September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill

Melodies are wonderful

After you will lissen this cd, the music not be tha same.
MUST HAVE!!! October 30, 2008

OK.

Ok c'est arrivé en bon état. Délai d'attente un peu long mais c'est loin l'Amérique! April 9, 2008

good, but not as good as 'Lost in the Stars'

This might be a five star disc except that the producer, Hal Willner, had already created Lost in the Stars, with some of the same people (Lou Reed, Charlie Haden). This follow-up is a little less adventurous, and the choices are more obvious. Basically, this is a soundtrack from a film project, and camera presence was a factor in choosing singers. Elvis Costello is remarkable on the song 'Lost in the Stars' and the gospel arrangement of 'Oh, Heavenly Salvation' also stands out. Lou Reed does the same song that he did on the earlier disc ('September Song') but this second take on it isn't as moving.

Go ahead and buy this if you can't get the other one, but this is the second choice. August 23, 2007

some brilliant renditions, but can't quite all mix together

I like the spirit of this album, which is to let the music of Kurt Weill attach itself to the many worlds it came from. This was classical music that also used elements of popular music at the time, all with a very dark and almost mechanical tone. So it would seem fitting to have exquisite voices like Teresa Stratas rub elbows with darker elements like Nick Cave in this collection. There are also the jazz influences developed by Charlie Haden and Betty Carter.

In all, there are some brilliant interpretations of Weill here. I am a fan of Cave's "Mack the Knife" and David Johansen's "Alabama Song," and how can someone NOT like Lotte Lenya herself on "Pirate Jenny" and the drolling of the immortal William S. Burroughs talking through "What Keeps Mankind Alive?"

But other tracks feel to be just too short of brilliance. I love that Lou Reed tries to turn "September Song" into a kind of rock ballad, almost a VU "It Was a Pretty Good Year," but the rendition seems a little short of energy and falls flat after a while. Elvis Costello, though magnificent as an overall artist, just doesn't bring new life to "Lost in the Stars."

Perhaps the problem in the end that the choices were a little too much of the Top 40 Weill (if there really can be such a term). These are songs that have for a long time been regarded as the best of Weill, and it might have furthered the purpose of his music to find new gems and bring them into the sunlight.
October 19, 2006

Cool and Camp

This is a very biased review- I originally had much of Weill's work on cassette tape- way back in the olden days- before CD's- so I am already very partial to many of the tracks on this CD- I would recommend it not only to Kurt Weill fans, and the fans of the various artists featured, but I would also strongly recommend this to anyone who likes artsy, camp, fun burlesque, Bohemian European stuff. The record, even though performed by contemporary artists still retains much of it's zeitgeist, it evokes the era in which Weill was writing and it rounds out any great eclectic record collection. It's a great musical discovery for fans of all sorts of genres, and EVERYONE should own at least one recorded arrangement of "Mack The Knife". (You know, for parties and stuff!) August 24, 2006

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