Ezechiël Eduard Jacobs

Ezechiël Eduard Jacobs was born on April 2nd 1868, the eldest child of Hijman Jacobs and Judith Hamburger. Eduard was not quite five years old when his father passed away from consumption in 1872. Judith's family were musicians and she raised her two sons to be world class musicians. Jacques was a violinist, but Eduard could play anything.

At 18 years, Eduard went to France, discovering vaudeville and cabaret. He accompanied musicians at the Moulin Rouge. In 1894, he returned to Holland and worked as a contact person for French artists. From 1895 to 1903, while his brother, Jacques was in London establishing himself, Eduard performed nightly in an intimate venue "Het Wapen van Habsburg" in the Quellijnstraat no. 64 in Amsterdam, as a pianist/singer of realistic songs. He became popular as a comedian. 

My grandmother, as a child, had made disparaging remarks about popular music to her father, Jacques. Jacques corrected her, saying such music was legitimate. She also spoke how she disliked the practice of sitting shiva for the deaths of loved ones. I believe her teen experience with her uncle's passing in 1914 was what informed her of the practice. I was happily surprised to learn he performed a number I know, performed here by others, Tararaboemdie.

Here, he performs De oude heren

also Brief van een trouwlustige oude jonge juffrouw

Via Wikipedia (dutch translation)

The cabaret of that time, which was virtually unknown in the Netherlands at the time, should generally be regarded as no more than a chat with a song in between the big gigs/shows. However, Jacobs did this with the necessary satire and ridicule and also responded to current events, for example in the song "Brief van het Laatste Amsterdamsche trampaard". Jacobs preferred to sing about the ups and downs of the (Chinese) prostitutes on the Zeedijk and the Oudezijds Voor- en Achterburgwal in Amsterdam ("Lemonade hookers"). Because the public began to appreciate these texts, which for that time were quite straightforward, Jacobs became quite successful. He composed a large number of songs, of which recordings were also put on a gramophone record , making him one of the first Dutch-speaking comedians to be recorded alongside Koos Speenhoff .Jacobs' initiative to bring critical cabaret to the Netherlands was increasingly opposed by the government and in later years he focused more on popular entertainment. He was also in poor health and a tour of the Dutch East Indies in 1912 physically wrecked him. He died in 1914 at the age of 46.
Jacobs' oeuvre lived on for a while in the Jordaancabaret. Mimi Kok (" On the Ruysdaelkade"), Tante Leen ("That good old mother") and Willy and Willeke Alberti ("Only Love"), among others, had songs by him in their repertoire.

Some of his songs:

• Letter from old Stientje from the Berry House
• Letter from Kokadorus to the Mayor of Amsterdam
• Letter from the last Amsterdam tram horse
• That good old mother
• A minimum sufferer
• Love alone
• Lemonade hookers
• On the Ruysdaelkade
• The Luxury Horse and the Work Horse (the Gelding and the Mare)

(all recorded +/- 1911/12?) and

• Tararaboemdie
• Does your mother know what I dreamed
• Adele, Adele, I've never seen such a bust