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

A dolorous blow produces world class musicians

Amersfoort to Amsterdam is 50km from each other in Holland. In 1872 they were linked by the tragedy of a father dying before his son was born. In Amsterdam, Jacques Henri Jacobs came into the world, son of Hijman Jacobs and Judith Hamburger. Hijman had been a Musician, his Rabbi father had passed young (32) when Hijman was 11. Their deaths seem consumption related. Judith Hamburger was from a family of musicians. She had three children, two sons, and when her husband died she raised them alone, as musicians. Classical musicians. Jacques played Violin, while his elder brother could play anything, often performing on piano. 

In Amersfoort, Elizabeth Hurwitz was five years old in 1872 when the birth of her younger brother came a few months after the death of their father. Her younger brother would become a merchant. Her mother was from a family of shop keepers who made pots, pans, glass and pottery. 

Adversity can lead to perseverance. In the mid 1890's, Jacques married Elizabeth and moved to London. In London, Jacques became a free mason, partnered with some businessmen and ran the musicians of the Trocadero Restaurant, where he became world famous. He had been six years at the Trocadero when, in 1903, he toured South Africa and Australia with Percy Grainger, whom he mentored. In Australia, Jacques played in Melbourne and Adelaide. In South Africa, he played in Johannesburg. Later, Jacques would market popular sheet music under his name, as orchestra leader of the Trocadero. Sales of which were early indicators of popular music. 

Mystery surrounds Jacques death, reputed to be at a piano in Johannesburg in 1935, with his lovechild by his side, and another woman than his wife. He had lost all his money investing in airships like the Hindenburg. His wife had refused him a divorce. He left behind two children, a boy (1898) and a girl (1899), my grandmother. 

He had not died in Johannesburg. I have now traced him to a bigamous marriage in London in 1907 to an Ada Jacobs. Ada shared his last name, and so red flags were not raised as he maintained two residences in London, 5 km apart in the theatre district. His second marriage was childless. He migrated to New York city and maintained an apartment there before WW2, He was seen on a pleasure cruise by Percy Grainger in 1950. Percy wrote about it in his memoire. He seems to have separated from Ada some time in the 1950's. Jacques may have founded several Trocadero restaurants in the US and been involved with a movie of that name. His work, playing violin is on youtube and still available on LP. He passed in NYC in 1963, the same year his daughter remarried, leaving his name as not deceased on her marriage certificate. Also the same year his grandson, my father, got a job in NYC working on Sesame Street as the educational evaluator. My dad had thought he had passed in 1935 and never knew of Jacques life afterwards. 

Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble - Wiener Blut (Strauss) (1926)

Jacques Jacobs (violin) plays Elgar's 'Salut d'Amour' (1901)