At the top of the grand main stairs, down the end of a corridor, I found Nica’s old room. It is smallish and wood-panelled; the fireplace has been boarded up and the walls are covered with the contemporary flotsam and jetsam of teenage life—posters of boy bands, fashion models and furry animals. It was from this window that Nica and her siblings would strain to hear their father returning, his arrival announced by the crunch of the horses’ hooves on the gravel. It was from this vantage point that they caught sight of a newfangled thing called a biplane. I tried to imagine the mornings when the children were woken by the sound of their nurses drawing their baths and by maids laying fires in their bedroom grates.
A shrill siren calling the hungry to lunch interrupted my reverie. Immediately the house shook as four hundred hungry students charged down stairs and corridors, bound for the dining hall in the basement. Nica would have been amazed to see what is on offer: curries, pasta, sandwiches, roasts, exotic fruits and vegetables—a far cry from her childhood staple diet of fish and eggs.
The only remaining artefact from that life is in the basement, outside what was once the butler’s pantry and is now the teachers’ staffroom. Hanging there is a long row of bells with names underneath: Lady Rothschild’s bedroom, Lady Rothschild’s sitting room, Lord Rothschild’s bedroom, children’s nursery and the smoking room.
As a tribute to my great-aunt, I asked a pupil at the school to sing Thelonious Monk’s “Pannonica” in the main hall. Students appeared from different classrooms and dorms to listen as the words rang out around the building. I like to think Nica would have been pleased. Perhaps she was coming home in a musical form.
Leaving the school, I walked down the lane to Walter’s museum. It has hardly changed: every nook and cranny is still crammed with his collection of taxidermy. In glass cases or suspended from the ceiling are many of the species he discovered and others named in his honour. Walter’s work was not widely appreciated during his lifetime, particularly by his family who wrote him off as an eccentric spendthrift with strange habits. It wasn’t until his niece Miriam wrote his biography, Dear Lord Rothschild, that his reputation was reconsidered and his major contribution to the study of natural history finally acknowledged.
Will Nica be recognised in the Rothschild family pantheon of high achievers? Like Walter, she left a legacy of names. Hers are not a Galápagos finch or an improbable fly but a roster of songs. “Pannonica” is only one: others include “Nica’s Dream,” “Nica’s Tempo,” “Nica Steps Out,” “Thelonica,” “Bolivar Blues,” “Cats in the Belfry,” “Blues for Nica,” “Tonica” and other special dedication pieces written by friends whom she helped.
Using her position and inheritance, Nica played a part in nurturing a generation of struggling musicians. She made her sliver of a great fortune go a little further. In return she received the one thing she lacked and desperately missed during her childhood: friendship.
For Nica, though, it was all about being near the “eighth wonder of the world,” Thelonious Monk. While he would have composed and succeeded without her, she nevertheless took great pride in their association and in the part she played to create the right milieu for him to work in. She had not been able to save her own father from his illness, nor her relations from the Holocaust, nor protect her friends from prejudice, but Nica was able to dignify one man’s last years and provide her beloved Thelonious with a place of warm, safe respite.
A friend teased me recently: “You’ll never finish this book, because you can’t bear to let her go.” He is nearly right. My bookshelves and study drawers are full of my efforts to get to know and understand Nica: seventeen box and lever-arch files; a documentary feature film; a radio programme; books where she fleetingly appears; other books about her family and friends where she mysteriously does not; records dedicated to her; albums she loved; newspaper clippings; photographs; letters from or about her; a family tree; a tiny moth; stacks of notes, emails and correspondence from strangers—a paper-trail of endeavour.
