Andrea Fultz – The German Projekt – German Songs from the 20s & 30s – andreafultz.com, 43.4 min. [Release date: May 12, 09] *****:
(Andrea Fultz, vocals; Micha Patri, percussion; Adam Shulman, piano; Dina Maccabee, violin; Rob Reich, accordion; Eugene Warren, bass)
Born in Munich and now based in Frankfurt, 34-year-old Andrea Fultz lived and studied for some time in San Francisco, where she became familiar for the very first time with the world of German songs of the 20s and 30s such as the Brecht-Weill collaborations and songs popularized by Marlena Dietrich in The Blue Angel and other films of the period. I was personally introduced to this material by the Berlin Theater Songs LP of Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill’s widow, and a number of singers over the years have attempted to capture the feel and sound of these hard-edged and mostly cynical songs – in both German and English – among them Marianne Faithfull, Teresa Stratas, and Uta Lemper. None of them had quite the untrained, lived-in voice and unique delivery of Lenya, and most tried to imitate the early-jazz-influenced small ensemble accompaniment of the originals.
Fultz modernizes the songs and her backing group is much jazzier and more contemporary than we’ve heard before on this material. Her German is very good of course and her voice – honed on everything from bossa nova and jazz to the Great American Songbook and electronica – is well-trained and yet not sounding like an operatic diva slumming these tunes. It’s a sexy, flexible and sometimes very dramatic voice but not over the top as some other singers who have delivered these classics.
The opener of the dozen tracks is in English, just as Lenya had to learn it phonetically for Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel in 1927 (because she didn’t speak English at the time). It’s the Alabama Song, sung by Jenny and fellow prostitutes. Most of the rest of the songs are in German, but Fultz tosses in an occasional English translation, such as at the conclusion of Dietrich’s “Falling In Love Again.” That one is one of four of the songs from the pen of the other famous German composer here, Friedrich Hollaender. The second song entirely in English is the very moving anti-fascist “Song of a German Mother” by Brecht and his later composing collaborator, Hans Eisler. Its English translation was made by Eric Bentley, who also once recorded it, but what a difference to hear it sung by a professional and also appropriate female voice!
Fultz should be very proud of her accomplishment on this her self-published disc (which is handled by CDbaby.com). The German Projekt explores some of the dark but fascinating aspects of Germany in the 20s and 30s, and blends the German and American elements in a manner appropriate to Fultz’s background, since she is the product of an American soldier on leave from Vietnam who met her German mother at Munich’s Hofbrauhaus. My only gripe would be that it would have been nice to include English translations of the German songs for those of us not bilingual. (If you would like to see Andrea Fultz in action, she has several videos at the vimeo.com site.)
TrackList:
Alabama Song, Bilbao Song, Johnny, Ich bin von Kopfl bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt, Denn wie man sich bettet so liegt man, Wenn ich mire was wünschen dürfte, Barbara Song, Seeräuber Jenny, Song of a German Mother, Surabaya Johnny, Mackie Messer’s Moritat, Kinder heut Abend da such ich mir was aus.
– John Sunier
