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Polish Tango: Chór Juranda - Za póżno (Too Late), 1932

2,034 views · Published 5 February 2013 · 2:47 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2013 · Music

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Chór Juranda -- Za późno (Too Late) Tango z rewii „Miłość i tango" teatru „Wesoły Teatr" (from the revue „Love and tango" in  the "Merry Theatre") (Muz. Szymon Kataszek -- Tekst: Jerry), Odeon 1932 (Polish)

NOTE: Chór Juranda (The Jurand Revellers) was the Polish male vocal ansamble established in  Warsaw in 1931 by composer and bandleader Jerzy Koszutski ("Jurand"). His inspiration was enormous success of Chór Dana (The Dan's Choir) - another "Polish Revellers",  established in 1928 (Dan was the artistic pseudonym of the composer and pianist, Władysław Daniłowski). Both groups remained in sharp competition  through all 1930s, provoking Polish audienceto split into two groups of fans of either of ensambles. In pass of years, the highest artistic level accompanied  by the progressive differentiation of the genres of both groups, pushed the Dan's Choir towards the rather jazzy and hot-dance style,  which modeled on American vocal groups (e.g. The Mills Brothers) while Chór Juranda preferred more melo-recitative and serenade-like interpretations. The outbreak of WW2 ceased the glamorous career of Chór Dana forever. Chór Juranda on the contrary - had its postwar new incarnation, under the name of Chór Czejanda ( The Czejand's Choir). However, the Stalinist regime, in which Poland had been captured after the Teheran Confrerence in 1944, hardly tolerated the prewar-type "burgeois revellers" and in 1956 the group broke up.  

Worth mentioning is also life of the composer of this tango, Szymon Kataszek (some of his fantastic hits had been already presented here, see "Warsaw, My Beautiful Warsaw" http://youtu.be/tDYV6s_MFJQ "To tango jest dla mojej matki [This Tango Is For My Mother] http://youtu.be/myb6P79YiNQ "Czemuś o niej zapomniał? (Why Have You Forgotten Her?] http://youtu.be/9H0zWPr8B9Q "Twe usta kłamią" [Your Lips Are Lying] http://youtu.be/pBnw24sIHRw ). 

Together with his friend, composer Zygmunt Karasiński, Kataszek was one of  jazz-pioneers in Poland of the 1920s. During the whoole interwar period, their Kataszek-Karasiński Dance Band was beating all records of popularity in Poland. Yet, September of 1939 and beginning of Germano-Soviet invasion on Poland created a tragic split to the fates of two friends and artists.  Karasiński -- who in right time managed to leave Warsaw i north-eastern direction, managed to get to the Soviet occupational zone, where he survived the Holocaust. On the contrary Kataszek, who chose to stay, shared the war fate of most of the Jewish citizens of Polish capital city: he got to the Ghetto, which in 1940 had been organised in the central part of Warsaw by German occupiers of Poland.  In 1941, he managed to flee to the "aryan side" of Warsaw and farther, to the south-east of occupied Poland, where he was seen as bandleader in Lwow, in  time of the city's occupation by the Soviets. However, after outbreak of German -- Soviet war in July 1942, Lwów got under the nazi administration and Kataszek -- recognized in one of restaurants by some German officer, who had previously had his service in the Jewish district of Warsaw -- was arrested and sent back to Warsaw. He vanishes in the Ghetto, during the nazi "final solution" actions  between April-August 1943.

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