On this edition I pay tribute to the German Jazz Guitarist and Holocaust survivor Coco Schumann who sadly died a couple of weeks ago at the age of 93. Schumann fell in love with Jazz at the age of 13 and learned to master the guitar in Nazi Germany. With a Jewish mother and playing Jazz at the underground scene Schumann was finally arrested and spent time in the Concentration Camps of Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Dachau. He became a member of the "Ghetto Swingers" and was very lucky to survive the horror. But he always pointed out that he was a musician who survived the Concentration Camp and not a Concentration Camp prisoner who played music. May you rest in peace, Coco, always remembered.
TALES FROM THE FAR SIDE is live on air on CRC102.9fm and on www.crcfm.ie every Thursday 8-9 pm with a repeat on Saturday 9-10 pm. And there is a podcast of the show available on the web site all through the week. The show has established itself over the years with a small but devoted listenership (even beyond Jazz-fans) and since the introduction on internet the listenership extended nationally and internationally.