be intricate, fast, nimble, and highly precise, 00:09:51.090 --> 00:09:53.929 he switches to the clarinet. That's a great dynamic 00:09:53.929 --> 00:09:57.370 range. Plus, having that academy training gave 00:09:57.370 --> 00:09:59.710 him something invaluable in Europe at that time. 00:10:00.429 --> 00:10:03.549 Credibility. Because it's Austria. Yes. In Austria, 00:10:03.669 --> 00:10:06.389 especially in Vienna, titles and formal education 00:10:06.389 --> 00:10:08.549 really matter to the establishment. So being 00:10:08.549 --> 00:10:11.470 an academy trained musician. It likely opened 00:10:11.470 --> 00:10:14.549 doors for him that a purely self -taught jazz 00:10:14.549 --> 00:10:16.490 cat. simply wouldn't be able to get through. 00:10:16.669 --> 00:10:19.409 It legitimizes what he's doing. Exactly. It's 00:10:19.409 --> 00:10:21.330 a way of telling the conservative Viennese cultural 00:10:21.330 --> 00:10:23.769 gatekeepers, look, I know your rules perfectly. 00:10:24.070 --> 00:10:26.289 I'm just choosing to play these other rules instead. 00:10:26.590 --> 00:10:29.610 I love that. He becomes a bridge, a bridge between 00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:32.889 the very old classical Vienna and the brand new 00:10:32.889 --> 00:10:36.029 American influenced sound. A perfect way to put 00:10:36.029 --> 00:10:38.090 it. Which brings us to the moment that bridge 00:10:38.090 --> 00:10:41.129 actually opens for traffic. The late 40s. Right. 00:10:41.450 --> 00:10:44.350 Part two of our deep dive, the post -war explosion. 00:10:44.990 --> 00:10:47.889 The year is 1947. Okay, so he's 20 years old 00:10:47.889 --> 00:10:51.590 here. Yes. Born in 27, so he's just 20. Think 00:10:51.590 --> 00:10:55.710 about being 20 years old in 1947 Vienna. The 00:10:55.710 --> 00:10:58.149 city is still physically recovering. The people 00:10:58.149 --> 00:11:00.850 are still hungry, literally and metaphorically. 00:11:00.909 --> 00:11:02.710 And what does this 20 -year -old do? He decides, 00:11:02.830 --> 00:11:06.789 I am going to start a band. Not just join a band 00:11:06.789 --> 00:11:09.750 as a side man. He starts his own. Right. He founds 00:11:09.750 --> 00:11:13.000 a group called the Hot Club 7. Hot Club 7. You 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:14.559 know, I really want to unpack this name with 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:17.720 you because the source notes explicitly describe 00:11:17.720 --> 00:11:21.139 this exact group as a bop group. Yes, bebop. 00:11:21.220 --> 00:11:23.860 But the name Hot Club, doesn't that specifically 00:11:23.860 --> 00:11:27.039 refer to Django Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli? 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:29.720 It absolutely does. The Quintet du Hot Club de 00:11:29.720 --> 00:11:32.279 France. Right. Hot Club was the primary branding 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:35.450 of the 1930s European swing era. It invokes a 00:11:35.450 --> 00:11:37.830 very specific sound, doesn't it? Very specific. 00:11:38.009 --> 00:11:41.110 String swing, acoustic guitars, violins, a bit 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:43.470 of that gypsy jazz flavor. It is fundamentally 00:11:43.470 --> 00:11:47.389 a pre -war European aesthetic. But Bop Be Bop 00:11:47.389 --> 00:11:49.070 is the complete opposite of that. Totally different 00:11:49.070 --> 00:11:52.429 universe. Bop is Charlie Parker. It's Dizzy Gillespie. 00:11:52.570 --> 00:11:55.769 It's that radical, incredibly modern, high -speed 00:11:55.769 --> 00:11:58.070 music that was just coming out of New York in 00:11:58.070 --> 00:12:00.370 the mid -40s. So we have a really fascinating 00:12:00.370 --> 00:12:02.470 contradiction right off the bat. He names his 00:12:02.470 --> 00:12:05.929 band after the old, safe European style, but 00:12:05.929 --> 00:12:08.570 he plays the aggressive, brand -new American 00:12:08.570 --> 00:12:11.549 style. Right. Do you think that was just confusion 00:12:11.549 --> 00:12:14.730 on his part? Or was it a deliberate... marketing 00:12:14.730 --> 00:12:17.409 tactic i suspect it's maybe a little bit of both 00:12:17.409 --> 00:12:21.409 but primarily it's savvy marketing how so hot 00:12:21.409 --> 00:12:24.409 club was a brand name that european audiences 00:12:24.409 --> 00:12:27.029 already understood to them it just meant jazz 00:12:27.029 --> 00:12:30.049 it was a safe keyword exactly if he had called 00:12:30.049 --> 00:12:32.929 his band say the vienna rebop collective people 00:12:32.929 --> 00:12:35.110 might have been totally alienated they wouldn't 00:12:35.110 --> 00:12:36.750 know what to expect that makes a lot of sense 00:12:36.750 --> 00:12:39.450 by saying hot club he gets the audience in the 00:12:39.450 --> 00:12:41.429 door they think they know what they're buying 00:12:41.429 --> 00:12:44.340 and then Once they are sitting down with a drink. 