It was my younger self’s question that drove me on: did Nica prove that one can escape from one’s past? Superficially, of course, she changed everything about herself: her creed, country, class and culture. She created a life outside her family’s system in a world that few could understand. She dared to be different. Twenty years on, my older self sees that total escape is impossible. Our lives, as Miriam said, are shaped long before we are born; tendrils of DNA, ancestral history and behavioural traits are embedded into every part of our being. Nica was tied to her family, in practical terms via the umbilical cord of money and emotionally through shared experience. She could never escape from those who truly understood her; I believe she never wanted to. Nica said that we Rothschilds are a “weird” lot but a close one. I see that.
I am finally letting this project go. I imagine all the stuff—the research so carefully collated and collected, the myriad bits of paper—fluttering away in the wind. I imagine Pannonica’s meandering flight path, haphazard, strong, undisciplined, determined and random. Monk’s butterfly, my moth, is released.
If she were here now, she would pretend to hate all this fuss, all this reflection. I know exactly what my great-aunt Nica would say: have a drink, stop being such a bore. “Shhh, Hannah, just listen to the music. Just listen to the music.”
A Selection of Songs Written for or Inspired by Nica
“Blues for Nica”—Kenny Drew
“Bolivar Blues”—Thelonious Monk
“Cats in My Belfry”—Barry Harris
“Coming on the Hudson”—Thelonious Monk
“Inca”—Barry Harris
“Little Butterfly”—Thelonious Monk and Jon Hendricks
“Nica”—Sonny Clark
“Nica’s Day”—Wayne Horvitz
“Nica’s Dream”—Horace Silver
“Nica’s Dream”—Dee Dee Bridgwater (Dee Dee added lyrics to Silver’s song)
“Nica Steps Out”—Freddie Redd
“Nica’s Tempo”—Gigi Gryce
“Pannonica”—Donald Byrd
“Pannonica”—Doug Watkins
“Pannonica”—Thelonious Monk
“Poor Butterfly”—Sonny Rollins
“Thelonica”—Tommy Flanagan
“Theme for Nica”—Eddie Thompson
“Tonica”—Kenny Dorham
“Weehawken Mad Pad”—Art Blakey
Acknowledgements
Over the last twenty years, during this project’s metamorphosis from an idea to a radio programme to a documentary feature film and now this biography, many colleagues, friends and relations have been an incredible help. I am immensely grateful for their guidance and expertise.
Wherever possible, I have relied on contemporary witnesses to explain and describe events and people. I am not a jazz critic or historian, a social commentator or an academic; what I bring to this project is a sense of wonder, a desire to tell other people’s stories, a need to understand my own, and a determination to celebrate our similarities rather than our differences.
The musicians, many of whom were Nica’s friends, have been particularly generous and non-judgemental, taking time to explain the rudiments of jazz and the ramifications of living and working in that culture. Spending time with these highly articulate, intelligent people has helped me understand why Nica felt “warmed” by their friendship and enthralled by their music. Toot Monk, Sonny Rollins, Paul Jeffrey and Quincy Jones were particularly enlightening.
My family has been consistently encouraging and supportive. Great-aunt Miriam was and remains a source of inspiration. My father, Jacob, has always encouraged his children to work hard, seize opportunities and explore every avenue. My mother Serena, a devoted bibliophile, helped me to love books. It would be hard to imagine a week without the loving friendship of my sister Emmy. My cousin Evelyn helped me to understand schizophrenia and my younger cousins urged me to exorcise some family ghosts.
I am especially grateful to Nica’s grandson Steven de
Koenigswarter who has inherited his grandmother’s spirit and kindness.
Filmmakers, producers, photographers and archivists often go un-thanked and unrecognised. Without the Blackwood brothers, the BBC, Charlotte Zwerin, Bruce Ricker, Clint Eastwood, Melanie Aspey and Jill Geber and others, much of this sort of history would be lost and certainly less redolent.
At every stage, kind but exacting critics have commented on my progress. Thanks to my silent friend for his encouragement and insight, Rudith Buenconsejo for keeping the home fires burning, and Linda Drew for keeping the walls intact. The following helped craft the radio and television programmes: Nick Fraser, Robert McNab, Walter Stabb, David Perry, Anthony Wall, Lucy Hunot, Natalie Howe and Isabella Steele.
