Hilda Wechsler
Hilda Wechsler | |
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.jpg) Hilda Wechsler in 1962 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 23 October 1923 Sarra, Alscia |
| Died | 23 November 2010 (aged 87) Ostara, Nauras, Gylias |
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| Years active | 1939–2010 |
| Labels | Emily Productions |
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Hilda Wechsler (Gylic transcription: Hilda Vekyslyá; 23 October 1923 – 23 November 2010) was a Gylian musician and politician. She earned fame as one of the "Great Four" of Gylian jazz, being widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, her skill as a bandleader, and equally recognised for her "wicked" reputation. She also served as the Mayor of Ostara from 1962 to 2002, becoming one of Gylias' longest-serving mayors.
Early life
Hilda Wechsler was born on 23 October 1923 in Sarra. She was of primarily Acrean descent. She had an unhappy home life and did poorly in school, drifting towards juvenile delinquency.
A childhood bout of tonsillitis led to a botched tonsillectomy — the surgeon accidentally removed her uvula along with her tonsils. She cited the botched operation as the origin of her vocal style, as it left her incapable of vibrato and unable to sustain long phrases.
She left home aged 14, touring Alscia as a participant in various dance contestants, and then worked as a dancer and waitress. She occasionally sang during these performances, making her determined to become a professional singer.
She frequented the Free Megelanese circles of Alscia, and through them discovered jazz, which became her chosen profession. She received some training in jazz drums from a boyfriend, and learned to play "passable" jazz piano, but her main instrument remained her voice.
Career
Music
By the time Hilda began her professional career, Alscia had been dissolved through entrance into the Free Territories. She started off playing with various bands, and made her first studio recordings in 1941. She recorded with various combos and as a solo artist, gradually building up enough clout to transition from a featured vocalist to a bandleader.
She cultivated close ties with traders throughout the Free Territories. She was often the first in line to obtain imported records, which she would study and add to her concert repertoire. Her ability to handle the economics and challenges of touring the Free Territories proved an advantage: she developed a talent for logistics and organisation. Her profile further increased after a successful cross-coastal trip in 1946–1947, joining various bands to make her way to the west coast and back, performing and recording on the way.
She formed the Hilda Wechsler Big Band, which through a process of consolidation became one of two permanently active big bands, along with The Sweethearts of Rhythm, and set up her own label, Emily Records.
She led the Hilda Wechsler Big Band to become one of the Free Territories' premier jazz ensembles, sustaining a prolific pace of performing and recording from 1948 onwards. As a bandleader, Hilda operated with canny psychology and able organisation. She believed in her musicians strongly but expected discipline and self-sufficiency in return. She adopted formal band outfits to foster camaraderie, and during concerts would dance vigorously, using a system of hand signals to direct the band. A Dáuzas newspaper's concert review compared her to the commander of a "jazz squad" — a description that stuck.
By the 1950s, she was well-established as one of Gylian jazz's "Great Four". She was a close friend and occasional collaborator of fellow greats Ayo Mawanda, Utako Tanigawa, and Giulietta Chieli. Her place in the pantheon was secured by a prolific series of albums recorded over a decade, which played a role in popularising numerous jazz standards, and demonstrated her ability to reinvent, sometimes radically, the songs she performed. She also built up a "wicked" reputation due to her hard-driving lifestyle, occasional rowdy behaviour and run-ins with the law. She humorously reflected in her autobiography:
"Being one of the best jazz musicians around? A hit among jazz listeners. Being a spicy dame who lives at the edge of respectability? Household name!"
As part of the "Great Four", Hilda experienced Gylian jazz's peak of popularity during the National Obligation period. Arguably her career highlight was a tour celebrating the end of the Liberation War, culminating in a July 1958 festival in Argyrokastron that saw performances from all of the "Great Four". She admitted later she was probably high on heroin during her concert, but it was the best day of her life: the festival was filmed and released as Summertime in Elena, confirming Hilda's stardom.
During the 1960s, Hilda transitioned from being primarily an interpreter of standards to one of original material, written or co-written by various band members. She worked in various configurations, ranging from big band to jazz trio, and with various collaborators.
Giulietta commented that "Hilda was absolutely intransigent about remaining a sort of enlightened despot of jazz", and it was her status as a genre institution and determination to remain contemporary after rock and pop became the foundation of popular music during the Golden Revolution that drove her to experiment. She would explore virtually every subgenre of jazz to emerge subsequently, as part of her drive to remain on the cutting-edge.
Hilda balanced her careers as a musician and politician, undertaking shorter tours. She changed her label's name to Emily Productions, and during periods of inactivity would have it focus on restoring her archived recordings and preparing live releases. Her memoir High Times, Hard Times was published in 1981. Towards the 1990s, she largely retired from studio recordings, and her touring schedule diminished to occasional shows.
Politics
Inspired by fellow big band singer Sasa Ruişela's entrance into politics, Hilda decided to enter local politics. By now based in Ostara, she ran for the mayoralty in the 1962 municipal elections, as an independent candidate supported by the Urban Movement. She won the election, with a plurality of first preference votes and 56% in the final round. She would go on to win re-election at 19 more municipal elections, and served as Mayor of Ostara for 40 years in total, making her one of Gylias' longest-serving mayors.
Hilda was largely inspired by Tamara Łempicka's precedent as mayor of Valona. She relished the ceremonial duties of the office, and became a colourful and dominant figure in the city's politics. She continued working as a musician throughout her term, and was known as a gregarious media presence, making herself available for many interviews and occasionally making cameo appearances in local productions.
