1. Background
Here is some material I wrote down as preparation for the celebration we (his family and friends) held for my father Victor Schonfield, on 2022-05-12. I already shared some notes on the music we played that day.
For the celebration we (the family) had decided for me to be the "host" as it were. I was a bit nervous, but I thought I could do the task well enough. And I was very reassured to have my godfather Michael Schlesinger as back-up, in case I got too choked up. As it turned out I managed all right.
The material here isn't exactly what I said on the day. Due to time constraints, I ended up choosing not to read all of the last part below. I only left out a few small things, like the bit about Malcolm X's autobiography, and the last part of the section written by Nick Green, about Vic putting away the shopping, with the swearing. I remember I also said something about how proud and happy Victor was with his four granddaughters - that was ad-libbed.
I've been meaning to put this stuff online for some time and it's taken me far too long to do so. I have kept on putting it off, for various reasons. Still, better late than never.
I've compiled a list of other tributes to Victor here.
2. Welcoming remarks
* phones off* webcast - (for those watching the webcast, we can send you the booklet later)
* When planning this celebration, we (the family) have been relying on a fair few of Victor's instructions, or requests. They were scribbled on papers that V had put in a folder covering matters "for after I've gone". These requests cover the music we will hear today, the poem that we've put in the yellow booklet, and also the general setting of this celebration - Vic wanted it to be a non-sectarian, non religious event. I hope everyone will feel welcome here - be they religious or not, be they a believer or not, an atheist or not.
* V's biographical notes
I will now read some biographical notes. They were written by Victor himself, as part of this book that he was working on - I will say a bit more about that later on in this celebration. So, here goes:
Victor Schonfield (1940-xxxx) is a Londoner descended from prominent rabbis, though his own position is that “religion is against my religion”. He lived in the Essex countryside until he was five, and has been a Londoner ever since. He is married, with two sons and three grand-daughters, and has a history degree from the London School of Economics.
Since 1961 he has been intermittently writing about jazz for both specialist and general periodicals, as well as lecturing. He compiled the British entries for Leonard Feather’s Encyclopaedia of Jazz in the Sixties, reviewed records for Jazz Journal during the 1980s, conducted interviews for the British Library’s oral history of jazz in Britain during the 1990s, and has served on the International Jazz Critics panels of Melody Maker and Down Beat.
From 1961 until the mid-1970s he was also a concert producer and agent for musicians, specialising in the avant garde, both jazz and classical. On the jazz side he was mainly associated with AMM, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, John Stevens (leader of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble/SME) and Bobby Wellins (featured in the New Departures/Live New Departures Jazz and Jazz-Poetry groups). He also organised Ornette Coleman’s first European performance (1965), Sun Ra’s first European tour (1970), and the first British performances of Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) and the Taj Mahal Travelers.
(On the classical side, his main associations were with Gavin Bryars, Cornelius Cardew, the Promenade Theatre Orchestra, the Scratch Orchestra, and John Tilbury, plus visiting artists John Cage and David Tudor, the Sonic Arts Union/Group, and Christian Wolff.)
From 1968 to 1975 he was the Director of Music Now, an educational charity, through which he promoted or co-promoted some 74 performances, mostly with financial support from the Arts Council of Great Britain.
Interested in politics ever since reading George Orwell's Animal Farm as a child (he supported the animals), he worked for the Labour Party at every General Election from 1950 until the 1990s. He stood as the Labour candidate in his school's mock election in 1956, and served as vice-chair (membership) of Kensington Constituency Labour Party from 1977 to 1983. From 1975 to 1990 he was Honorary Treasurer of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, [and was] also active in its trade union & parliamentary liaison work. The Campaign's main achievement was that Labour MPs lost the exclusive power to choose the Party Leader. Following a heart operation Schonfield gave up his political activities, but remained a Labour Party member & Morning Star reader (it was his sole daily paper from 1980 onwards) for the rest of his life.
3. A fragment
The following fragment, written by Vic, was read by Michael Schlesinger, as part of his talk.Fragment: Historical perspective
Since we are all obliged to live exclusively in the present our natural tendency when we look at the past is to start from the present and go backwards. In real life, however, history happens forward. Thus when we look at jazz history we tend to start with whoever is prominent now, and relegate their predecessors to the status of precursors. But if we examine how events actually unfolded, the predecessors turn out to be the creators, and their successors to be merely followers.