Rosie Boycott, Mairead Lewin, Rupert Smith, Laura Beatty, Philip Astor, David Miller and William Seighart were wise and meticulous readers. Bella Pollen and Justine Picardie were particularly helpful on structure and layering. Virago has been a wonderful home for this book and Lennie Goodings its great cheerleader and editor.
Finally I have to thank my utterly glorious, supportive and inspirational daughters, Nell, Clemency and Rose, who have lived through every stage of this project and who remind me on a daily basis what is important and true.
Interviews
I am very grateful to the following people for letting me record their experiences, memories and knowledge.
Family
Nica de Koenigswarter
Steven de Koenigswarter
Miriam Rothschild
Victor Rothschild
Jacob Rothschild
Miranda Rothschild
Emmy Freeman-Atwood
Rosemary Serys
Evelyn de Rothschild
Amschel Rothschild
Barbara Ghika (née Hutchinson, later Mrs. Victor Rothschild)
Musicians
John Altman
Jimmy Cobb
John Dankworth
Fab Five Freddie
Joel Forrester
Curtis Fuller
Benny Golson
Freddie Gruber
Quincy Jones
Humphrey Lyttleton
Marion McPartland
Toot Monk
Calvin Newborn
Chico Hamilton
Herbie Hancock
Roy Haynes
Eddie Henderson
Russ Henderson
Jon Hendricks
Jools Holland
Paul Jeffrey
Ben Riley
Sonny Rollins
Cedar Walton
Butch Warren
Producers
Jean Bach
Michael Blackwood
Clint Eastwood
Ahmet Ertegun
Ira Gitler
Orrin Keepnews
Bruce Ricker
George Wein
Charlotte Zwerin
Critics, Historians, Writers
Amiri Baraka
Stanley Crouch
Gary Giddins
Nat Hentoff
David Kastin
Robin Kelly
Jimmy Moreton
Dan Morgenstern
Ted Pankin
Ross Russell
Phil Schapp
Keith Shadwick
Pippa Shirley
Richard Williams
Val Wilmer
Others
Harry Colomby
Mrs. Gutteridge
Phoebe Jacobs
Robert Kraft
Victor Metz
Gaden Robinson
Frank Richardson
Bibliography
NICA
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Forbes, Malcolm, with Jeff Bloch. “Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter,” in Women Who Made a Difference. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
Hentoff, Nat. “The Jazz Baroness.” Esquire, October 1960.
Kastin, David. Nica’s Dream: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.
Keepnews, Peter. “Rouse & Nica.” DownBeat, April 1989.
Koenigswarter, Jules de. Savoir dire non. Published privately, 1976.
Koenigswarter, Nica de. “A Remembrance of Monk.” Daily Challenge, December 22, 1986.
————. Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats. New York: Abrams Image, 2008.
Massingberd, Hugh, ed., The Daily Telegraph Book of Obituaries: A Celebration of Eccentric Lives. London: Macmillan, 1995.
Piacentino, Giuseppe. “Nica, Bentley and Bebop.” Musica Jazz, February 1989.
Singer, Barry. “The Baroness of Jazz.” New York Times, October 17, 2008.
Traberg, Ebbe. “Nica, o el Sueño de Nica.” Revista de Occidente, 93, February 1989.
Zafra, Jessica. “The Baroness of Jazz.” The National, May 29, 2008.
ROTHSCHILDS
Ayer, Jules. Century of Finance, 1804–1904: The London House of Rothschild. London: Neel, 1905.
Capdebiele, François. “Female Rothschilds and Their Issue.” Unpublished MS, RAL, n.d.
Cohen, Lucy. Lady de Rothschild and Her Daughters, 1821–1931. London: John Murray, 1935.
Cowles, Virginia. The Rothschilds: A Family of Fortune. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1979.
