Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, born
Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild, (10 December 1913 – 30 November 1988), was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
bebop jazzBebop or bop is a style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s...
enthusiast and member of the prominent
RothschildThe Rothschild family is an international dynasty of German Jewish origin that established worldwide banking and finance operations and was ennobled by Austria and the United Kingdom.-Origins:...
international financial dynasty.
Koenigswarter was the daughter of
Charles Rothschild Charles Rothschild was an English banker and entomologist and a member of the Rothschild banking family of England.-Family:...
and
Rozsika Edle RothschildRozsika Edle von Wertheimstein , whose family was the first Jewish family in Europe to be ennobled, was born in 1870 at Nagyvarad, Hungary , the daughter of a retired army officer, Captain Alfred Edler von Wertheimstein.Rozsika was one of seven children. She was a very beautiful woman with dark...
(
née von Wertheimstein). The name "Pannonica" refers to several plants of eastern Europe's
Pannonian plainThe Pannonian Plain is a large plain in Central Europe that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea dried out. It is a geomorphological subsystem of the Alps-Himalaya system.The river Danube divides the plain roughly in half...
that support butterflies and moths, a great interest of her father's.
Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, born
Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild, (10 December 1913 – 30 November 1988), was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
bebop jazzBebop or bop is a style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s...
enthusiast and member of the prominent
RothschildThe Rothschild family is an international dynasty of German Jewish origin that established worldwide banking and finance operations and was ennobled by Austria and the United Kingdom.-Origins:...
international financial dynasty.
Personal
Koenigswarter was the daughter of
Charles Rothschild Charles Rothschild was an English banker and entomologist and a member of the Rothschild banking family of England.-Family:...
and
Rozsika Edle RothschildRozsika Edle von Wertheimstein , whose family was the first Jewish family in Europe to be ennobled, was born in 1870 at Nagyvarad, Hungary , the daughter of a retired army officer, Captain Alfred Edler von Wertheimstein.Rozsika was one of seven children. She was a very beautiful woman with dark...
(
née von Wertheimstein). The name "Pannonica" refers to several plants of eastern Europe's
Pannonian plainThe Pannonian Plain is a large plain in Central Europe that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea dried out. It is a geomorphological subsystem of the Alps-Himalaya system.The river Danube divides the plain roughly in half...
that support butterflies and moths, a great interest of her father's. She was the niece of
Walter RothschildLionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild , a scion of the Rothschild family, was a British banker, politician, and zoologist.-Biography:...
, the 2nd Baron Rothschild, and her brother
Victor RothschildNathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, GBE, GM, FRS was a biologist by training, a cricketer and a member of the prominent Rothschild family...
became the 3rd Baron Rothschild. (According to thepeerage.com, Koenigswarter was granted the rank of the daughter of a baron on 15 March 1938.) Her sister Miriam Louisa Rothschild was a distinguished zoologist.
In 1935 she married the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
diplomat
Baron Jules de KoenigswarterLt.-Col. Baron Jules de Koenigswarter , was a French soldier and diplomat.He was the son of Baron Louis de Koenigswarter and a civil engineer by profession. He married the noted jazz patroness Nica de Koenigswarter, née Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild, in 1935...
, later a Free French hero. She worked for
Charles de GaulleCharles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The couple separated in 1951 and she moved to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, renting a suite at the Hotel Stanhope on Fifth Avenue. Koenigswarter and her husband eventually divorced in 1956.
Koenigswarter died in 1988 at the age of 74. She had five children, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Jazz
In New York, Koenigswarter became a friend and patron of many pioneer jazz musicians, hosting jam sessions in her suite. She is sometimes referred to as the "bebop baroness" or "jazz baroness" because of her patronage of
Thelonious MonkThelonious Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer who, according to The Penguin Guide to Jazz, was "one of the giants of American music"...
and
Charlie ParkerCharles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker, with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, is often considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians...
. After Parker died in Koenigswarter's Stanhope abode in 1955, she was asked to leave by hotel management, whereupon she re-located to the Bolivar Hotel at 230 Central Park West, a place commemorated in Thelonious Monk's 1956 tune "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are".
She was introduced to Thelonious Monk by jazz pianist/composer
Mary Lou WilliamsMary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Williams wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
while attending the "Salon du Jazz 1954", and championed his work in the USA, wrote the liner notes for his 1962 Columbia album
Criss-Cross, and even took the charges when she and Monk were caught with marijuana by police. After Monk ended his public performances he retired to Nica's house in Weehawken,
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
and died there in 1982.
Gigi Gryce'sGigi Gryce was an American saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, educator, and big band bandleader...
"
Nica's TempoNica's Tempo is an album by Gigi Gryce recorded in 1955. The title track is a reference to Nica de Koenigswarter aka "The Bebop Baroness".-Track listing:#"Speculation" – 4:03...
",
Sonny Clark'sConrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an American hard bop pianist. An underappreciated jazz artist during his time, Clark's work has become much more widely known after his death...
"Nica",
Horace Silver'sHorace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer. His father, who was known as John Tavares Silva, was from the island of Maio in Cape Verde. His mother was born in New Canaan, Connecticut and was of Irish-African descent...
"Nica's Dream",
Kenny Dorham'sMcKinley Howard Dorham was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer born in Fairfield, Texas. Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention from the jazz establishment that many of his peers did...
"Tonica",
Kenny Drew'sKenneth Sidney Drew was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:Born in New York City, New York, he first recorded with Howard McGhee in 1949, and over the next two years recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Dinah Washington...
"Blues for Nica",
Freddie Redd'sFreddie Redd is an American hard bop pianist and composer.His greatest success came in the late 1950s in the play and movie The Connection, in which he both played and acted in New York City, London, and Paris. He also played on the soundtrack album...
"Nica Steps Out",
Barry Harris'sBarry Doyle Harris is an American bebop jazz pianist and educator.-Biography:Harris left Detroit for New York City in 1960...
"Inca", Tommy Flanagan's "Thelonica" and Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica" were all named after her.
Literature
In October 2006 the French company Buchet Chastel published Koenigswarter's book
Les 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 her Polaroid photographs. The book was edited for publication by Nadine de Koenigswarter, whom Koenigswarter always introduced to people as her granddaughter. Nadine de Koenigswarter was in fact Koenigswarter's great-niece. An English-language version is currently available in paperback (
Three Wishes: an Intimate Look at Jazz Greats).
Film
Koenigswarter was played by
Diane SalingerDiane Louise Salinger is an American actress and voice actress.-Filmography:* Creature as Melanie Bryce * Pee-wee's Big Adventure as Simone * The Morning After as Isabel Harding * Right to Die as Betsy...
in the 1988
Clint EastwoodClinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He has received five Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and five People's Choice Awards—including one for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star.Eastwood is...
film
BirdBird is a 1988 American film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood.The film is a biopic, a tribute to the life and music of jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, written by Joel Oliansky...
, and she herself appeared in the Eastwood-produced film
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No ChaserThelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser is a documentary about the life of Thelonious Monk. Produced by Clint Eastwood, and directed by Charlotte Zwerin, it features live performances by Monk and his group, and posthumous interviews with friends and family...
(1988).
Radio
The Jazz Baroness, a radio documentary profile of Nica de Koenigswarter, written and directed by her great-niece Hannah Rothschild, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 12 February 2008.
Television
In April, 2009, a BBC television portrait entitled, like the previous radio programme,
The Jazz Baroness was broadcast on the television channel
BBC FourBBC Four is a BBC television channel available to digital television viewers in the UK. The part successor to BBC Knowledge. BBC Four launched on 2 March 2002....
.