Word: frommermann
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This true story starts in 1927 when Harry Frommermann, an out of work actor, gets the idea to form a multi-part harmony group, and places an ad in the paper. After a few initial flops, the six-man Comedian Harmonists update their repertoire, adding jazzy syncopation and some naughty lyrics. Their innovations are hilariously documented in one great scene, where they do an improv imitation of a purely instrumental jazz band. They are soon discovered, and become, in effect, The Beatles of Berlin...
Still, there is a simpler reason for the Comedian Harmonists' enduring appeal: leader Harry Frommermann and his pals made scintillating music. The six of them (two tenors, a tenorbuffo, a baritone, a bass and a pianist) blended swank and swing in the pop songs, folk tunes and classical airs they sang in German, Italian, French and English. In their clever charts and spritely renditions, "German humor" was for once not an oxymoron. Looking elegantly tuxedoed on their sold-out tours of Europe and the U.S., they spiked their tight harmonies with expert, deadpan vocal clowning; they could imitate band instruments...
...whistle, Johanna?" asks a beau showing off his belle in Kannst du pfeifen, Johanna? "Can you sing? Eat a peach? Gargle? Babble?" Johanna (a falsetto Frommermann) dutifully answers, with suitably rude sound effects, until the lover says sternly, "Can you be quiet, Johanna?" The comic portrait of a doomed courtship, in three minutes flat...
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