Walter Jurmann

Vienna-born Walter Jurmann’s career being a composer and songwriter took him from Berlin, where he produced his name within the 1920s and early ’30s writing hits for Richard Tauber among others, to exile but still better success in Paris, and lastly to America by method of Hollywood from early 1935. From 1932 before end from the 10 years, he often collaborated with Bronislaw Kaper, and both had been agreed upon to MGM at exactly the same time. While under agreement to the second option studio within the 1930s, he published such strikes as “SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA” (sung by Jeanette MacDonald) for the film of this name, and “All God’s Chillun Got Tempo” (for any Trip to the Races), both which had been very heavily documented by famous brands Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, et al. Jurmann later on published tunes for Deanna Durbin, and in old age he saw substantial success along with his “town songs,” which “SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA” have been the first; many, including that structure and one known as “San Antonio,” had been adopted officially from the towns that influenced them. Stylistically, Jurmann during his Austrian/German period bridged the space between your Viennese operetta/light traditional setting of Franz Lehár and Carl Zeller as well as the jauntiness and brashness from the Jazz Age group. His songs had been being among the most well-known created in Germany between your late ’20s as well as the dawn from the Nazi period, which pressured him and his composing partner Kaper to emigrate, 1st to Paris, where they loved equal success making use of French music affects, and to America. He modified well to American musical conventions and requirements, and discovered his music sung by famous brands Ivie Anderson and Billy Eckstine, and in the repertoires of Bud Powell along with other jazz greats. His one attempt at a stage musical, Windy Town (to some publication by Philip Yordan and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster) was failing before ever achieving Broadway, however, not due to its rating, which received high compliment. In 1998, Capriccio Information released fresh orchestral recordings of the cross portion of Jurmann’s music from Germany, France, and America.