Jakub Kagan

Jakub Kagan (7 February 1896 – 1942) was a popular Polish-Jewish composer, pianist, jazz musician and arranger. In the early 1920s, he formed the Kagan's Jazz Band in Warsaw, performing in operettas, cabarets, and hotels. Since 1922 Kagan was a feature artist at the Kabaret Mirage and at the Teatr Nowości. In 1926 he signed a contract with the luxury Hotel Bristol in Warsaw. His band performed world-renowned standards as well as his own compositions widely popular across the country. He died in Warsaw during the Holocaust in occupied Poland.

After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany he was deported to the Warsaw Ghetto where he played piano at the Splendid Café and the Melody Palace Theatre to survive. He was killed in 1942 possibly during the murderous Grossaktion Warsaw. His other brother, Feliks, who had changed his name to Kochański, also perished during the war. Only the youngest of the Kagan brothers, Alexander (born in 1906), survived the Holocaust as a soldier of the Polish Army in France (1939–40), interned in Switzerland.

Popular songs "Musiałem cię zostawić" (1937), words by Zenon Friedwald "Złota pantera" (1929), words by Andrzej Włast "Miłość stara jak świat" (1933), words by Jerzy Ryba "Zakochany księżyc" (1938), words by Zenon Friedwald "Na Górny Śląsk" (march) "Skarga miłości" (waltz) "Wspomnienie Bobrujska" (march) "Mary" (foxtrot) "Cowboy" (foxtrot) "Afra" (foxtrot) "Luna" (foxtrot) "Fata Morgana" (1929), words by Andrzej Włast