00:12:44.519 --> 00:12:47.139 He hits them with a bebop. Right. He educates 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:49.019 them. Which is a huge risk, honestly, because 00:12:49.019 --> 00:12:51.940 bop is not easy listening. Oh, not at all. Bop 00:12:51.940 --> 00:12:54.519 is deeply challenging music. It's fast. It relies 00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:58.659 on heavy chromaticism, blistering tempos, incredibly 00:12:58.659 --> 00:13:02.399 complex chord substitutions. It is highly intellectual 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:04.919 music. It's not dance music anymore. No, you 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:07.360 sit and listen to it. So for a 20 -year -old 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:10.320 kid to be leading a septet. Wait, yeah, let's 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:13.700 talk about that. A septet. Seven musicians. That 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:17.080 is just wild. Finding six other guys in 1947 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:20.460 Vienna who can even physically play bebop is 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:23.679 practically a miracle. Seriously, who even has 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:26.159 the sheet music for that stuff? Nobody. They 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:27.779 certainly weren't buying Charlie Parker charts 00:13:27.779 --> 00:13:30.100 at the local music store. So how are they learning 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:32.580 it? They must have been meticulously transcribing 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:35.419 things straight off the radio broadcasts. Or 00:13:35.419 --> 00:13:38.259 trading those precious 78 RPM records that the 00:13:38.259 --> 00:13:40.440 soldiers brought over, slowing them down, trying 00:13:40.440 --> 00:13:42.240 to figure out what Parker was doing. That takes 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:45.639 extreme dedication. It does. And it speaks volumes 00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:48.740 about Fatty George's inherent charisma. How do 00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:50.799 you mean? Well, you simply don't need a complex 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:53.679 seven -piece band at age 20 unless you have a 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:55.639 crystal clear musical vision. And unless the 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:59.139 other musicians truly respect you. Exactly. Or, 00:13:59.320 --> 00:14:02.659 and this is crucial, unless you are the guy who 00:14:02.659 --> 00:14:05.139 can actually hustle and get the paying gigs. 00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:08.519 Ah, the business side again. Right. And that 00:14:08.519 --> 00:14:10.840 really seems to be Fatty George's superpower 00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:13.500 from day one. He makes things happen. He gets 00:14:13.500 --> 00:14:15.659 the room. He gets the crowd. He gets the money. 00:14:15.879 --> 00:14:19.759 So the late 40s serve as his launch pad. He establishes 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:22.200 himself as this young lion of the Vienna scene. 00:14:22.379 --> 00:14:25.840 Yes. And then we move forward into the 1950s 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:28.759 and his personal brand starts to evolve. We enter 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:31.179 the era of the Two Sounds Band. The Two Sounds 00:14:31.179 --> 00:14:32.700 Band. I just think that's such a great name. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:35.419 It is very catchy. The source text doesn't explicitly 00:14:35.419 --> 00:14:38.480 define what Two Sounds refers to, but given the 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:40.539 conversation we just had. We can make a very 00:14:40.539 --> 00:14:43.139 educated guess. It has to refer to as two instruments, 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:45.429 right? The clarinet. And the saxophone. The dual 00:14:45.429 --> 00:14:47.789 sounds of Fanta George. Yes, absolutely. It's 00:14:47.789 --> 00:14:50.250 almost like a flex. He's putting his technical 00:14:50.250 --> 00:14:52.889 versatility right there on the marquee. It creates 00:14:52.889 --> 00:14:55.370 a brilliant, unique selling proposition for the 00:14:55.370 --> 00:14:57.309 audience. Come see the man who can do it all. 00:14:57.750 --> 00:15:01.470 Precisely. Though structurally, it might also 00:15:01.470 --> 00:15:04.009 refer to the stylistic range of the band itself, 00:15:04.350 --> 00:15:06.809 their ability to play both the hot traditional 00:15:06.809 --> 00:15:10.240 sounds and the cooler, more modern sounds. That's 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:12.279 a good point. Let's actually look at the lineup 00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:14.860 of this band as provided in the encyclopedic 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:17.240 notes, because this is where the deep dive gets 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:20.179 really interesting. Oh, this lineup is unbelievable. 00:15:20.659 --> 00:15:22.919 It's not just some random pickup group playing 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:25.519 a Tuesday night gig. No, this is essentially 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:28.899 a super group. It is the absolute cream of the 00:15:28.899 --> 00:15:31.539 crop of the German -speaking jazz world at that 00:15:31.539 --> 00:15:33.679 time. Okay, let's go through them. First up, 00:15:33.740 --> 00:15:36.539 we have Oscar Klein on trumpet. Right. Oscar 00:15:36.539 --> 00:15:38.940 Klein is a total legend in his own right. He 00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:41.100 was an Austrian -born Swiss musician, correct? 