Prelude, 2007
The three of us are basking under the palm trees on chaise lounges by the swimming pool at a Palm Desert country club, reading books. It's our mom’s birthday weekend in March. The sun sparkles in a bird’s egg blue sky while light pop of old Musak standards burbles from surrounding speakers. I’m reading, once again, the printout of a surprising email I’ve just received from a Swedish jazz historian named Lars Westin. He asks, “Are you related to the drummer Uffe Baadh? I’m writing an article about Stan Hasselgaard and Uffe Baadh’s name keeps popping up. Can I interview you?”
This gives us plenty to speculate about! Why would a historian from Sweden, of all places, want to talk about my Dad, who’d died nearly 30 years ago? As it turned out, this was not the only time someone would reach out with questions about Daddy’s life and music. But that was about him playing drums in the Elvis Presley movie “G.I. Blues.” A story for a later time (in Part 6).
The Search
I set up a phone appointment with Lars Westin, and in preparation, my sister, our mom, and I began trying to piece together the bits that we knew from the early days of Daddy’s life and career. We knew he had lived in Denmark until he was 24. What happened during the war? Was he a member of the Resistance? When, exactly, did he arrive in the US? Did he come by plane or ship? Did he bring his drums with him? What bands had he played with, besides Harry James’, where he was when my parents first met? Mummy, still sharp as a tack, knows most everything of his life and work in the US after 1950, but what came before, during his years in Denmark and Sweden? Many times I’d imagined what his life might have been like but damn, why didn’t we ask Daddy to write this stuff down? In English.
He didn’t, but over the next few years, with the help of Lars Westin and the resources of the University of Denmark, University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Danish Jazz Radio, Benny Goodman Archives at Rutgers Jazz Institue, and elsewhere, we uncovered a treasure trove of recordings, photographs, letters, interviews, articles, and jazz history publications from the times just before, during, and after World War II. Most all of this new (to us) material is in Danish or Swedish, which Lars kindly and painstakingly translated. With new material available, I’ve been able to reconstruct Uffe’s world of jazz as it evolved from the swinging tunes and mellow dance orchestras of the 1940s to bebop jams and nightclub ensembles in New York, from Tivoli Gardens in pre-war Copenhagen to the nightclubs of Palm Springs and recording studios of Hollywood.
Here’s a tune that came to light, from May 14, 1943, with singer and life-long friend Freddy Albeck. Uffe’s drumming is right out in front. He is 19. Take a listen.
Wham (Tono SP4245)
Imagination of His Early Life
In the absence of my dad and his pure (or enhanced) memories, I’ve readily imagined his early life playing out like a movie. Probably a musical with a swinging jazz score.
Scene 1.
A tall boy in shorts, 14 years old, rides a rusty bike through narrow cobbled streets of Copenhagen, his basket full of the day’s final grocery delivery. Playing cards are clipped to the bike’s spokes with wooden clothes pins to make a big percussive racket as he rides. He’s greeted at a doorway by an old woman and he hands her the brown, paper wrapped parcel. Pocketing a coin, he whistles a carefree tune and pedals away towards the town center where he parks his bike and slips, without paying, through the gates of Tivoli Gardens. A well practiced maneuver! He weaves his way easily through the summer evening crowd, drawn as always towards the bandstand where a jazz orchestra starts up a fresh New Orleans-style jazz tune. The horns play above a steady, heavy beat. Uffe’s fingers and toes begin to twitch. He practically bounces out of his seat in rhythm to the music.
Early Life
All that is likely true. Uffe Baadh was born August 7, 1923, in Aarhus, Denmark, the youngest of four children. His father, William Baadh, was a local doctor, and his mother, Valborg Marie [Dinesen] was a housewife and occasional artists’ model. The family was well-off, with a maid and a cook. Valborg and the children spent many memorable summers on the island of Samsø, and it became a second home. They loved it there, living a life in nature, riding a farmer’s horse, with long days spent swimming at the beach.
Uffe’s parents divorced in 1937. He moved with his mother and brother Hans to Hellerup in Copenhagen. His older sisters, Grethe and Marie (aka “Busser”) had already married, left home and started their own families. According to Hans’ daughter, my cousin Sus, as a boy Uffe was always drumming: on tabletops, with a fork or knife on plates or glasses, anywhere he could. It drove his mother crazy. He got a job delivering groceries on his bike to help support his mother and their home.
