The life story of Naomi Susan Isaacs sounds a bit like a music biopic, except she has done lots of other things besides singing and playing music throughout her life, and didn’t end up in Motown.
Naomi was born in post-World War II London, the daughter of a pianist and ballet dancer with strict rules about musical consumption (classical was the permitted style). This meant getting piano and ballet lessons as a child, but Naomi would rather play the guitar and listen to jazz. She rebelled by sneaking off to jazz clubs. When she left home, though, she became a teacher in Birmingham instead of going for a professional music career. But music clubs kept luring her in, and in between attending folk and jazz performances, she met the man who would become her husband and finally got to sing in public (with his band). They moved to Munich and got sucked into the lively music scene there. She recalls listening to Pinky’s Courthouse Gang, the Jazzkränzchen Immergrün and the Footwarmers at Munich’s Türkenkeller, “a cold cellar in the entrance to the old German army barracks, which stood where today stands the Pinakothek der Moderne.” Other interests and a job as a typist and secretary took her away from the music scene, but she could never stay away for good – she found herself back in it in the 80’s, frequenting Munich’s Unterfahrt jazz club so often that she ended up working there and quitting her secretarial job to seriously try for a music career. From then on, music has not let her go anymore, and she has put out CDs, given concerts and taught workshops in Germany and abroad – besides writing a children’s book that started out as a music project.
You can see Naomi in action at the next installment of Sofa Stories, an event organized by Leipzig Writers this Sunday, March 15. It takes place at Uptown Coffee Bar, Riemann Str. 44 in Leipzig, starting at 2 p.m. According to Leipzig Writers, “Sofa Stories is a regular event where readers can read longer texts and explore the narrative and story a bit more. An event to curl up in hiStories and music, unplugged. Entry is free, with donations welcome to help support the many cultural and social projects of Leipzig Writers.”