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:43.840 Yes, and he was a true master of the traditional 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:46.500 jazz styles, but he could also play swing and 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:49.039 mainstream jazz brilliantly. So having him on 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:51.799 trumpet. It gives the band a very strong, highly 00:15:51.799 --> 00:15:55.440 skilled, brassy front line. He anchors the traditional 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:58.480 elements. Next on the list, we have Carl Drewo 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:00.919 on saxophone. Now this is a fascinating choice. 00:16:01.179 --> 00:16:03.399 Because if Fatty George is already playing the 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:06.279 saxophone, why do you need to hire Carl Drewo? 00:16:06.580 --> 00:16:08.500 Doesn't the sonic space get a little crowded? 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:11.179 You'd think so, but not if you arrange the music 00:16:11.179 --> 00:16:14.110 intelligently. How did they do it? Well... You 00:16:14.110 --> 00:16:16.909 have to remember that in the 1950s, the tenor 00:16:16.909 --> 00:16:19.870 battle or the sax battle was a massive trope 00:16:19.870 --> 00:16:22.549 in jazz. Like Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt? Exactly. 00:16:22.669 --> 00:16:26.049 The crowd loved it. Having two saxophones allows 00:16:26.049 --> 00:16:28.730 you to trade fours where you bounce short solos 00:16:28.730 --> 00:16:31.129 back and forth. Oh, right. It allows you to harmonize 00:16:31.129 --> 00:16:34.190 lines in thirds, which creates this massive wall 00:16:34.190 --> 00:16:36.769 of sound. And tying back to his versatility, 00:16:37.029 --> 00:16:39.929 it frees Fatty up to put down the sax and pick 00:16:39.929 --> 00:16:42.429 up the clarinet. Exactly. He can switch to clarinet 00:16:42.429 --> 00:16:44.470 without the band. suddenly losing its saxophone 00:16:44.470 --> 00:16:47.090 section, Druot holds down the fort. That makes 00:16:47.090 --> 00:16:50.169 perfect sense. So Druot is the anchor and Fatty 00:16:50.169 --> 00:16:52.230 is the wild card who can float over the top. 00:16:52.350 --> 00:16:54.389 Right. And Druot was just a fantastic player. 00:16:54.509 --> 00:16:57.490 Yeah. Very modern, very robust tone. Okay. Next 00:16:57.490 --> 00:17:00.129 member mentioned in the source, Bill Grah. The 00:17:00.129 --> 00:17:03.169 notes list him as pianist and a vibraphonist. 00:17:03.370 --> 00:17:06.750 The vibraphone. That is such a crucial sonic 00:17:06.750 --> 00:17:10.220 detail for this era. Why is the vibraphone so 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:11.759 important here? It seems like kind of a niche 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:13.880 instrument. You have to think about the broader 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:17.500 1950s jazz soundscape. Okay. Over in America, 00:17:17.539 --> 00:17:20.160 you have groups like the Modern Jazz Quartet 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:24.279 rising to international fame. The MJQ. With Milt 00:17:24.279 --> 00:17:27.299 Jackson on vibes? Yes. And the vibraphone comes 00:17:27.299 --> 00:17:29.420 to represent this new movement of cool jazz. 00:17:29.819 --> 00:17:33.380 Ah. It's this shimmering, deeply sophisticated 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:36.900 metallic sound. It sustains notes beautifully. 00:17:37.220 --> 00:17:39.940 It's very different from a piano. Exactly. It's 00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:42.339 not the aggressive honky -tonk piano sound of 00:17:42.339 --> 00:17:44.940 the 1920s. The vibraphone is the sound of a dry 00:17:44.940 --> 00:17:47.539 martini glass clinking in an expensive lounge. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:50.619 I love that visual. So by adding vibes to the 00:17:50.619 --> 00:17:52.660 two sounds band, they aren't just a loud, aggressive 00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:54.880 bop group anymore. No, they gain incredible texture. 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:56.599 They gain atmosphere and mood. Which makes them 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:59.279 sound expensive. It makes them sound highly modern 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:01.980 and very chic. And then we get to the final name 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:03.839 on this list, the name that really jumps off 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:05.859 the page for any jazz fan. Oh, absolutely. The 00:18:05.859 --> 00:18:09.720 text lists. Keyboardist and composer Joe Zawinul. 00:18:09.859 --> 00:18:12.319 Joe Zawinul. It's just incredible to see him 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:13.700 here. Now, for anyone listening who might not 00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:16.180 be a hardcore jazz historian, why should they 00:18:16.180 --> 00:18:18.759 care about Joe Zawinul? Okay, Joe Zawinul is, 00:18:19.059 --> 00:18:22.359 without exaggeration, arguably the single most 00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:25.160 important jazz musician Austria ever produced. 