Nica's dream : the life and legend of the jazz baroness

Bird in the Baroness's boudoir -- A weird Mishbocho -- Battlefield dispatches: from the front lines and the home front -- New world order: the rise of midcentury modernism -- Nica's dream: the birth of the jazz baroness -- Monk and the Baroness each find a home -- Beyond the five spot: midcentury modernism goes mainstream -- The sixties: the best of times, the worst of times -- Chez Nica: the cathouse years -- The legend lives on.;Describes the life of the Rothschild heiress and jazz enthusiast who moved to Manhattan and began hosting late-night jam sessions, socializing with Beat poets and made headlines when Charlie Parker died in her hotel suite. The first biography of the legendary Rothschild heiress who reigned as New Yorks Jazz Baroness. Its a misty night in 1950s New York. A silver Rolls-Royce screeches to a stop at the neon-lit doorway of a 52nd Street jazz club. Behind the wheel is a glamorous brunette, a chinchilla stole draped over her shoulder and a long cigarette holder clinched in her teeth. After taking a pull from a small silver flask, she glides past the bouncer into the murky depths of the Three Deuces. The Jazz Baroness has arrived. Raised in fairy-tale splendor, Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild de Koenigswarter (known as Nica) piloted her own plane across the English Channel, married a French baron, fought in the French Resistance, and had five children. Then she heard a recording of Thelonious Monks Round Midnight. Inspired by the liberating spirit of jazz, Nica left her family, moved to Manhattan, and began haunting the citys nightclubs. The tabloids first splashed her name across the headlines after Charlie Parker died in her hotel suitea scandal that cast a dark shadow over the rest of her life. She retreated from the public eye, but through her ongoing ministrations to Monk and dozens of other musicians she became a legend. Nearly a score of jazz compositions have been written in her honor, including two of the most beloved classics of the genre: Horace Silvers Nicas Dream and Monks Pannonica. Nicas Dream traces the story of a fascinating woman across her thirty-year reign as the Jazz Baroness, but it also explores a transformative era in twentieth-century American culture. Based on interviews with musicians, family members, historians, and artists, David Kastins probing biography unwraps the life of this enigmatic figure and evokes the vibrancy of New York during the birth of bebop, the first stirrings of the Beat Generation, and the advent of abstract expressionism. 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations Raised in fairy-tale splendor, Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild de Koenigswarter (known as "Nica") piloted her own plane across the English Channel, married a French baron, fought in the Resistance, and had five children—but then she heard a recording of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight." Beguiled by the beauty and liberating spirit of jazz, she left her family behind and moved to Manhattan, where she began hosting late-night jam sessions, socializing with Beat poets, and driving her silver Rolls Royce to the Five Spot and other fabled jazz venues. The tabloids first splashed her name across the headlines after Charlie Parker died in her hotel suite, but through her remarkable ministrations to Monk and dozens of other musicians she became a legend. Based on interviews with musicians, family members, historians, and artists, David Kastin's probing biography unwraps this enigmatic figure and evokes the vibrancy of New York during the birth of bebop and the advent of abstract expressionism.