The Jazz Baroness
Documentary about the British Jewish baroness who fell in love with the jazz genius Thelonious Monk.
Nica, the Baroness de Koenigswarter, was a major supporter of jazz in New York in the 1950s and 60's, her home becoming a meeting point, unofficial rehearsal space and, above all, sanctuary for the leading jazz musicians of the time.
The drum kit (antique Gretsch) I used for some of the sessions for space was lent to me by Steven De Koeningswater, one of Nica's grandchildren. It belonged to his father, Clifford Jarvis who played with Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Freddie Hubbard to name but a few!
A beautiful and yet sad story of that fruitful but racially suppressed artistic era