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:28.450 High craze. It's just a fact. He eventually leaves 00:18:28.450 --> 00:18:31.430 Europe, moves to America, and joins Cannonball 00:18:31.430 --> 00:18:34.569 Adderley's incredibly famous band. He wrote Mercy, 00:18:34.710 --> 00:18:37.910 Mercy, Mercy. He did. A massive hit. And then 00:18:37.910 --> 00:18:40.109 he played with Miles Davis on the Seminole albums 00:18:40.109 --> 00:18:43.140 In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. which basically 00:18:43.140 --> 00:18:45.579 invented jazz rock fusion. And then he founded 00:18:45.579 --> 00:18:49.779 Weather Report. Exactly. He is a literal titan 00:18:49.779 --> 00:18:52.660 of global music. And here he is, just a young 00:18:52.660 --> 00:18:55.579 guy in the 1950s playing in Fatty George's local 00:18:55.579 --> 00:18:59.299 band in Vienna. It's his proving ground. And 00:18:59.299 --> 00:19:01.579 notice what the source specifies about his role. 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:04.180 He wasn't just the keyboardist. It says composer. 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:06.759 That is the golden nugget in this text. What 00:19:06.759 --> 00:19:08.940 does that tell us about Fatty George? It means 00:19:08.940 --> 00:19:11.559 Fatty George gave Zawinul the space and the permission 00:19:11.559 --> 00:19:14.420 to write original music for the band. He wasn't 00:19:14.420 --> 00:19:16.619 just a hired gun told to play the standard chords. 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:19.440 No, he was actively shaping the sound of the 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:22.440 ensemble. Do we think Fatty George actually knew 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:24.700 what he had in Zawinul? Did he see the genius? 00:19:25.390 --> 00:19:27.970 He must have recognized the sheer talent. I mean, 00:19:27.990 --> 00:19:31.130 you don't let a young sideman compose your band's 00:19:31.130 --> 00:19:33.990 material unless they're bringing something absolutely 00:19:33.990 --> 00:19:37.049 undeniable to the table. That's true. And for 00:19:37.049 --> 00:19:40.490 Zamenhall, this band was his incubator. Before 00:19:40.490 --> 00:19:42.329 he could go to America and conquer the music 00:19:42.329 --> 00:19:45.230 world, he needed a laboratory to test his ideas. 00:19:45.849 --> 00:19:48.609 And Fatty George provided that laboratory. Exactly. 00:19:48.609 --> 00:19:51.210 It's honestly amazing to think about the musical 00:19:51.210 --> 00:19:53.950 DNA bouncing around in that room. You have Oscar 00:19:53.950 --> 00:19:56.250 Klein holding down the deep tradition. Right. 00:19:56.369 --> 00:19:59.309 You have Carl Drew pushing the modern sax boundaries, 00:19:59.650 --> 00:20:02.710 Bill Graw adding that cool, sophisticated vibe 00:20:02.710 --> 00:20:05.869 texture, and young Joe Zawinul probably already 00:20:05.869 --> 00:20:09.240 experimenting with wild harmonic ideas. All while 00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:11.220 Fatty George is standing up front playing two 00:20:11.220 --> 00:20:13.140 instruments and conducting the whole chaotic 00:20:13.140 --> 00:20:15.960 symphony, it really shows that Fatty wasn't an 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:18.119 insecure band leader. How do you mean? A lesser 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:21.339 leader, a more ego -driven leader, would be deeply 00:20:21.339 --> 00:20:24.160 threatened by a generational talent like Zawinul. 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:26.299 They'd try to keep him down. Keep the spotlight 00:20:26.299 --> 00:20:29.059 on themselves. Right. But Fatty George deliberately 00:20:29.059 --> 00:20:31.420 surrounded himself with people who could potentially 00:20:31.420 --> 00:20:34.180 outplay him, and he just rode that creative wave. 00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:36.519 That's the mark of a great manager, honestly. 00:20:36.819 --> 00:20:39.720 It is. But... As we hinted at earlier, just having 00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:42.000 a great band isn't enough to sustain a scene. 00:20:42.180 --> 00:20:44.400 No, you need a place to actually play the music. 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:47.390 Right. the physical space which brings us to 00:20:47.390 --> 00:20:50.789 part four of our outline the impresario this 00:20:50.789 --> 00:20:54.089 is where the story shifts because in 1955 fatty 00:20:54.089 --> 00:20:57.250 george makes a massive career move that changes 00:20:57.250 --> 00:21:00.450 everything he stops being just a gigging employee 00:21:00.450 --> 00:21:02.630 of the music industry and he becomes an owner 00:21:02.630 --> 00:21:05.089 yes the source states that he founded the jazz 00:21:05.089 --> 00:21:09.369 casino in vienna in 1955. the jazz casino i really 00:21:09.369 --> 00:21:12.210 love the pure ambition in that name it tells 00:21:12.210 --> 00:21:14.480 you exactly who his target demographic was He 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:17.019 wasn't opening a dingy underground cellar or 00:21:17.019 --> 00:21:19.960 a jazz cave. No, he was opening a casino. It 00:21:19.960 --> 00:21:23.859 implies what? High stakes? Money. It implies 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:28.349 deep glamour. It implies the jazz music. belongs 00:21:28.349 --> 00:21:31.450 in the exact same sentence as roulette wheels, 00:21:31.789 --> 00:21:34.890 champagne, and tuxedos. He's elevating the status 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:36.769 of the art form. He was trying to bring it out 00:21:36.769 --> 00:21:38.910 of the rubble and into the high society of Vienna. 