Jan 202017
 

i gave a good few listens to this live performance of kate westbrook’s “good-bye peter lorre” last year, but didn’t get around to uploading it here.  then the sunday observer review of mike westbrook’s new album, which reminded me of it again.  if you like kurt weill, bertold brecht, etc, you might find this right up your alley.  and check out the other work by kate westbrook, on her website.

www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/katewestbrook
www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook


kate westbrook
‘good-bye peter lorre’
festival der stimmen
bremen, germany
16 may 1992

kate westbrook : voice
mike westbrook : piano
john alley : piano

01 intro (1:47)
02 prologue: chanson populaire (jean-luc lagarce, kate westbrook, mike westbrook) (4:45) *
03 the show goes on (kate westbrook, mike westbrook) (8:24)
04 the sailor’s tango (bertolt brecht/kurt weill) (6:51)
05 goodbye peter lorre-if brecht could see me now (kate westbrook, karl sigman, tadd dameron) (6:02)
06 hollywood elegies (bertolt brecht/hanns eisler): (9:10)
-unter den grunen pfefferbaumen
-die stadt
-jeden morgen
-diese stadt
-in den hugeln
-the rat man
-i saw many friends
-uber die vier stadte
07 kate westbrook, intro (0:24)
08 casablanca (jean-luc lagarce, kate westbrook, mike westbrook) (5:46)
09 as time goes by (herman hupfield) (4:34)
10 love for sale (cole porter) (5:39)
11 surabaya johnny (bertolt brecht/kurt weill) (6:00)
12 traurig, aber falsch (bernhard lassahn, kate westbrook, mike westbrook) (8:45)
13 titanic song (4:47)
14 the show goes on (reprise) (mike westbrook) (4:23)
15 epilogue: toute seule (jean-luc lagarce, kate westbrook, mike westbrook) (2:18)
16 applause, outro (1:38)

tt 1:21:12

source: fm
lineage: cassette tape (trade)> wav > flac (level 8)
quality: a- (some hiss)
tools: soundforge, trader’s little helper
out of the shadow > 2016

* track 2, “prologue: chanson populaire”, was corrupted (“file is truncated or otherwise corrupt”). it
has been converted to wav using ffmpeg, and then re-encoded into flac (level 8 like the other files) using
tlh. that i can tell, the restoration has been successful.
the original flac file is included here, named “02 prologue chanson populaire.flac.originalfile”
ffmpeg command: ffmpeg -y -i “02 prologue chanson populaire.flac” “02 prologue chanson populaire v02.wav”
comments from original info file:

kate westbrook’s album ‘good-bye peter lorre’ (1991) has at its heart the bertold brecht / hanns
eisler ‘hollywood elegies’.

visiting hollywood in 1941, brecht was dismayed to find his friend peter lorre (once regarded in
germany as the greatest actor of his generation) corrupted by ‘tinsel town’ and lost to art.
brecht poured his scorn and his regret into a sequence of short poems, ‘hollywood elegies’,
brilliantly set to music by hanns eisler.

the artist’s moral dilemma, as exemplified in the split between brecht and lorre, is kate’s
starting point in assembling this collection of songs. she draws on popular standards, on brecht /
weill, cole porter, and on original theatre songs, as she explores themes of betrayal and of
‘selling out’ in politics, love and art.

‘good-bye peter lorre’, with its broad sweep of emotions, takes place within the framework of the
‘silver screen’. kate, as the chanteuse, takes us on the artist’s journey – whatever her inner
conflicts and whatever is happening in the world, the chanteuse must go on stage and face the public.
the show goes on.


sample: t05 good bye peter lorre.mp3
download: KateWestbrook_1992-05-16_GoodbyePeterLorre_BremenGermany.zip