This came out in 2000 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
What do Louis Armstrong, Ella Fizgerald, Jim Morrison and Ernie Kovacs have in common? Well, one thing — and, I suspect, the only thing — is they all covered songs by German lyricist, poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Four decades after his death, Brecht — who, with composer Kurt Weill, wrote classics from Alabama Song to Mack the Knife — continues to influence musicians of all stripes. Witness German jazz eccentrics Frigg, whose latest album sets some of Brecht’s early poems to new compositions that range from Zappa-esque classical weirdness and downtown jazzbo skronk to invigorating klezmer and heavy metal. Fittingly, however, even at their most eclectic, these tunes manage to capture the Teutonic moodiness of Brecht’s world via sombre woodwinds, precise martial drumming and plenty of guttural German vocals reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich, Marianne Faithfull and Nick Cave. Not only do Frigg honour Brecht’s words, they also pay tribute to the spirit of his work. Uncommonly good.