Hilda's agenda put culture and the arts at the centre of Ostara's development, and emphasised demopolitan urban planning. She was considered a non-inscrit leftist, and would skilfully assemble coalitions to support her programs in the city council, usually relying on outside support from the Progressive Alliance. She worked mainly with the Urban Movement and Free Land Party, and later embraced other non-inscrits like the LSD Party, Green Party, Love, Nature, Democracy, and People's Party for a Flourishing Nightlife.
Notable achievements of Hilda's mayoral tenure included a significant increase in Ostara's parks, public spaces, and venues for culture and the arts. These helped attract tourism and residents to the city, aiding its economy. She was known as a flamboyant champion of Ostara, and promoted it light-heartedly as "the greatest city in Gylias". This led to a tongue-in-cheek rivalry with Mişeyáke mayor Arau Kanac, who famously retorted at a mayoral summit, "You're not even the greatest city in Nauras!". Hilda used her connections as a musician to attract concerts and festivals to the city, sometimes spending hours on the phone in her office cajoling fellow musicians to perform in the city, and some of her concerts doubled as electoral rallies.
In her element at the local level, she turned down offers to move into regional or federal politics, including suggestions to run for the presidency. She announced she would not run in the 2002 municipal elections and retired that year.
Musical style
Hilda always regarded herself first and foremost as a jazz musician. She stated in an interview, "I'm fine with the additional descriptors — jazz-rock, jazz-funk, what have you — but the 'jazz' must go first." During her career, she explored numerous forms of jazz — including big band swing, soul jazz, jazz-funk, jazz fusion, and even ventures into free jazz and avant-garde jazz — and was open to incorporating influences from other genres, such as rock, pop, Gylian Sound, bossa nova, and electronic music.
Hilda's singing style was percussive, relying heavily on swing and scat singing. She retained this traditionalist style as her band moved into new territory from the 1960s onwards. She was more concerned with the sound of her voice than lyrics — during live performances she sometimes dispensed with lyrics entirely, treating her voice as an instrument and reducing well-worn standards to "musical pointillism", in Liisa Salmela's words.
Although she recorded in the studio prolifically, Hilda agreed with the idea that her best work took place in a live context. At the peak of her career, she earned acclaim as a dynamic live performer, known for her improvisational skills, preference for hard swing, chic sophistication, and energetic dancing on stage. Her propensity for improvising on a whim, including changing octaves and rhythms, made her a "nightmare for pianists", an aspect she turned into a running gag by introducing Toshiko Akiyoshi during concerts as "my long-suffering pianist".
Public image
Hilda built up a "wicked" reputation during her musical career, and maintained it throughout her life. As a bandleader, she was ultimately in charge of her band, making all the final decisions. While she kept a high degree of band democracy creatively, she was also demanding in her expectations of discipline and musical excellence. Meiko Kaji recalled from her time in the Hilda Wechsler Big Band that "Hilda wanted you to develop as a musician, but mainly under her guidance."
Her public image was marked by humorous self-confidence verging on arrogance, and she was very protective of her status as an institution of jazz. In private, her bandmates described her as generous and supportive, an element which helped maintain long friendships and collaborations. She had a sense of humour about her career and often sent up her own image, giving many original songs jocular titles like "Hilda's Blues" or "Hilda's Swelled Head", and just as often referring to her bandmates in titles like "Toshiko's Dream", "Vivian's Piece", or "Groove On Jane".
She never lamented jazz's decline in popularity in the 1960s, and was supportive of the emergence of rock and pop as dominant genres, notably praising the musicianship and work ethic of the Beaties.
Hilda had a reputation as a strong disciplinarian and a control freak in the studio. Toshiko recalled that Susan Shelley was the only producer who successfully challenged Hilda and got Hilda to accept her authority in the studio.
Private life
Hilda was known for her "hard-swinging, hard-working, and hard-living" lifestyle. She was a smoker and a drinker, and began using drugs in 1950. She initially smoked cannabis, but was introduced to sniffing heroin in her thirties. She recalled that her first thought on feeling the heroin rush was, "Oh, good, now I don't have to drink." She became addicted to drugs for a long time, but maintained a degree of discipline, only consuming them after a performance. She eventually kicked the habit in 1970.
Drinking and drug addiction gave the Hilda Wechsler Big Band a reputation for rowdy behaviour; she was arrested and fined twice for engaging in bar brawls. She spoke candidly about her drug addiction in High Times, Hard Times, and remained unapologetic about her lifestyle choices.
She was married twice and had a few other romantic relationships, but commented in her autobiography that her deepest and most fruitful relationship was her friendship with her long-time drummer. She had no children.
She was the victim of a car accident in 1999, requiring her to go on medical leave from the mayoralty until her recovery.
Death
In 2010, Hilda checked into a local hospital while recovering from pneumonia. She died there in her sleep on 23 November 2010, of cardiac arrest.
Legacy
As one of the "Great Four", Hilda played a key role in the development of Gylian jazz, helping it achieve the height of its popularity. Even after said popularity receded, she maintained a core following and was able to keep herself at the forefront of the genre through her adventurousness, willingness to experiment, and openness to new sounds.
Her fame as a bandleader led to other musicians looking to her as a model in similar respects. Many members of the Hilda Wechsler Big Band went on to achieve fame elsewhere, including Senai Kaďved and Ďasei Naly of the Watts, Margarit Guryan at Confectionery Records, Meiko Kaji as a film-maker, Sasa Ruişela as a leader of the Centre Group, and future members of the Sunliners. Hilda's fusion-oriented output during the 1970s–1980s also found a notable audience among the Neo-Gylian Sound and city pop scenes, used for samples.
In politics, Hilda became a famous example of the phenomenon of eccentrically capable officeholders elected from outside politics. Her tenure is credited with having put Ostara on the map of Gylian pop culture, and influenced others to pursue similar policies.