00:21:39.210 --> 00:21:41.410 And according to the timeline, this is happening 00:21:41.410 --> 00:21:43.950 concurrently with his time leading the Two Sounds 00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:46.769 Band. Yes. So he is pulling triple duty. He is 00:21:46.769 --> 00:21:49.609 the star house band. He is the owner taking the 00:21:49.609 --> 00:21:52.329 financial risk. And he is the booker deciding 00:21:52.329 --> 00:21:55.380 who else plays. That is total... Top to bottom 00:21:55.380 --> 00:21:58.640 control of the product. But it's also total unmitigated 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:01.240 financial risk. Oh, absolutely. And unfortunately, 00:22:01.480 --> 00:22:03.579 the market always has the final say. Which it 00:22:03.579 --> 00:22:05.740 did, because the source notes plainly that the 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:09.019 jazz casino closed down in 1958. So roughly a 00:22:09.019 --> 00:22:11.400 three year run. Is that a failure? Three years? 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:13.819 In the brutal nightclub business, a three year 00:22:13.819 --> 00:22:16.799 run isn't a total disaster. Right. But it does 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:20.240 indicate a failure of the core concept. The high 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:23.299 end casino idea just didn't stick long term in 00:22:23.299 --> 00:22:25.789 that economy. Now, this is the crucial pivot 00:22:25.789 --> 00:22:28.289 point in his life. It is. Because most musicians, 00:22:28.369 --> 00:22:30.549 if they lost their club after three years, they 00:22:30.549 --> 00:22:32.950 would take the loss, pack up, and go back to 00:22:32.950 --> 00:22:35.630 touring full time. It's safer. But the notes 00:22:35.630 --> 00:22:39.130 say he, quote, rebounded immediately. He didn't 00:22:39.130 --> 00:22:42.210 even pause. He turns right around in 1958 and 00:22:42.210 --> 00:22:45.130 opens a new place called Fatty's Saloon. I want 00:22:45.130 --> 00:22:47.829 to look at the linguistic difference there. Casino 00:22:47.829 --> 00:22:51.279 versus saloon. It's a massive fundamental rebrand. 00:22:51.380 --> 00:22:54.619 It really is. A casino is very European. It's 00:22:54.619 --> 00:22:57.700 formal. It's elegant. Maybe a bit stiff and intimidating. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:00.259 You have to wear a nice jacket. Right. But a 00:23:00.259 --> 00:23:02.940 saloon. That is pure Americana. It is the Wild 00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:06.559 West. It's cowboys. It's rough wood. It's whiskey 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:09.400 in a glass. Why on earth would a jazz musician 00:23:09.400 --> 00:23:13.099 in 1950s Vienna want to open a cowboy saloon? 00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:16.660 Because at its core, jazz is American music. 00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:20.519 By creating a venue called a saloon, he is essentially 00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:22.799 building a theme park of American culture in 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:24.980 the middle of Austria. Oh, wow. He is saying 00:23:24.980 --> 00:23:27.200 to the Viennese public, you want the authentic 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:29.380 raw jazz experience. You have to come down to 00:23:29.380 --> 00:23:31.440 the saloon. You have to step fully into this 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:34.200 fantasy version of America. It's pure exoticism. 00:23:34.460 --> 00:23:37.359 Exactly. For a local Viennese person in 1958, 00:23:37.859 --> 00:23:41.000 going to an American saloon is as exotic as going 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:43.839 to a Polynesian tiki bar. It's not just a gig. 00:23:44.059 --> 00:23:46.869 It's a destination. It's an escape. And importantly, 00:23:47.089 --> 00:23:50.250 he puts his own name on this one. Fatty's Saloon. 00:23:50.329 --> 00:23:53.029 That's a huge shift, too. The jazz casino was 00:23:53.029 --> 00:23:56.130 a corporate anonymous name. Right. Fatty's Saloon 00:23:56.130 --> 00:23:59.609 is deeply personal. He is the barkeep. He is 00:23:59.609 --> 00:24:01.990 the jovial host. He is the sheriff of this little 00:24:01.990 --> 00:24:04.170 town he built. And the source notes confirm that 00:24:04.170 --> 00:24:06.470 the strategy worked. It says it became an important 00:24:06.470 --> 00:24:09.849 jazz venue in Austria. The saloon concept resonated. 