Memories about Julius Jacobsen (1915 Copenhagen - 1990 Stockholm),
a professional pianist, trombonist, arranger, composer and collector
of Welte-Mignon rolls, assembled by Douglas Heffer in Paris.

 [Part 1 was published in 170406 MMD]

How come he could travel to Freiburg in 1942?

Julius Jacobsen was a good musician who liked the jazz and swing bands
[2].  In the second part of the 1930s he traveled to Stockholm, Sweden,
to work with Arne Hülphers' big band orchestra where he played trombone
and wrote music arrangements for the orchestra [3].

This orchestra was very appreciated in Germany -- as a dance orchestra
and also for their radio performances -- and Arne Hülphers had many
contacts in Germany in the entertainment business which made these
tours possible in a very troubled period.

The orchestra played in Berlin during the beginning of the war and
Julius Jacobsen at that time had permission to go most everywhere in
Germany.  This was the opportunity for him to go to visit the Welte
factory where he had a tour in the factory and he played on their
recording piano.  Unfortunately he was not a technician and he only
remembers having seen the perforator, which was not anymore in action.

Karl Bockisch suggested to him to buy Welte-Mignon rolls with 10% off
the price.  Julius wouldn't tell the elderly Bockisch that he could buy
new Welte rolls in Brussels for practically nothing -- the market was
finished and at that time (1942) no one was concerned about piano
rolls, at least in Europe.

These will be my main memories of a rather unusual person I learned to
know and kept a friendly musical relationship with throughout 28 years.

Douglas Heffer
Paris, 2017

References:

[1] Kästner Autopiano AG,
https://mfm.uni-leipzig.de/hsm/produkt_detail.php?id=46 

[2]
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Jacobsen 
https://www.discogs.com/artist/1572964-Julius-Jacobsen 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Jacobsen#Bibliography 

[3]
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Hülphers 
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_H%C3%BClphers