Fred Bird Rhythmicans - Nur meine Leidenschaft....

Felix Lehmann (1882-1975 in Berlin) was a German orchestra leader and jazz musician, who is mainly known by the stage name Fred Bird. Since 1924, Lehmann was the musical director and manager of the record company Homophon Co. in Berlin. He made numerous recordings under aliases and pseudonyms. This enabled him to fake a nonexistent broad artists spectrum in his record company: when recording hit tunes, the band was renamed as Homocord-Tanzorchester, without any mention of his name. When it came to performing salon and concert repertoire, he was credited the Salon-Orchester Félix Lémeau. After the turn of the year 1926/27, when American dance hits were increasingly in demand, his band also appeared under the name Fred Bird The Salon Symphonie (sic) Jazz Band . In 1929/30, on the new black Homocord label, they would appear as Fred Bird Rhythmicans. From 1929 till 1932, this "highly jazz-oriented band" was occasionally heard on the air. Finally, after 1933, when pseudonyms were forbidden by the 'Reichskammer' (artists association), the band was renamed Fred Bird Tanz-Orchester until the Homophon Company completely disappeared and merged into Carl Lindström. The South African banjoist and jazz singer Al Bowlly occasionally worked with Fred Bird's band. According to Lange, Bird, however, seems to have employed more high-profile jazz musicians as soloists in his orchestra; Horst H. Lange not only mentions Bowlly, but also trumpeter Howard O. MacFarlane, violinist Arno Lewitsch, as well as guitarist and banjo player Mike Danzi. A striking orchestral sound change came after 1932 with the band named Tanz-Orchester Fred Bird. It seems it did not comprise the same musicians neither of the Salon Symphonie Jazz, nor of the Rhythmicans. Very little is known about Fred Bird's career after 1934. However, in the late 1930s through the early war years, he made dance band records for the Kristall label under the denomination Fred Berd instead of Bird. Its sound and style were radically different from anything he had ever waxed before as Fred Bird aka Felix Lehmann. It was a single recording session in October 1937. According to the Berlin Business Directory, he was still registered as a musician in the 1950s. He died largely forgotten in Berlin in 1975. This brilliant record was made in 1931, featuring a vocal by Luigi Bernauer.