German chanteuse back in Greece
Most of us identify Ute Lemper with the atmosphere of Berlin in the interwar years. Her entire persona seems to reflect that era. Tall and slim, with long blond hair and a deep gaze, the stage belongs to her. Her voice combines the hoarse quality of Marlene Dietrich with the fragile being of a woman who only lives for love. Ute Lemper is not just a singer – her voice and stage presence convey all of her homeland’s musical traditions, especially that of Berlin, but also reflect 1930s New York and France between the wars and in the 1950s. Talking to Kathimerini’s Kappa magazine, Lemper said she started off playing in a jazz band. So, as a teen, did you only listen to jazz? No, I listened to Pink Floyd, Billy Joel, Chick Corea, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Deep Purple, Dire Straits, the elite of good 70s rock. I think that, musically, it was the best decade of the century. What about the 60s? I was young then and I am not really into it. The 60s prepared the ground for the 70s, all that wonderful black Motown music, R&B and all. But although I listened to Pink Floyd, I knew that their music did not connect me with my musical roots as a German. The same applied to jazz. I could have become a jazz singer, but it wasn’t enough for me. I was looking for something that would suit my persona and my German background. I was rebellious, politicized and angry. When I was 16-17, I spent a summer at a music academy in Salzburg where I attended seminars on Bertolt Brecht and jazz, I discovered Kurt Weill and I realized that it was what I had been looking for. What do you mean when you say you were rebellious? I grew up in Munster, a small German town. Germany in the 1960s and 70s wasn’t what it is today. There was still a lot of nationalism and conservatism that drove me crazy. I was always mad at Germans’ obsession with being «normal» – something I later encountered in France and Britain as well. Only New York was different in that. Everything is relative there, everybody has come from another place and speaks with foreign accents. It is the perfect melting pot. I loved that city and have been living there since. Now it has gone back to its normal condition, after the shock of September 11. So, as a youngster you went against your family. I did, very much so. I come from a conservative family. I left my town as soon as I finished school. I only reconciled with my parents when I had children of my own, the usual story. In my 30s I became closer to them and saw Germany change too. Today it is a multicultural society, nothing like the Germany I grew up in. Today, Berlin is considered Europe’s cultural capital. Berlin combines many things. It has its own history and the younger generations have acquired a lot from that mixture. We experienced Nazism and then communism. There is a lot of collective guilt in Berlin, it is complex and all that is good for artistic happenings. Your songs take me back to 1920s Berlin. Are you fascinated by that time? Berlin was again a big cultural center in the 20s. It was explosive in every respect, liberal and progressive. You wonder what would have happened had the Nazis not destroyed everything. Entire decades had to go by for the city to start moving again. For Berlin, WWII ended when the Cold War ended. Until 1989-91, Germany as a whole had no identity. What will you perform in Athens and Thessaloniki? There will be a bit of everything, old and new songs of mine, as well as those of Edith Piaf, Dietrich, Gershwin, Jacques Brel and Weill. Lemper will perform at the Herod Atticus Theater tonight and at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall tomorrow. For information, call 210.725.8510.