Uffe began drum lessons at a music store in Copenhagen. His formal music studies trained him in classical percussion as well as jazz. By age 15 he began to play with local bands. His ability to improvise as well as to read music notation was unusual for drummers at that time. It served him well, and he began to sit in with different bands and orchestras around town. The music world of Copenhagen began to take notice.
Everything Changes
On April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Denmark, and daily life began to change. Uffe was 16, playing music every night and delivering groceries by day. In later life in the US, he’d entertain friends and family with funny stories of mocking the German soldiers and playing pranks on them. One story had a bunch of buddies stuffing a man’s clothing with straw, topping it off with a hat and hanging it near a guard post. Like a marionette master, they made the figure bounce up and down and basically “walk” around. When the figure didn’t comply with a command to halt, the guards took aim and shot right through the still bouncing figure. Stories about the wild prank and the guards’ subsequent confusion brought wild hilarity to the tables of the surviving Danes for many years afterwards.
Uffe continued to bring brightness and musical energy to the local bands during the first years of the German occupation. Singer Freddy Albeck, writing “Danish News” in the March 1943 issue of Jazzreports, titles his post “This Summer’s Sensation” and notes, “Niels Foss and his band consists of some of the youngest musicians in this country, and at the same time some of the very best. 19 year old drummer Uffe Baadh is amazing with a strong drive and lots of fine ideas.”
The Best Drummer in Denmark
Uffe developed a singular, flashy drumming style, and was much in demand, appearing and recording with the popular Niels Foss band and with singer Freddy Albeck. He played with the Kai Ewans Orchestra in Tivoli Gardens and at Scala Hall in Copenhagen. Erik Levinsohn witnessed one of these performances and, writing for OJ magazine, observed that the band “included Uffe Baadh, the best drummer in Denmark.”
St. Louis Blues with Kai Ewans Danseorkester, June, 1943
Throughout these early years of his career Uffe brought a unique style and youthful energy to what came to be called the "Golden Age of Jazz" in Denmark.
A Wee Bit of Swing with Niels Foss Scala-Orkester, 1943
Goodbye to Denmark
In October, 1943, the Germans planned to arrest every Danish Jew during the Rosh Hashanah holiday when they’d all be at synagogue. Instead, the plan was leaked. A miraculous, historic, and heroic rescue began. Danes hid and moved over 7000 Danish Jews in just a few weeks. Most went north to the town of Helsingor, at just over 4 miles, the closest point in Denmark to Sweden, where, under cover of darkness, fishing boats, assisted by members of the resistance movement, transported the refugees from harbors near Helsingor safely across the strait to Helsingborg in Sweden.
By November, 1943, all dance venues in Denmark had been shut down, a curfew was in place, and musicians were out of work. According to the jazz news reports from the time, Danish musicians suddenly began to appear in Stockholm, presumably via the nighttime fishing fleet.
That November, Erik Levinson wrote in OJ magazine, that “Many Danes have arrived lately [in Sweden] including singer Freddy Albeck, but [there is] no mention of Baadh.”
Uffe made one last recording in Denmark that month, with Kai Ewans Danseorkester. Here’s one of the tunes from that session, a bit melancholy.
When the Lights Go On Again with Kai Ewans Danseorkester, 1943
After that last recording session, with no work in sight, he made a decision to follow the path of other refugees and to leave Denmark. We assume he did so on Monday, December 8.
On December 9, Uffe registered at a refugee camp in Helsingborg in the north of Sweden. His cymbals were clasped tightly to his chest, beneath his jacket.
His story continues.
More to come in Keep the Beat
2 - Sweden and Denmark / Charles Norman, Thore Ehrling, Thore Jederby, Lars Laine
3 - New York City / Timme Rosenkranz, Benny Goodman, Harry James
4 - Hollywood / Stan Hasselgaard, Wardell Grey, Lenny Bruce, Claude Thornhill
5 - Palm Springs / Elvis Presley, Buddy Rich, Tommy Dorsey, Kitty White
6 - Keep the Beat / Cal Bailey, Lars Laine, Shirley Bandar, Red Callendar
Fascinating, I can't wait to read the rest.
Uffe Baadh springs to life from the page. The music a heart-beating testimony to the story!