Davis, Richard. The English Rothschilds. London: Collins, 1983.
Ferguson, Niall. The World’s Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998.
Holmes, Colin. Anti-Semitism in British Society, 1876–1939. London: Edward Arnold, 1979.
Ireland, George. Plutocrats: A Rothschild Inheritance. London: John Murray, 2007.
Leslie-Melville, Betty, and Jock Leslie-Melville. Raising Daisy Rothschild. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977.
Morton, Frederic. The Rothschilds. New York: Secker & Warburg, 1962.
————. The Rothschilds: Portrait of a Dynasty. New York: Kodansha America, 1998.
Rose, Kenneth. Elusive Rothschild: The Life of Victor, Third Baron. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 2003.
Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. London: Robert Hale, 1939.
Rothschild, Mrs. James de. The Rothschilds at Waddesdon Manor. London: Collins, 1979.
Rothschild, Miriam. Dear Lord Rothschild: Birds, Butterflies and History. Glenside: Balaban, 1983.
————. Nathaniel Charles Rothschild, 1877–1923. Privately printed, 1979.
Rothschild, Monique de. Personal Memoires. Privately printed.
Rothschild, Lord (Victor). Meditations of a Broomstick. London: Collins, 1977.
————. Rothschild Family Tree: 1450–1973. Privately printed, 1981.
————. The Shadow of a Great Man. London: New Court, 1982.
Schama, Simon. Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel. London: Collins, 1978.
White, Jerry. Rothschild Buildings: Life in an East End Tenement Block, 1887–1920. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.
Wilson, Derek A. Rothschild: A Story of Wealth and Power. London: André Deutsch, 1986.
————. Rothschild. London: André Deutsch, 1988.
Woodhouse, Barry. Tring: A Pictorial History. Chichester: Phillimore, 1996.
JAZZ
Alexander, Michael. Jazz Age Jews. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Alkyer, Frank, ed. DownBeat: Sixty Years of Jazz. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 1994.
Alkyer, Frank, and Ed Enright, eds. DownBeat: The Great Jazz Interviews—A 75th Anniversary Anthology. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2009.
Balliett, Whitney. Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1954–2001. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2002.
Berendt, Joachim E. “A Note on Monk.” Jazz Monthly, February 4, 1956.
Blumenthal, Bob. Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America’s Music. London: Harper Paperbacks, 2007.
Buin, Yves. Thelonious Monk. Paris: P.O.L., 1988.
Carr, Ian, Digby Fairweather, and Brian Prie
stley. Jazz: The Rough Guide. London: Rough Guides, 1995.
Chilton, John. The Song of the Hawk: The Life and Recordings of Coleman Hawkins. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990.
Crow, Bill. Jazz Anecdotes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Dahl, Linda. Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Davis, Miles, with Quincy Troupe. Miles: The Autobiography. New York: Picador, 1990.
————. Miles: The Autobiography. New York: Touchstone, 1989.
De Wilde, Laurent. Monk. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1996.
Deffaa, Chip. Jazz Veterans: A Portrait Gallery. Fort Bragg: Cypress House Press, 1996.
Dyer, Geoff. But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz. London: Abacus, 1998.
Farrell, Barry. “The Loneliest Monk.” Time, February 28, 1964.
Feather, Leonard, and Ira Gitler. The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Fishman, Steve, John Homans, and Adam Moss, eds. New York Stories: Landmark Writing from Four Decades of New York Magazine. New York: Random House, 2008.
Giddins, Gary. Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong. New York: Da Capo Press, 2011.
————. Visions of Jazz: The First Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Giddins, Gary, and Scott DeVeaux. Jazz. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009.
Gillespie, Dizzy, with Al Fraser. To Be, or Not … To Bop. New York: Double-day, 1979.
Gitler, Ira. The Masters of Bebop: A Listener’s Guide. New York: Da Capo Press, 2001.
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