In the course of his short life, he released just two albums as a solo artist, but with these albums he influenced country music like …
Nanci Griffith: From Beer Joint to Carnegie Hall
She grew up in Austin, the cradle of US folk music: she spent much of her youth in Austin and always wondered how she would …
Burt Bacharach: The Musical Instinct
This article is published on the occasion of the passing of Burt Bacharach on February 8th, 2023. Marlene Dietrich once said, when introducing composer Burt …
Christa Ludwig: It Takes More Than Only Primadonnas
The philosopher Theodor W. Adorno once said that a person’s musical education begins nine months before birth. Christa Ludwig proves Adorno right: In her memoirs, …
Kurt Weill: The New Opera
He had a major influence on the development of modern American stage music: Kurt Weill was one of the most important composers of the first …
Edith Piaf: A Sonorous Laugh (2.)
Continued from part one For Edith Piaf, there seemed to be no such thing as a hopeless situation: After Lepplée’s death, she was discovered by …
Edith Piaf: A Sonorous Laugh (1.)
On that October evening in 1949 when the world boxing champion Marcel Cerdan, Edith Piaf’s lover, was killed, Piaf was due to perform at the …
Hildegard Knef: The Berlin Snout
Ella Fitzgerald once said she was the best singer who actually had no voice: Hildegard Knef is one of the most famous German actresses and …
The History of Vinyl: It sizzles like a fire
It is much easier to make files available on a computer than to produce a vinyl record: There was a time when the vinyl record …
Luigi Tenco: Cantautore with style
He both sang about and mercilessly portrayed the Italian society of the time: some music connoisseurs go so far as to say that he helped …