I haven’t mentioned celebrity deaths in my feed ever. Today, I break from that tradition. On Sunday, we lost one of Milwaukee’s finest musicians. A man that was an institution in the Milwaukee German-American community. He was known on both sides of the Atlantic with his music being as at home on a phonograph in Augsburg or cassette player in Kenosha equally.
Johnny Hoffmann was a family man, a friend, a musician, and a tradition all at once. My parents had “Johnny” (as most people referred to his band “Johnny Hoffmann and the Herzbuben) play at their wedding. Had I ever married, you better believe they would have played mine. During my formative years, Milwaukee was awash in talented musicians in the region with bands like Sterne der Heimat, Austrian Trio Grande, the Red River Boys and so many more but Johnny….well, he was something more than a band. He was the German-American community. He was the tradition.
Two vocalists. Two accordianists. A brass and woodwind section. Drums. Traditional music. New music. Music that only Johnny could play. For decades, Johnny and his band (and their wives) would travel throughout the city to play every weekend (frequently multiple times) at events indoors, outdoors, festivals and dances. His set list was well known as were the tunes. I especially enjoyed their version of the Peanuts Polka and always made a point to dance that one whenever I heard it, even when I was by myself in the basement of the Schwabenhof tending the coat room…which led to more than one startled patron retrieving their overcoat.
As traditional as they were, Johnny also introduced music he found overseas, bringing back music like the Chicken Dance and Zillertaler Hochzeitsmarsch to thrill local audiences. His band always followed his lead and he didn’t lead them wrong. His traditional “Continental” style music also made a home in other European ethnic communities locally…he would play Italian and other European neighbors events with equal skill and appreciation.
Johnny was more than the band leader, the entertainer. He was always in a jovial, happy mood when I saw him. Always had a joke ready and always generous. Name an event Johnny played that did not have a raffle prize of one of his prized albums or cassettes. I often heard my contemporaries say “Oh, Johnny again” but I noticed his albums never were “re-donated” to the raffle. Not so with the countless bottle of booze I’d distributed between choruses of “shake the bag” over the years. No, even if you had the album, you knew someone who would love it. Who would cherish it. As we all love and cherish Johnny and his music.
At the end of the day, Johnny brought joy and romance at every performance. With his departure, we’ve all lost a little. And some of us, those of us who knew him…well, we’ve lost a lot.
I had the honor to interview Johnny TWICE on the Stimmung Stunde radio program that I hosted. Below are clips from that program.
