For Peter Kraus, jazz is his second musical love. One he has largely hidden from the public. Until then, the 83-year-old was best known as a rock’n’roller.
For the new album “Idole” he draws a bow back to his childhood and youth when his father performed as a jazz, operetta and swing singer. Music that shaped him, as he says.
Celebrity guests
Now he has chosen some of his favorite songs and reinterpreted them – in German. Kraus brought a number of well-known colleagues to his side for the project: Till Brönner, Annett Louisan, Helge Schneider and Götz Alsmann.
The album is also a bit the result of the Corona crisis. “During the somewhat boring pandemic period, I realized that you can only stay young with one goal,” Kraus told the German Press Agency. He dealt with swing, sang and sent recordings back and forth with his musicians. That’s how the idea grew.
The album was arranged and produced by André Tolba, guitarist in Kraus’ live band. It was difficult and time-consuming to obtain the rights to record the songs in German. Now the album is finished, the work has paid off.
Full of lightness
»Idole« is the finest easy listening. “I rarely did that and I’m glad I got the material together,” says Peter Kraus. He thought it was a great idea “to bring music onto the market today that is a bit cuddly – especially for younger people”. Because today music is rather loud, says Kraus.
“Idols” is a collection of well-known songs in new guises – a tribute to Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Roy Orbison and Sammy Davis Jr. From Kraus’ proven backing band are: Bolle Diekmann on bass, Guido Hendrichs on piano and Guido Jöris on drums.
Kraus, who lives alternately in a small village on Lake Lugano (Switzerland) and on a farm with a vineyard in Styria (Austria), found it a great surprise that Helge Schneider and the other co-stars all spontaneously accepted. For a gentle »Blue Bayou«, originally by Roy Orbison, he was in the studio with pop singer Annett Louisan.
Götz Alsmann sat at the piano for »No one loves you like me« from Franz Lehár’s operetta »Paganini«. With the swinging »Mr. Bojangles« and some other pieces Kraus is accompanied by Helge Schneider. For the bossa nova hit »Manhã de Carnaval« (»Luck came to me like in a dream«), Till Brönner unpacks his flugelhorn. It’s an album full of calm lightness.
In post-war Vienna, his father sang in bars. That’s why he grew up with this music, and also with the dance films with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. “Then I started learning jazz guitar. That went until the first rock’n’roll records were played on the radio. Then I thought: Fantastically beautiful, now there is simple music, this is music for young people. That really got me excited. I think back to that with great pleasure.«
And one more farewell tour
Peter Kraus but also looks to the future, because the entertainer needs, as I said, a goal: he wants to go on a concert tour with »Idole« from February 2023. It is his sixth farewell tour. Kraus amuses himself as he tells this.
In fact, the fifth should have been the last. He had promised his wife Ingrid 2019 for their golden wedding anniversary. He has now broken this promise, but his wife understands it. “And I’m also very nice to her,” says the native of Munich cheerfully.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220622-99-753468/3
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