She belonged to the well-known Rothschild banking family and was the lover of Thelonious Monk. This is the fascinating story of Nica Rothschild and how her love of jazz shaped her life.
In a silver Bentley through the streets of Manhattan and with a chinchilla stole on her shoulder and a silver Chivas Regal flask in her hand, Nica Rothschild found her destiny in New York’s jazz clubs . This English aristocrat was born into one of the richest families of the 20th century, the richest and most influential bankers and financiers in the world, the Rothschilds. But she left behind her lineage and her chambers to devote herself seamlessly to her great passion, jazz, and receive the title of » Baroness of Jazz . «
His reason for being was through and for this genre of free music, in which he took the role of patron by protecting dozens of artists under his influence, among whom is Thelonious Monk , one of the best musicians of his time and founder of bebop, with whom he had an intense and long relationship.
Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild de Koenigswarter (London, 1913-1988), known as » Nica «, is recognized as an essential figure within the revolutionary cultural scene of New York in the 1950s. Her name, in fact, sounds in more than twenty jazz songs by different artists, such as “Nica’s Dream” by Horace Silver or “Pannonica” by Monk. Her impulsive, nonconformist, and adventurous nature is captured and evoked in the biography of David Kastin , a Brooklyn music historian, Nica’s Dream , published in 2011, which chronicles her thirty years as an advocate for jazz and its rights. artists. However, during her life the first thing she suffered from was reproaches and criticism from the entire society, especially from North America for supporting African-American singers in a time of racial segregation .
Between butterflies and jazz
Daughter of the banker and inveterate entomologist Nathaniel Charles Rothschild — known for drawing up the Rothschild list, where he collected the appropriate places to locate nature reserves in Great Britain -, she grew up with the name of a species of moth that he himself discovered, and was raised among flowers and butterflies with a jazz soundtrack in the background. At age 22 she met her husband Jules de Koenigswater , a wealthy French heir, diplomat and banker, whose wedding appeared in the society section of The New York Times . The Baronesses of Koenigswarter lived in Paris between parties and concerts, but their existence of luxury and fun ended abruptly when the Nazis arrived in the French capital in 1939.
Jewish and very rich , they decided not to turn their backs on justice, so instead of fleeing and taking refuge like the rest of their environment, they showed up to be part of the French Resistance . Jules was assigned to the African front and Nica, although at first she was not well received due to her noble origin and her circumstance as a woman, she worked as a decoder, nurse, radio presenter and even host. At the end of the war, the general and president of the government between 1944 and 1946, Charles de Gaulle , decorated them as heroes of France and gave them luxury destinations in different embassies such as those of Norway , Oslo and Mexico .
The return to reality impacted the nonconformist spirit of Nica, who refused to follow her husband’s quiet lifestyle and limit her own role as a mother of already five children. Thanks to her brother Víctor ‘s connection with Churchill and Roosevelt, her shelves were filled again with jazz vinyl and she met Teddy Wilson — a great jazz pianist — who was the one who introduced her to the panorama of that musical genre. In NewJazz Nature Reserve
At 40 years old and after listening to » Round Midnight » by Thelonious Monk, Nica packed her bags for good, freed herself from the obligations of her two illustrious banking dynasties and crossed the Atlantic to settle in the Big Apple, where she lived on the basis of the very generous Rothschild trust fund. In reality, she continued with the tradition implanted by her father, since her figure, resources and power would serve as natural reserves, which instead of preserving natural phenomena, would act as embassies for the preservation of jazz phenomena. .
This is how the “ Baroness of Jazz” was born . The Stan Hope hotel suite became one of the best jazz clubs in the city, attended every night by dozens of musicians, such as Jackson Pollock , Willem Kooning and Monk , who became the most regulars and those who brought to even more artists. The evil tongues of society began to speak when they saw one of the most illustrious women with African-American artists, until one day this gossip broke out in the press. The day of the absolute chaos was the one when the artist Charlie Parker , totally drugged, appeared collapsed in the heiress’s bed. His death caused total rejection by society and his own family. Divorced and subjected to social exile, Nica took advantage of her opportunity and was free to dedicate herself fully to her next project and love, Thelonious Monk .
He was the musician who shone above all the others, creator of bepop , a fairly bipolar drug addict. Their relationship lasted 28 years, which they shared with the singer’s lifelong wife, Nelly . This unconventional and truculent trio revolved completely around the artist, since his two women focused on taking care of him and his musical career. Nica’s desire to provide shelter and protection to all those musicians relevant to her led her to have many problems with her authority. Her most serious setback was when she was expelled from the country partially to protect her current partner, by blaming her for carrying marijuana. However, her addiction forced Monk to retire in 1973, which led to his death in 1982 after nine years of mourning without speaking.
After Monk’s death, Nica began to fade away and finally in 1988, broken with love, she died while undergoing a routine intervention. 48 hours later, the Hudson River was dyed orange by the candles carried by dozens of musicians that Nica had taken under her wings and to the sound of her songs of freedom, New York said goodbye to the moth that had made jazz fly .
