Comedian Harmonists

Formed around three tenors, one baritone, one bass, and pianist Erwin Bootz, the Comedian Harmonists infused early-twentieth-century American vocal-harmony styles with a distinctly European, nearly Teutonic character. Their songbook drew freely from jazz, pop, film scores, opera, and cabaret numbers, earning them wide audiences across Germany and neighboring European countries during the opening years of the 1930s. Harry Frommerman, the ensemble’s leader, composed intricate vocal arrangements whose lines continually migrated among the singers, distinguishing the group from most other vocal acts of the era and afterward. Political pressures fractured the Comedian Harmonists as the decade advanced; three members were Jewish, prompting Nazi authorities first to forbid performances of Jewish melodies and later to blacklist the ensemble altogether. The Jewish singers departed for Austria, after which both factions attempted to sustain the act by recruiting substitutes. Interest in the group revived decades later, drawing devotees that ranged from rock writer Lester Bangs to folk-and-rock producer Joe Boyd, who supervised Hannibal’s 1999 release of the first officially authorized American anthology of their recordings. Their history has also supplied the basis for the motion picture The Harmonists and the stage production Band in Berlin.