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:12.619 where the casino concept failed. Why do you think 00:24:12.619 --> 00:24:15.240 that is? It was almost certainly looser, louder, 00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.940 more fun, and far less pretentious. People could 00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:21.519 just relax. And it became the absolute hub of 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:24.240 the scene. If you were a major touring American 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:26.960 musician coming through Europe, say Duke Ellington 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:29.920 or Louis Armstrong, you played your formal concert 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:32.200 at the big hall. And then you ended up at Fatty 00:24:32.200 --> 00:24:35.579 Saloon at 2 a .m. Exactly. That's where the real 00:24:35.579 --> 00:24:37.960 jam sessions happened. So he really built the 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:40.119 clubhouse for the entire community. He built 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:42.880 the physical scene without the saloon. Where 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:45.339 does the community even gather? Where do the 00:24:45.339 --> 00:24:47.980 hungry young players get to meet the old masters 00:24:47.980 --> 00:24:50.279 passing through town? He provided the actual 00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:52.480 square footage for the culture to take root and 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:54.940 grow. He was the architect. Now, as the venue 00:24:54.940 --> 00:24:57.440 changed and as time marched on, his music seemed 00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:00.460 to change as well. It did. Which brings us to 00:25:00.460 --> 00:25:02.819 part five, the evolution of his later career. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:06.099 Moving into the 1970s and 80s. Right. The encyclopedic 00:25:06.099 --> 00:25:08.640 notes mention that in the 1970s, he led a new 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:11.000 group. And this one was called the Chicago Jazz 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:13.799 Band. We really need to pause here and look closely 00:25:13.799 --> 00:25:15.839 at the timeline of the genres we've discussed. 00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:19.619 Let's review it. Okay, 1947. He starts with the 00:25:19.619 --> 00:25:23.200 Hot Club 7 playing bop. That is the absolute 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:25.700 cutting edge of modern music at the time. Right. 00:25:26.420 --> 00:25:30.680 1950s, the Two Sounds Band, cool jazz, vibraphones, 00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:33.460 modern original compositions by Zabin. Still 00:25:33.460 --> 00:25:36.460 very forward -looking. And then the 1970s. The 00:25:36.460 --> 00:25:38.900 Chicago Jazz Band. Right. Now, Chicago Jazz, 00:25:39.220 --> 00:25:41.539 that refers to a style from the 1920s, doesn't 00:25:41.539 --> 00:25:43.819 it? The revival of that early New Orleans sound. 00:25:44.039 --> 00:25:48.279 Yes. It is fundamentally trad jazz. Dixieland. 00:25:48.299 --> 00:25:51.259 So it's music that was literally 50 years old 00:25:51.259 --> 00:25:53.240 by the time he was playing it in the 70s. It's 00:25:53.240 --> 00:25:56.309 heavily traditional. Isn't that backward? Well, 00:25:56.369 --> 00:25:58.170 it depends entirely on how you look at the arc 00:25:58.170 --> 00:26:00.549 of an artist's life. Usually we expect artists 00:26:00.549 --> 00:26:03.190 to get more experimental and weird as they age. 00:26:03.369 --> 00:26:06.029 That's the cliche. Look at Miles Davis. He went 00:26:06.029 --> 00:26:09.450 from bop to cool to modal to electric fusion. 00:26:09.849 --> 00:26:12.289 And eventually he was playing with hip hop beats 00:26:12.289 --> 00:26:14.990 in the 80s. He never went backward. Right. But 00:26:14.990 --> 00:26:18.069 Fatty George went from cutting edge bop all the 00:26:18.069 --> 00:26:20.829 way back to Dixieland. It is certainly a regression 00:26:20.829 --> 00:26:23.529 in terms of harmonic complexity. But we have 00:26:23.529 --> 00:26:25.509 to look at the broader cultural context of the 00:26:25.509 --> 00:26:27.769 1970s, especially in Europe. What was going on? 00:26:27.990 --> 00:26:31.289 There was a massive continent -wide trad jazz 00:26:31.289 --> 00:26:34.349 revival. Oh, really? Driven by nostalgia? Huge 00:26:34.349 --> 00:26:37.109 nostalgia. You had people like Ackerbilk in the 00:26:37.109 --> 00:26:40.369 UK having massive pop hits with trad jazz. There 00:26:40.369 --> 00:26:44.069 was a huge, eager market for happy, stomping, 00:26:44.069 --> 00:26:46.609 highly accessible jazz music. Because the modern 00:26:46.609 --> 00:26:48.509 stuff had gotten too difficult. Partly, yes. 00:26:48.809 --> 00:26:52.519 The avant -garde movements. Free jazz. The really 00:26:52.519 --> 00:26:54.839 intense fusion stuff. It was getting very loud, 00:26:54.940 --> 00:26:57.759 very abstract, and honestly very difficult for 00:26:57.759 --> 00:27:01.220 general casual audiences to digest while having 00:27:01.220 --> 00:27:03.839 a beer. So Fatty George, the consummate club 00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:07.519 owner, looks around his saloon, a place literally 00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:10.680 built for good times, and realizes something. 