MDR KULTUR: “Uschi offered vocal artistry” we read on the cover of the CD – obviously a voice of the concert criticism. What memories do you still have of that concert in Dresden in 1971?
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Uschi Brüning: So directly, specifically, I can hardly remember the concert. Very good to the location. But the whole time was enormous. I was in a fever. Actually, the world was also in a fever, the GDR world. Because Klaus Lenz brought the West into our country with his music. So it was an insane time. Intensive. That with the voice arts, well, that’s not my invention. But we just got to work on pieces from Aretha Franklin. And their pieces had, yes, something in them. And maybe that’s why. But basically I’m still working on my vocal arts.
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In the 60s and 70s there was a really lively jazz and soul scene in the east. A real thaw period. Klaus Lenz wanted to continue the development of jazz in the GDR and develop his own style in the process. What were your plans then?
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Well, my plans were of course similar to those of Klaus Lenz, because as a young singer in the professional camp, you don’t have very specific ideas yet. Klaus managed to realize his plans and I adapted to these plans. So I got a lot of hints, a lot of suggested titles to sing. So I was actually the maggot in bacon and was able to develop very well with Lenz, with Klaus Lenz’s bacon. That was the GDR’s talent shed, I always said, yes.
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Back then, at the concert, they could be heard with cover songs by Blood, Sweat & Tears or Aretha Franklin. There were also gospel songs in Dresden. How did you find your repertoire back then? Did you choose yourself?
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In part, yes. I came from the studio team and, as I still think from today’s perspective, we had good taste. We also tried to perform Franklin pieces there. So I came to Lenz with a small suitcase of my own. And, as I said at the beginning, Lenz had a weird arsenal of records, and you could choose one or Lenz suggested pieces to me that he thought I could handle. It was also a very extensive apprenticeship that I had with Lenz.
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The first CD of the double album begins with the introduction of some of the most important GDR jazz musicians by Werner “Josh” Sellhorn. With his very personal greeting to a newspaper author who had criticized Klaus Lenz’s long hair as out of date, Manfred Krug delivers beautiful GDR satire – with the remark that he had his hair cut very short. How do you feel about these captured moments of GDR contemporary history from the seventies today?
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So I feel it is a great deed to release the double CD again from the chest of the past. I had no idea that it would get that far again. And of course we knew our Manfred in the GDR, who always tended to joke and satire. And to that extent we have invented a satire of the moment. Moment satire. He was always able to make something satirical out of every comment that came from the audience and didn’t have to impose that on himself like our comedians now, who then prepare. At Krug it was always very lively and live. Live satire, that’s what I would call it. He was able to do that to the end.
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The interview was conducted by Stefan Blattner for MDR KULTUR.
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