User:Fredrikbobr

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[edit] Wilhelm Bobr (1927-2006)

[edit] Biography

Wilhelm Bobr was an Austrian pianist born 23 of april 1927 in the 10th district in Vienna, Austria and died 13th of febraury 2006 at the Wilhelminenspittal in Vienna.

Born 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 Hitlerjugend (Hitler youth) and going to Nazi schools. He studied Engineering and was in 1943 sent to Wihlemshafen 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 blow up bridges and destroy roads and railroads to make sure the russians couldn´t 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 troups and was released after some time.

Wilhelm began his life as a musician for real 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 got 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 he after a while as a contract musician settled down and started a family. He went through two marriages and produced five children and got 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 soem 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 on the 13th of February 2006.

[edit] Wilhelm´s style of playing

There were many sources of influenses in his playing and it´s important to begin from the beginning where his childhood in Vienna played a very strong role. He grew up with the traditional Viennese folk music known as "Schrammelmusik" which is the music you hear in the wine yards and restaurants on the hills of the Viennese Forest. He played this music himself together with some of the finest gypsy musicians in Vienna at the time around 1945-1947. Through the gypsies he came to play a lot of Balkan- and Eastern Europe influensed music as well.

Through the Americans (who were one of the four occupants of Vienna after the war) he got in touch with most of the early big band music like Glenn Miller and Woody Herman. On top of that he recieved American Song Books on a regular basis and learnt most of it by heart. Somewhat later his biggest influenses were Count Basie and Errol Garner.

Later when touring through Europe he got to learn about the Latin American music as it grew more popular at that time. Especially the Brazilian music by A.C. Jobim and J. Gilberto. In 1955 during the time in France he experienced first hand 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 big influenses as well; Miles Davis had just released his ´Round about midnight where pianist Red Garland played. Wilhelm´s sound would for the rest of his musician days have a touch of Red´s playing. Another great pianist who meant a lot to his style was Dave Brubeck and Wilhelm quoted him 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.

Allthough 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".

Metropolitan Swing Sextet in 1947

Metropolitan Swing Sextet 1947 Poster (Wilhelm in the top right corner)

The remaining Metropolitan Swing Sextet in 2003

His 78th and last birthday in Vienna 2005