Wilhelm Bobr

Wilhelm Bobr (April 23, 1927 – February 13, 2006) was an Austrian jazz pianist.

Life

Born in the 10th district of Vienna into a world of depression and poverty he was nevertheless blessed with a music talent which was supported by his mother Rosa. She taught him how to play the piano and gave him the important basic skill to move on to the Konservatorium für Musik. There he learnt the classical music together with other famous pianists like Friedrich Gulda and Joe Zawinul.

When he was 12 years old the Second World War broke out. Like all other children he was to join the Hitler Youth and go to Nazi schools. He studied engineering and was in 1943 sent to Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany where he worked for the German Naval Forces at their military shipyards. In 1945 during the retreat he was sent to the Russian front in Hungary where his platoon had to blow up bridges and destroy roads and railroads to make sure the Russians could not advance. He lost the lower part of his left leg in an attack and was captured by the Russians. Thanks to his musicality he could entertain the Russian troops and was released after some time.

Bobr focused on music after the war in 1945 after returning to Vienna from captivity. Playing at clubs and cabarets all over Vienna with well-known musicians like Fatty George and Joe Zawinul and with his band "The Metropolitan Swing Sextet" he became well connected and started touring all over Europe, mainly in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France and Germany. During his touring he played with Doris Day, Art Blakey, Stan Getz and Quincy Jones.

With a German trio he then made his way to Sweden in 1963 where, after a while as a contract musician, he settled down and started a family. He went through two marriages and produced five children and was divorced a second time. He then lived alone the last 21 years in Sweden working as a piano teacher and musician with different jazz groups before moving back to Vienna in 2003. In Vienna he did connect with some of his colleagues from his first period but he never played actively again. After over one year of illness going in and out of hospitals he died of cancer in Vienna's Wilhelminenspittal in 2006.

Style

There were many sources of influences in Bobr's playing. He grew up with the traditional Viennese folk music known as "Schrammelmusik", which is heard in the wine yards and restaurants on the hills of the Wienerwald. He played this music together with some of the finest gypsy musicians in Vienna at the time around 1945-47. Through the gypsies he came to play a lot of Balkan- and Eastern Europe-influenced music as well.

Through the Americans, who were one of the four occupants of Vienna after the war, Bobr got in touch with most of the early big band music like Glenn Miller and Woody Herman. On top of that he received American songbooks on a regular basis and learnt most of it by heart. Somewhat later his biggest influences were Count Basie and Erroll Garner.

When touring through Europe he got to learn about Latin American music as it grew more popular at that time, especially the Brazilian music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto. In 1955 during the time in France he experienced firsthand the music of Quincy Jones and Stan Getz, who at that time were taking Brazilian music to a new level.

Around 1955 there were other influences as well; Miles Davis had just released his album "'Round About Midnight", on which pianist Red Garland played. Bobr's sound would have a touch of Red's playing for the rest of his musician days. Another great pianist who meant a lot to his style was Dave Brubeck, whom Bobr quoted a lot.

After moving to Sweden his love for Swedish traditional folk music had its beginning. Through many of the Swedish jazz musicians who at that time began using folk music as basis like pianist Jan Johansson and bassist Georg Riedel Wilhelm began experimenting with that kind of music and considered himself musically more Swedish than Austrian in the end.

Although keeping a traditional sound and manner of playing he always listened to and was inspired by all the new upcoming musicians and their styles. He described his style as "Swedish Dave Brubeck with Count Basie, Red Garland and Errol Garner in his pockets".

Gallery

References