Manafonistas

Bei einem Kreuzberger Weihnachtskehraus vor zwei Jahren sang eine Frau Kurt Weill Songs. Ich fragte sie, weshalb sie so begeistert von Kurt Weill sei. Sie lachte, nicht von Weill, sondern von Lotte Lenja, seiner Frau. Tatsächlich hatte die Berlinerin die gleiche signifikant kühle Schepperstimme wie Lotte.

Lotte: Do you know that they just found the song, you composed for me?

Kurt:  Which one do you mean?

Lotte:  Gosh,  honey, it was

Kurt: „Speak low, when you speak love.“

Lotte: I was searching for that song all over after your death. 

Kurt: Why did it mean so much to you?

Lotte: Kurt, it was the song about the white cheese. I sang it with all my power. Do you remember that wonder healer,  who preached: it was  done with white cheese compresses and two prayers.

Kurt: Yeah, I do remember.  „We were sooooo satisfied then.“

(Das „Lied vom weissen Käse“ ist vor ein paar Tagen in Berlin wieder gefunden worden)

Wiki speaks:

Kurt Weill wird in Dessau 1900 geboren. Er war ein deutsch-amerikanischer Komponist. Er stammte aus einer jüdischen Familie aus Dessau.  Auch er floh vor den Nazis nach New York, wo er 1950 starb. Er erlangte zunächst Bekanntheit durch die Zusammenarbeit mit Bertolt Brecht (z.B. die Dreigroschenoper u.a.). Aufgrund von künstlerischen Dissonanzen trennten sie sich. Brecht versuchte ihn ganz für sich zu vereinnahmen. Weill wehrte sich: „… glauben Sie Brecht habe meine Musik komponiert? Brecht ist ein Genie, aber für die Musik in unserem Werke, dafür trage ich allein die Verantwortung.“

Lotte Lenja war die einzige Frau, die den Verführungen Brechts widerstanden hatte.

Brecht auf deutsch-türkisch 

Omg – a musical!

Als Kurt den Broadway entlangschlenderte, traf er Moss Hart, der frisch von der Couch runterkam. Die Psychoanalyse blühte. Ein Glück für Weill, der mit Hart jemanden gefunden hatte, mit dem er neue Musikformen im Theater ausprobieren konnte. Sie arbeiteten daran, wie die Traumsequenzen als Songs so in die Wort- und Theatertanzakte eingebaut werden könnten, um dem Stück „Lady in the Dark“ mehr Spannung zu verleihen.

„My ship has sails that are made of silk …“

Wie oft wurde dieser Song – THE SHIP – aus dem Musical LADY IN THE DARK gecovert: von Flora Purim, Cindy Blackman, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Gil Evans …

Ich bin im Kurt Weill Zentrum in Dessau.

Es ist in einem der Meisterhäuser (Bauhaus / Feininger) untergebracht. Auf dem Tisch liegt das Kurt Weill Festspielprogramm für 2018. „Lady in the Dark“ wird aufgeführt werden und Till Brönner wird aufspielen. Mich hätten die Folksongs zu dem Musical „Huckleberry Finn“ am meisten interessiert. Wo sind sie bloß?

At first listening, this Polish-Scandinavian collaboration seems almost too archetypal ECM for its own good. But there‘s more to UNLOVED than the surface of the surface may offer. So wait and listen. My edition of Deutschlandfunk’s „JazzFacts“ on December 7th, 9.05 p.m., will shed some light over Marciej Obara‘s debut on ECM. And the sax player will speak about it, in his home language. Other themes are in preparation. Please let us not discuss t h i s album here. But: are there brand new or quite new jazz, jazz-related albums out there (from lesser known labels) I might present on that evening‘s program? Do I have to go back to some overlooked gems? Nearly no one knows, for example, the highly inventive approach to Erik Satie, performed by a piano player and a cornetist, right?! Released on Steeplechase Records. And, with special works, it’s always the question what can still be called jazz in the widest sense? Jon Balke‘s fantastic new album seems a bit far out for a program called „JazzFacts“. Mhmm …  For German listeners: a week later, December 14th, same time, Anouar Brahem’s internationally acclaimed new work is in the focus of Karl Lippegaus‘ portrait.

Not easy. You really need access to all four seasons, and they are, via streaming, only accessible on Amazon Prime. Only seasons 1 and 2 got DVD/BLURAY releases, so, you better wait till the COMPLETE HALT AND CATCH FIRE BOX SET will have been released one day in the future. Future is anyway a main topic here, and, as in so many cases, a future long gone. So when time has come, you will dive into the world of four, five flawed main characters who are obsessed with the dawn of the then new computer age, and, in not so discreet ways, with one another, and their own demons. Full program. Soundtracking is great and overpowers the shitty mainstream of the ‚80s. Don‘t expect any far-reaching analysis deeply grounded in sociological and psychological knowledge here. Please. We have this knowledge, we‘re no dumbheads, but, may I say so in the the name of Joey, too, we are still rendered rather speechless by our heaven-and-hell-ride over the last weeks rushing by like an autumn leaf under a stormy evening sky. Clever writing is strictly forbidden when catharsis still works. The aftermath, the afterglow. It is very helpful to stay away from reading any reviews before entering the world of Cameron, Joe, Gordon, Donna and Bos. Stay innocent and let your heart be broken slowly. Seeing is creating. It works best in the dark, with your love or loneliness or ghost friends at your side. You’ll never watch alone. Interesting, though „Mercy Street“ is wonderfully placed at one point, I got, after having seen it all, a big hunger for a different Peter Gabriel album: MELT. The common ground: everything‘s constantly on the verge of falling apart (with great rhyhtms) – and, here we go, some damn good  story-telling may be on its way to you. Just melt away!

„A pattern creates a certain state of consciousness. Once it is created, the pattern stands as an object exactly like the sound waves which generate it. We are at the same time inside and outside of the object. While being it, we observe it. Over time we become familiar with the inner structure of the pattern. We decode its gravitational centres, where our psycho-motor attention is attracted, where everything seems to be drawn. When a change in the pattern occurs it causes a perturbation of the previously established field of forces. This causes consciousness to fracture, potentially unfolding layers of perceptions we weren’t aware of or simply suggesting that we access only a fraction of our psychic potential. The layered nature of consciousness and the relativity of perception are some of the biggest secrets we can experience through sound.“

CB

Patterns of Consciousness: Caterina Barbieri