My uncle Bumba from Kalumba dances rhumba (and he’s German)

Señor Coconut was a timely reminder to those who needed one that the best performers of Latin American music have always been Central Europeans. Here’s der Onkel Bumba as immortalised by the Comedian Harmonists:

Their life made impossible by Mr Goebbels, half the Comedians ended up in the States, but an even stranger fate awaited Dajos Béla. Born of a Jewish-Russian-Hungarian family in Kiev, he became a star in pre-war Berlin playing tangos and then fled via Paris, London and Vienna to … Buenos Aires, where his success continued. One suspects that if he had been a coal merchant his grave would be on the banks of the Tyne. Here’s his orchestra playing “You look absolutely scrumptious again tonight, my dear lady”, and, ahem, doesn’t she:

What about Xavier Cugat? Well he was a Polak, of course…

Posting may be light over the next few weeks due to my old friend Mr Mammon.

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Comments

1. MM sez:
   16 May 2008 at 10:06 AM

   Next thing, you’ll be telling me Wilson, Keppel and Betty weren’t Arabs.

2. Trevor ap Simon sez:
   17 May 2008 at 12:51 AM

   I always thought that Betty was a man.

3. MM sez:
   17 May 2008 at 2:15 PM

   Judging from the youtube videos, she might look (even) more feminine in different company.

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