4. My talk about Victor
As you may know, Victor was working on a book, a sort of Magnum Opus for the last 15 or 20 years. He took his time, he was perfectionist and when I tried to get him to get it done faster he would reply "Art cannot be forced".
The working title is "Victor Schonfield's Jazz Favourites - unfinished". Having read most of it, take it from me, this unpublished work is very impressive and interesting - but I won't say anything more about it now because that would take too long. Anyway, about this project, there is some good news. Victor and Susan have made an agreement with the University of Huddersfield. Vic's complete Jazz collection (records, CDs, books and so on) will go Huddersfield as an archive. And as part of this arrangement, Huddersfield have agreed to publish his book. I hope we will be able to move forward on this project soon.
Now some other topics. Firstly, here are three things that he had scribbled on scraps of paper. It's a bit random but I'd still like to share them.
- ‘Avant-garde’ – not so much a case of “they were early”, more that “we are late”.
- …appeals to everybody’s inner Fascist “Get out of my way – I’m coming through”.
- (talking about himself) His copy of the Autobiography of Malcolm X (who his second son was named after) was given to him by Angela Davis, a former house-guest.
Now I would like to talk a little about our home and family life.
My parents got married in 1967; almost two years after they had got together. Victor was happy to be a "house-husband" and for Susan to be the breadwinner.
They had a good partnership, each of them enabled the other to get on with what they were interested in. They did squabble or bicker a bit, but it never seemed to matter much because they really were devoted to each other.
One of our close family friends, Nick Green, who was a lodger with us for several years, wrote a small piece about Victor; here is a part of that:
Victor was clearly loving being a dad, kind, patient and committed, i found that hard to take in. I remember waking to the sound of Ernest and Malcom breakfasting on fish fingers, or sweet cured bacon he bought from Mr Cristian in Portobello, he cooked and chatted and gently herded them off to school “children being childish” he would say with a huge grin.
Herr Herr , says victors voice, in my head when i hear a particularly abominable pun.
Victor was an enthusiastic market shopper, putting away the weeks bounty was part of the ritual. “Fuck it, fuck it!” when things refused to fit in the fridge as required it, then “oh, un fuck it” when they finally behaved.
Thank you Nick for these memories.
Part of Victor's childhood was spent in the English countryside, which he loved. I have fond memories of country walks with him. He enjoyed looking at and contemplating farm animals, particularly pigs; he loved horse-riding, which he occasionally got to do himself - I think he was a pretty competent rider. There was a horse-riding set up in Wormwood scrubs which he would regularly and enthusiastically go to in his mid 50s to his mid 60s. He really vibed with horses.
There was a private side to him. He was a night owl - the small hours were part of that. He was generally cheerful and positive; but he was occasionally grumpy, pernickety, irascible, and anxious.
He had fond memories of his Hebrew teacher at school, Albert Meyer. (Even though he hated being made to study Hebrew.) Albert Meyer would say "Don't vorry Vickie" to him. Over the last few years, as Vic's health was declining, I would get to spend more time with Vic, and I took to saying this phrase "Don't vorry Vickie" to him on occasion when he got worried or anxious, as he seemed to like hearing it. Generally he would smile and think of this teacher and say "What a lovely man".
Vic hated ageing, but he managed to stay positive on the whole. Towards the end, even though he was diminished by the beginnings of Alzheimer's, he was still a great pleasure to be with, and he was still quite an enthralling conversationalist. He had "nominal aphasia", which is something to do with "difficulty in remembering names" - but he still could learn and retain some names when he made the effort - he was proud of being able to remember the words "nominal aphasia". He knew Susan had took on the job of being his carer, and he was extremely lucid about it - and very grateful to her for doing it. They still loved each other and treasured each other's company, right up till the end.
Next I will read you a poem by a friend of Victor's, Anne Stevens. Vic read it at her husband John's memorial concert. After I've read it, we will have a little moment of silence.
Time goes on / Life goes on / Forget / And be forgotten
- Time of Quiet Reflection
- intro for Spike Jones / Holiday For Strings
- to get full appreciation of this and V's humour see the video
- video: gunshots, harpist with a balloon hat, chicken impersonators, raucous laughter / video on YT
- jolly music that's fitting for a celebration
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