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)