00:27:11.059 --> 00:27:13.099 He realizes, I shouldn't be playing abstract 00:27:13.099 --> 00:27:15.720 20 -minute atonal art music in here. I should 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:19.039 be playing party music. Exactly. Chicago jazz 00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:21.720 perfectly fits the architecture and the vibe 00:27:21.720 --> 00:27:24.740 of a saloon. It fits the atmosphere of clinking 00:27:24.740 --> 00:27:27.539 glasses, smoke, and laughter. If he had booked 00:27:27.539 --> 00:27:29.859 a free jazz ensemble into the saloon... It would 00:27:29.859 --> 00:27:31.819 have cleared the room in 10 minutes. So the pragmatic 00:27:31.819 --> 00:27:34.140 business owner in him dictated the direction 00:27:34.140 --> 00:27:37.000 of the musician in him. That's one very likely 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:39.500 interpretation, but there's another angle. What's 00:27:39.500 --> 00:27:42.460 that? Perhaps after 30 straight years of constantly 00:27:42.460 --> 00:27:45.240 chasing the new and the modern, he just wanted 00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:47.579 to play the music that... physically felt good 00:27:47.579 --> 00:27:50.660 to play returning to his roots there's a profound 00:27:50.660 --> 00:27:54.700 joy in chicago jazz the collective improvisation 00:27:54.700 --> 00:27:58.180 the simple driving rhythm that intellectual bop 00:27:58.180 --> 00:28:01.240 doesn't always provide it's comfort food it is 00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:04.380 absolute musical comfort food yeah and for a 00:28:04.380 --> 00:28:08.119 man in his late 40s or 50s dealing with the daily 00:28:08.119 --> 00:28:11.420 stress of running a busy nightclub maybe musical 00:28:11.420 --> 00:28:14.240 comfort was exactly what he craved he didn't 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:16.039 want to do math on stage anymore he just wanted 00:28:16.039 --> 00:28:18.660 to swing exactly and he clearly stuck with it 00:28:18.660 --> 00:28:20.920 because the notes say he remained active as a 00:28:20.920 --> 00:28:23.359 band leader right up until his death yes he died 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:27.240 basically in the harness march 29 1982 1982 he 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:30.380 was only 54 years old 54 that strikes me as incredibly 00:28:30.380 --> 00:28:32.799 young it is very young to have accomplished all 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:34.400 that but you have to think about the reality 00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:37.220 of the life he lived the nightclub life nightclubs 00:28:37.220 --> 00:28:41.819 secondhand smoke every single night alcohol The 00:28:41.819 --> 00:28:44.019 relentless financial stress of running a small 00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:47.299 business. The terrible hours. Yeah, jazz is not 00:28:47.299 --> 00:28:49.519 exactly a profession known for promoting longevity. 00:28:50.099 --> 00:28:52.119 Especially when you aren't just the star who 00:28:52.119 --> 00:28:54.279 shows up to play for two hours. He was the guy 00:28:54.279 --> 00:28:56.940 unlocking the doors at 6 p .m., dealing with 00:28:56.940 --> 00:28:59.359 the plumbing, playing the gig, paying the staff, 00:28:59.579 --> 00:29:03.319 and then locking up at 4 a .m. Every night for 00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:06.200 30 years. He completely burned the candle at 00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:08.619 both ends. He really was the candle. That's a 00:29:08.619 --> 00:29:10.759 good way to put it. Let's look at his final legacy, 00:29:10.839 --> 00:29:15.200 then. Part six of our dive. Because when we step 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:17.400 back from the timeline, what are we ultimately 00:29:17.400 --> 00:29:20.220 left with? We are left with that very first image 00:29:20.220 --> 00:29:23.680 we discussed, the image on the gravestone. Fatty 00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:26.359 George, carved in stone. It confirms everything 00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:28.900 we've just talked about. History doesn't remember 00:29:28.900 --> 00:29:30.859 Franz Pressler, the kid who went to the academy. 00:29:31.059 --> 00:29:33.599 It remembers Fatty George, the undisputed Austrian 00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:36.259 jazzman. And the geography of that title is crucial 00:29:36.259 --> 00:29:38.980 here. How so? The source notes keep emphasizing 00:29:38.980 --> 00:29:42.220 his location, Austrian jazz musician. Vienna 00:29:42.220 --> 00:29:45.380 Academy, Vienna nightclubs. He stayed. He is 00:29:45.380 --> 00:29:47.799 a national treasure, precisely because he didn't 00:29:47.799 --> 00:29:51.480 leave. Zawinul left. Zawinul left. Oscar Klein 00:29:51.480 --> 00:29:53.940 traveled constantly. A lot of the great European 00:29:53.940 --> 00:29:56.140 talent emigrated to the states where the industry 00:29:56.140 --> 00:29:58.799 was bigger. But Fatty George stayed home. He 00:29:58.799 --> 00:30:01.079 anchored the scene. He proved to multiple generations 00:30:01.079 --> 00:30:03.900 of kids that you could actually do it right there 00:30:03.900 --> 00:30:06.339 in Vienna. You didn't have to flee to Paris or 00:30:06.339 --> 00:30:08.700 New York to have a world -class jazz club or 00:30:08.700 --> 00:30:10.839 to front a world -class band. You could build 00:30:10.839 --> 00:30:12.720 it in your own backyard. So if we have to summarize 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:15.259 