Giorgio Gomelsky - Early Years

Early Years

Giorgio Gomelsky was born in Georgia. His father was a medical doctor, and his mother was from Monte Carlo. The family left in 1938 and via Syria, Egypt, and Italy, in 1944 settled in Switzerland, the country where his father had trained.

Giorgio discovered jazz at the age of 10, while living in Italy. One Sunday he was caught out by the 4pm German curfew, so he stayed in the house of friends. Exploring their attic he discovered a gramophone and some jazz records. As a symbol of defiance he and his friends took to occasionally briefly blasting the music out of the window. Fortunately they were never caught. After the liberation, eventually black GI's arrived and furthered his jazz education.

He attended a Benedictine school in Ascona, near Locarno, Switzerland. With the war over, he was able to pool resources with friends to start a record collection. By 1946 the American Forces Network had been established and Giorgio was exposed to be-bop via the Cool City program on VOA. (In 1964, his father having died and left him some money, Giorgio would returned to Ascona and stage a jazz festival in a local airfield.) .

He attended a progressive private school, the School of Humanity run by Paul Gehheb, in the mountains of Switzerland. While on vacation, with friends, he travelled around Europe by bicycle. In post-war Germany, they found a thriving cellar-jazz scene in towns like Düsseldorf. They visited Milan, and pedaled all the way to Paris to see Charlie Parker perform at the Salon de Jazz.

His mother was a hat designer. Her father had worked for the Société des Bains de Mer (the casino operator) in Monte Carlo, a popular resort for the British, and so she spoke English and became an anglophile, with a particular love of English literature. Thus her employer, Claude St. Cyr of Paris, sent her to run his atelier in London. She would send her Swiss schoolboy son the English music paper Melody Maker on a weekly basis, from which Giorgio learned English and also became familiar with the British jazz scene.

There was still at this time limited opportunity to hear new jazz in Europe. Apart from Willis Conover on VOA. there was an Italian jazz radio show; Flavio Ambrosetti's show on Swiss Radio ran just 20 minutes a week; there was Charles Delaunay jazz show on Europe 1 in Paris; and Charlie Fox on the BBC; and maybe a couple of German shows. There was a scene in Copenhagen. Aficionados in many cities set up jazz appreciation societies, and Giorgio and friends set one up in Locarno. A trio was formed, Roland Schramlei on bass, Bert Armbruster on piano, and Giorgio on drums. Resources were so limited that, only possessing a ride cymbal, Giorgio would have to hire a drum kit every time they had an engagement.

The main jazz magazine was Les Cahiers du Jazz from Paris, and there was also one in Italy. In both countries the magazines organized the local Jazz Societies into Federations which could then stage concert tours. Giorgio followed their model and formed a Swiss federation that staged concerts. In 1954, having been denied permission to stage a concert during the Zurich Festival by the city fathers, the Federation staged a daring protest on a Sunday. The resulting publicity persuaded the City to reverse its decision, and thus the Zurich Jazz Festival was born (and exists to this day).

Having become a Swiss citizen, Giorgio had to perform National Service, undergoing basic training with Swiss Air Force, where he flew Bucher biplanes. Although a proficient pilot he deliberately failed promotion tests and, after rejection, was then free to leave the country.