Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Daily best music in the world: Barbara Song

Here are several versions of Barbara Song, from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. I could try to write something about it, but what for? The content is self-evident and I see no need to flail around it with words. OK, it's very German and very beautiful— there. A YouTube commenter helpfully informs us:

"Barbaren" means "barbarians" in German[...] There is no [character named] "Barbara" in the libretto. 

First in its original form, from G.W. Pabst's 1931 film Die Dreigroschenoper:



And by Gil Evans, one of the greatest things ever in jazz:



By Tethered Moon, a trio with pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, Gary Peacock, and Paul Motian:



Those are the big three in my book, but there are couple more after the break:




An early instrumental “jazz” rendition by a German orchestra, in 1929. Embedding is disabled, so you'll have to follow the link. 

Here's a pretty straightforward jazz version by John Lewis:


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