the core pillars of his career based on these 00:30:15.259 --> 00:30:17.880 encyclopedic entries, how do you see it? I see 00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:21.500 his career as a really sturdy tripod. If you 00:30:21.500 --> 00:30:23.519 remove any one of the legs, the whole legacy 00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:26.339 falls over. Okay, let's name them. Leg one. The 00:30:26.339 --> 00:30:29.779 musician. The technically brilliant, academy 00:30:29.779 --> 00:30:32.539 -trained clarinetist who thoroughly understood 00:30:32.539 --> 00:30:35.220 the rules of Western music, paired with a street 00:30:35.220 --> 00:30:37.859 -smart, self -taught saxophonist who understood 00:30:37.859 --> 00:30:41.420 the soul of jazz. He had the pure chops. Unquestionable 00:30:41.420 --> 00:30:44.400 chops. Leg two. The band leader. The visionary 00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:47.420 who could spot raw, young talent like Joe Zawinul. 00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:50.039 The guy who had the sheer audacity to manage 00:30:50.039 --> 00:30:53.690 complex, seven -piece bop bands at age 20. And 00:30:53.690 --> 00:30:56.210 the guy who could keep a working band employed 00:30:56.210 --> 00:30:59.109 and together for decades. Right. He was a true 00:30:59.109 --> 00:31:02.029 leader of men. And leg three. The entrepreneur. 00:31:02.630 --> 00:31:06.410 The impresario. The club owner. The man who fundamentally 00:31:06.410 --> 00:31:09.529 understood that the music cannot survive without 00:31:09.529 --> 00:31:14.490 a physical home. The jazz casino. Fatty's saloon. 00:31:14.609 --> 00:31:17.069 He literally built the stage so that others could 00:31:17.069 --> 00:31:19.329 shine on it. And because he's all three of those 00:31:19.329 --> 00:31:21.789 things simultaneously. He transcended his birth 00:31:21.789 --> 00:31:25.160 name and became the myth. Fatty George, a totally 00:31:25.160 --> 00:31:28.039 singular figure in European culture. Exactly. 00:31:28.079 --> 00:31:30.559 You know, exploring a story like this, it really 00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:33.079 challenges the standard way we tend to think 00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:35.259 about music history. What do you mean? Well, 00:31:35.400 --> 00:31:38.140 we usually only focus on the massive innovators 00:31:38.140 --> 00:31:41.400 of style, right? We ask who invented the new 00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:43.640 chord progression, who played the fastest, craziest 00:31:43.640 --> 00:31:46.119 solo. Right. We are obsessed with the technical 00:31:46.119 --> 00:31:48.779 breakthroughs on the records. But Fatty George's 00:31:48.779 --> 00:31:51.720 story suggests something else entirely. It suggests 00:31:51.720 --> 00:31:54.119 that the local infrastructure is just as important 00:31:54.119 --> 00:31:56.240 as the notes being played. It's the foundation 00:31:56.240 --> 00:31:58.440 of everything. If there is no saloon, there's 00:31:58.440 --> 00:32:01.359 no gig. And if there's no gig, the musicians 00:32:01.359 --> 00:32:04.220 don't meet, they don't practice, and there is 00:32:04.220 --> 00:32:07.119 no scene. You can literally be the greatest trumpet 00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:09.960 player in the world with all the talent imaginable. 00:32:10.119 --> 00:32:11.619 But if you don't have a Fatty George in your 00:32:11.619 --> 00:32:14.420 town to open the doors, pour the drinks, and 00:32:14.420 --> 00:32:16.359 pay the electric bill. You're just playing alone 00:32:16.359 --> 00:32:19.500 in your bedroom. That is the truth. Fatty George 00:32:19.500 --> 00:32:22.519 was the fertile soil that the entire Austrian 00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:25.880 jazz scene grew out of. That is a really beautiful 00:32:25.880 --> 00:32:28.339 way to put it. The soil of the scene. Thank you. 00:32:28.420 --> 00:32:30.599 Well, I know one thing for sure. The next time 00:32:30.599 --> 00:32:33.480 I happen to be in Vienna, I am going to actively 00:32:33.480 --> 00:32:36.299 look for that gravestone. It feels like a necessary 00:32:36.299 --> 00:32:38.559 pilgrimage now, doesn't it? It really does. It's 00:32:38.559 --> 00:32:41.089 a genuine piece of history. Absolutely. And to 00:32:41.089 --> 00:32:43.150 you, our listener, thanks for taking this trip 00:32:43.150 --> 00:32:46.549 back to 1947 with us. It's been a ride. I think 00:32:46.549 --> 00:32:48.369 the big takeaway here is something to just mull 00:32:48.369 --> 00:32:51.190 over on your own is how the physical environment 00:32:51.190 --> 00:32:53.509 you exist in, the spaces you inhabit or even 00:32:53.509 --> 00:32:56.390 own can ultimately shape the art you produce. 00:32:56.849 --> 00:33:00.109 Does the saloon create the Chicago jazz or does 00:33:00.109 --> 00:33:03.509 the jazz require the saloon? Exactly. It's a 00:33:03.509 --> 00:33:05.769 reminder that sometimes the most important cultural 00:33:05.769 --> 00:33:08.609 figures aren't always the ones on the international 00:33:08.609 --> 00:33:11.289 bestseller lists. Sometimes they're the ones 00:33:11.289 --> 00:33:13.430 who just stayed home and built something sturdy 00:33:13.430 --> 00:33:16.410 that lasted. Well said. We will catch you on 00:33:16.410 --> 00:33:18.490 the next deep dive. Goodbye. See you.