"𝕰𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖎𝖐" (single) by Kü

Like most culturally aware and informed Berliners, in the summer of 1925 Kü was hit like a bolt of lightning by her exposure to the Chocolate Kiddies Review. A fabulous preçis of the burgeoning Harlem Renaissance, the show included stellar performers - Adelaide Hall, Lottie Gee, The Three Eddies, Rufus Greenlee and Thaddeus Drayton, Bobbie and Babe Goins and Sam Wooding and his Orchestra, to name but a few - choreography and performances by Charlie Davis and 4 compositions by a certain young jazz phenomenon who went by the name of Duke Ellington, his first ever to be performed in the revue format.

The company arrived in Hamburg May 17, 1925, and traveled to Berlin, arriving May 18 and opened May 25 at the Admiralspalast, where they performed 8 weeks. One of the audience members, 17-year-old Berliner Alfred Lion, later said, "It was the first time I saw colored [sic] musicians and heard the music. I was flabbergasted . . . – It was something brand new, but it registered with me right away." The impact would be such that, thirteen years later, in 1938, Herr Lions co-founded Blue Note Records in New York City!

Anita long gone from her life, off pursuing her own insatiable lusts around Europe and the middle east in what would turn out to be a long drawn out death spiral, for most of those 8 weeks Kü appears to have spent the majority of her time immersing herself in the culture, music and company of the revue artistes. The beautifully restored and colorized postcards that accompany this set were mainly taken with and by members of the company and they show unfailingly just how relaxed and confident to be her *true* self Kü felt.

As will become a familiar trope through her long and restlessly inventive career, the singer seems almost to transform before our eyes. The angular, modish expressionism of her Berber period is replaced by a streamlined new vision of exotic modernism. Her peroxide hair shorn down into a brilliantined skull cap, her skin now richly tanned from days spent bathing and lounging with the Kiddies by the Spree and, if some conjecture is to be believed, darkened with stock cubes, she can almost pass for one of the company herself, sharing their clothes, wigs and personal style with absolute ease. Perhaps this should not surprise us though as, the equally alien and unfathomably exotic creature seen here probably *should* feel perfectly at home in the presence of her fellow 'exotics' - performers and artists who, like Kü, must have felt somewhat like goldfish in a bowl, delighting and bemusing their audience of mutually strange and voyeuristic Europeans in equal measure - an audience, don't forget, that in under 10 years would be living under a regime obsessed with, and desperate to establish, racial purity. She's seen in one image in what appears to be a state of preparation to take the stage herself, assisted by the busying black maid behind her. But this stunning image aside, there's no evidence that Kü ever appeared as part of the revue. We can't be sure, but it seems plausible given the mutual attachment and respect between her and the cast that she may well have at least guested, if not taken part more extensively, in some of the shows.

What is certain is that Kü by now has the bug and becomes such a devotee of black musical and theatre craft that when the company departs Berlin to continue its run in Hamburg, she follows, then continues on with them to Sweden. Later that year, with the Kiddies readying to return triumphantly to the States, and enthused by the cast's recollections of and the growing news furore surrounding her, Kü flits off to Paris to experience the insane whirlwind performances of Josephine Baker for herself. Again, it's unclear whether or not the two ever met. Kü's diary frequently refers to a 'JB' during this period but, given her habitual promiscuity and generally gregarious and devouring personality, this is hardly concrete. The influence of Baker though is undeniable, with Kü's subsequent work and appearance indebted to Baker almost to the point of parody. However, as we'll see when we examine the music that resulted from this fascinating infatuation more closely, this is no mere tribute band. Kü takes much from 20s Harlem Renaissance style, but where she runs with it is almost always provocative and unsettling in a way that the purely mimetic never could be...

Singer, songwriter, artist and musician.

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