CD: A Clear Midnight

For their new album "A Clear Midnight - Kurt Weill And America" Julia Hülsmann and her quartet worked together with singer Theo Bleckmann. At its core it is a Kurt-Weill album, but of course a special one. Julia Hülsmann put together a first Weill programme focusing on his time in the USA for the Kurt-Weill-Festival in Dessau in 2013. With jazz musicians, such projects develop a life of their own through subsequent concerts, which is now recorded as a snapshot under producer Manfred Eicher.

Julia Hülsmann appreciates the diversity of Kurt Weill's compositions. In his American phase he orientated himself on Broadway and the music played there. Apart from the well-known Weill classics "Mack The Knife", "Speak Low" and "September Song" she also discovered a booklet called "Unsung Weill" during the preparation of the program. Julia Hülsmann found great, unknown Weill compositions in it, which were deleted from Broadway pieces for various reasons. The album is called "Kurt Weill And America" instead of "in America" for a reason. Julia Hülsmann thought herself into the American world during Weill's lifetime and added her own settings of Walt Whitman ("Beat! Beat! Drums!", "A Noiseless Patient Spider", "A Clear Midnight") to the program.

Julia Hülsmann's usual approach to arranging and composing also influenced "A Clear Midnight - Kurt Weill And America". First she searches for the core, the essence of the piece. This can be the musical core in the form of a phrase or harmony sequence or in songs the story told in the text. Julia Hülsmann enjoys working with singers and so this time her quartet performs as a quintet with singer Theo Bleckmann. The arrangements are enchantingly beautiful and contemplative. Trumpeter and flugelhornist Tom Arthurs perfectly complements the pitch and melody of Theo Bleckmann's voice, whether in unison or in two voices.

Theo Bleckmann says that his access to new pieces only takes place through music. Melody, rhythm and harmony give him an impression of the essence of the song. The very poetic lyrics of "A Clear Midnight - Kurt Weill And America" made it easy in the case of Weill, Whitman and Hülsmann: Here he can rely completely on music and lyrics.

On "A Clear Midnight - Kurt Weill And America" the Julia Hülsmann Quartet and Theo Bleckmann present a skilful selection of well-known and unknown Weill songs in combination with Whitman settings by Hülsmann: stylish, tasteful, poetic.