Ute Lemper – Blood & Feathers (Concert)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Concert: B-

 

 

Ute Lemper’s reputation precedes her.  She more than any other known vocalist is keeping the legacy of classic German vocal music alive, but as the title (and song) of this concert disc shows, she is not ethnically cleaning it or its past.  Blood & Feathers offers a fine collection of these classics performed with a good band and her exceptional phrasing of Miss Lemper, who maintains the classical feel of the material.

 

Running about 80 minutes, the songs are as follows:

 

1)     Pirate Jenny

2)     Milord

3)     Blood & Feathers

4)     The Ladies Who Lunch

5)     Moon Medley: Bilbao Song, Moon Dance, Moon Over Burbon Street, Moon Over Alabama, Moon At The Window, It’s Only A Paper Moon, Grapefruit Moon

6)     Lili Marlene

7)     Muenchhausen/The Baron Of The Lies

8)     Accordeoniste

9)     Cabaret Medley

BONUS TRACKS:

10)  Surabaya Johnny

11)  September Song

 

 

The only problem is that this does not run long enough, but is a good disc and one of the few who covers this kind of music.  That alone makes it a key disc, outside of the early classic sound motion pictures featuring the same music.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image is a little softer than expected and the Video Red has issues as a dominant color in this case.  Some shots are in black and white, but you can still see the color range contradicting the gray scale.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no surrounds, but plays nicely and the music is mostly laid back Jazz and Standards with vocal.  DTS would have been interesting here.  There are two bonus covers of songs co-written by Kurt Weill, but that is all.  Blood & Feathers is an interesting introduction to Miss Lemper if nothing else, but she does deliver a good concert.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo