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“German Jazz: Andrea Fultz is the child of two cultures, and her music fully embraces both. Raised in Germany and Austria by her American father and German mother, she has spent a good deal of the last decade in the Bay Area, where she’s developed strong ties to some of the finest musicians in the region. A brilliantly expressive singer steeped in jazz, Fultz has honed a repertoire of tunes gleamed from 1920s to 1940s German theater and cabaret by songwriters such as Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Friedrich Hollaender, who had a highly successful career as a Hollywood composer particularly writing for Marlene Dietrich, after fleeing the Nazis. She presents her “German Projekt” accompanied by a supremely versatile cast of players, including ace pianist Adam Shulman, violinist Dina Maccabee, bassist Eugene Warren, drummer Micha Patri and Rob Reich on accordion. Many of the “German Projekt” songs were introduced by performers such as Lotte Lenya and Marlene Dietrich (both staunch anti-Nazis who fled Germany ). Andrea Fultz has taken several interesting routes while deepening her musical approach. In the early ‘90s, while gigging around Munich she earned a master’s degree in speech sciences and special education from the Ludwig-Maximilian-University, focusing on the similarities between speaking and singing. After graduating, she moved to Graz , Austria where she studied voice at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz in a program run by the great jazz singer Mark Murphy. A regular presence in the Bay Area since the mid-‘90s, she has performed widely at clubs and jazz festivals around the region. While several of Kurt Weill’s songs are deeply entrenched in the American Song books, Fultz is a leading force in turning these German standards into effective jazz vehicles. “

Highly acclaimed Bay Area musical director and actor Robert Weinapple writes: “Andrea Fultz’s presence, clarity, specificity and focus are excellent.” On her stunning new CD The German Projekt, which features jazz-imbued arrangements of classic songs by Brecht-Weill and Friedrich Hollaender and which is being released on May 12, singer Andrea Fultz sounds as if she’d been born to interpret this rich, complex body of music.

But in fact the album concept came to fruition a mere three or four years ago, while she was living and studying in San Francisco and performing with musical colleagues who were interested in exploring Kurt Weill’s songs with her. “The material was really completely new to me,” says the Munich-born Fultz, 34, who has worked with a variety of bands ranging from American Songbook to electronica to bossa nova. “I knew the melodies, but not all the words. The dark Weill stuff was very exciting.”

Joined by violinist Dina Maccabee, accordionist Rob Reich, percussionist Micha Patri, bassist Eugene Warren, and pianist Adam Shulman, whose credits include work with Stefon Harris, Paula West, and Bobby Hutcherson, Fultz began to delve into the songs and arrangements that evolved into The German Projekt. She and her band, augmented by a three-man horn section, will appear at a CD release event at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Monday, May 18.

“The music has to support the lyrics and follow the stories of the songs,” says Rob Reich, in speaking of the challenges of arranging The German Projekt. “And these are often heavy, dramatic stories, full of changes in tempo and harmony, and full of intense emotions. We were fortunate to be working with some very talented jazz musicians. We wanted them to have some room for interpretation and improvisation, so it was important to strike a balance between staying true to the original musical conception and allowing the songs to breathe and grow.”

Although several Weill compositions, such as “Mack the Knife” (aka “Moritat”), “My Ship,” and “September Song,” have become jazz standards, most of his oeuvre remains in the cabaret or art song realm. “Alabama Song,” which opens The German Projekt and is sung in English, was previously recorded by the Doors and David Bowie (whom Fultz calls “my absolute hero!”); Marianne Faithfull and Dee Dee Bridgewater are among the vocalists who’ve recorded more extensive Weill collections.

Sonny Rollins, who counts Friedrich Hollaender among his favorite composers, has recorded “Falling in Love Again” (“Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt”), the theme from The Blue Angel, and frequently performs the song in concert. (Early in his career, Rollins was fond of Hollaender’s “This Is the Moment,” and was playing it the night that Miles Davis first hired him.)

“It is a big thing for me to represent German culture in America,” says Fultz, the daughter of a German mother and American father. “I really think this music is brilliant. Brecht and Weill and Hollaender are so timeless.”

In addition to “Alabama Song,” the CD contains six other Brecht-Weill compositions: “Bilbao Song,” “Denn wie man sich bettet so liegt man,” “Barbara Song,” “Seeräuber Jenny,” “Surabaya Johnny,” and “Mäckie Messer” (“Mack the Knife”). Hollaender is represented by two songs from The Blue Angel (“Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt,” “Kinder, heut Abend da such ich mir was aus”), “Johnny,” and the ballad “Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte.” Fultz sings Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht’s “Song of a German Mother” with Eric Bentley’s English lyrics.

Andrea Fultz is looking to take the German Projekt music to clubs and festivals in the U.S. and abroad. “This music is about the context, it’s not about singing flawlessly or bebopping,” she says. “It’s so different for me to sing in German. It’s given me more freedom than any other music before.” 

CD Review, San Francisco Chronicle (05/09)

There are songs that are so enduring it's not always easy to determine "definitive" versions. The music of Kurt Weill, Friedrich Hollaender and Hanns Eisler, for example, has been "owned" by such singers as Lotte Lenya, Teresa Stratas, Marlene Dietrich and Ute Lemper. Yet, for some listeners, including this one, there are always delights when classics such as "Surabaya Johnny," "Alabama Song," "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt (Falling in Love Again)" are given loving treatment by someone like the Bay Area's Andrea Fultz, who brings a jazz sensibility to this music in her infectious CD with the German Projekt, "German Songs From the Twenties & Thirties." Fultz, who performs Monday at Yoshi's in Oakland, does the seemingly impossible with the 12 cuts on the album, making the music sound contemporary as well as very much of the turbulent period in German history from which it came. In addition to her superb vocals, the album benefits from fine ensemble work by accordionist Rob Reich, percussionist Micha Patri, bassist Eugene Warren, pianist Adam Shulman and vocalist Dina Maccabee.

John Sunier (audaud.com) 05/09, 5 Stars

http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=5861

Her philosophy regarding singing: "Singing is a way of communicating who you are."   I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)

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