Johnny & Jones is the name of the Amsterdam jazz-duo Nol (Arnold Siméon) van Wesel (Johnny) (3 augustus 1918 - 20 maart 1945) and Max (Salomon Meyer) Kannewasser (Jones) (24 september 1916 - 15 april 1945). Van Wesel en Kannewasser both worked for de Bijenkorf. They were discovered in 1934 at a staff party when they performed as part of the Bijko Rhythm Stompers. Two years later they quit their job to pursue a career in music under the moniker of Johnny and Jones. Their biggest hit was to beco...
Johnny & Jones is the name of the Amsterdam jazz-duo Nol (Arnold Siméon) van Wesel (Johnny) (3 augustus 1918 - 20 maart 1945) and Max (Salomon Meyer) Kannewasser (Jones) (24 september 1916 - 15 april 1945).
Van Wesel en Kannewasser both worked for de Bijenkorf. They were discovered in 1934 at a staff party when they performed as part of the Bijko Rhythm Stompers. Two years later they quit their job to pursue a career in music under the moniker of Johnny and Jones.
Their biggest hit was to become 'Mijnheer Dinges weet niet wat swing is (Mister Dinges doesn't know what swing is).' They wrote swing jazz songs accompanied by their guitar. They were known for singing with an American accent and sung light-hearted reflections on contemporary events.
Starting in 1937 Johnny & Jones performed regularly on Dutch radiobroadcasting channel VARA and became very popular.
During the German occupation of the Netherlands Johnny & Jones were allowed only to perform in front of Jewish audience, due to their Jewish ancestry, and from 1941 on were banned from performing at all. In 1943 they were transported, together with their wives, to the transition camp of Westerbork. In Westerbork they were able to perform only once, due to strict camp regulations that they had to sing their revue in German, a language they could hardly speak. Furthermore they were allowed to leave the camp temporarily to go to Amsterdam to record the song 'Westerbork Serenade'.
When stationed in Westerbork they were assigned to break down warplanes that had been shot down in the Netherlands. They also sing about this in 'Westerbork Serenade'.
On September 4 1944 Johnny & Jones were on one of the last transports from Westerbork to German concentration camps and were shipped to Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Ohrdruf en Bergen-Belsen. At the end they died of fatigue in the last days of war in 1945. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
