Thomas Quasthoff - vocals
Bruno Müller - guitars
Frank Chastenier - keyboards (Grand Piano • Fender Rhodes Stage Piano • Hammond RT-3 with Leslie 760 • Hohner Clavinet D6)
Dieter Ilg -bass
Wolfgang Haffner - drums
1. Lost Mind (Percy Mayfield)
2. Mercy, Mercy Me (Marvin Gaye)
3. Tell It Like It Is (George Davis, Lee Diamond)
4. Rainy Night In Georgia (Randy Crawford)
5. Seventh Son (Willie Dixon)
6. Imagine (John Lennon)
7. Kissing My Love (Bill Withers)
8. Rider In The Rain (Randy Newman)
9. The Whistleman (Michael Quasthoff)
10. Ain´t No Sunshine (Bill Withers)
11. Have a Talk With God (Stevie Wonder)
12. Hallelujah, I Love Her So (Ray Charles)
13. Short People (Randy Newman)
14. Have a Little Faith In Me (John Hiatt)
"Why do we make music?" A rhetorical question that Thomas Quasthoff poses unexpectedly in the midst of a longish discussion of Schubert, blinkers, soul and the pros and cons of popular repertoire and classical traditions. "Of course, it's possible to make music with the noble purpose of giving people something intellectual. In the end, though, music has also got to move people. Right here and now. Head and heart. To do that you have to toss out all those pigeonholes." He takes a deep breath and flashes a broad smile. "And that's just where I come in, as the title says: Tell It Like It Is. Nothing more and nothing less." The "man with the most beautiful voice in the world", as the German magazine Stern described him, knows exactly what he's doing. And what he wants. Power of interpretation and unerring sense of taste go hand in hand in performing American songs as well as Italian arias. The extent to which the bass-baritone does justice to his objective of genuinely moving people with his voice is clear from the audience reaction. The material that makes up this album was, unconventionally, "rehearsed live" before the studio sessions. With each of their appearances in February 2010, the singer and his hand-picked instrumentalists worked their way deeper into the pieces. In addition, the applause and "unbounded cheering" (Die Welt) had the effect of singling out certain numbers. And so this album represents "favorite songs" in two senses.
"We grow up with music", Quasthoff replies when asked about the repertoire in this recording. "And for me the transitions were, let's say, very fluid." He then talks about his brother Michael, two years his senior, who had a decisive influence on his musical tastes, from old-time jazz to the avant-garde, "from Bix Beiderbecke to Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson and Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and of course Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, as well as Peter Brötzmann and Alexander von Schlippenbach." Then there were the pop songs that filtered through from the radio, the classical repertoire associated with the early recognition of his talent, and, also from his brother, lots of soul, funk and country songs. "The range really was very, very broad," he emphasizes. "It was always important for me to have a wide horizon. I've always considered it dangerous to be one-sided. If you just put your feelers out a bit, it can be tremendously exciting."
"We grow up with music", Quasthoff replies when asked about the repertoire in this recording. "And for me the transitions were, let's say, very fluid." He then talks about his brother Michael, two years his senior, who had a decisive influence on his musical tastes, from old-time jazz to the avant-garde, "from Bix Beiderbecke to Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson and Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and of course Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, as well as Peter Brötzmann and Alexander von Schlippenbach." Then there were the pop songs that filtered through from the radio, the classical repertoire associated with the early recognition of his talent, and, also from his brother, lots of soul, funk and country songs. "The range really was very, very broad," he emphasizes. "It was always important for me to have a wide horizon. I've always considered it dangerous to be one-sided. If you just put your feelers out a bit, it can be tremendously exciting."
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