The Singer: Janet has a huge vocal range. Using her voice as an instrument, she extracts unbelievable sounds that range from lyrical to lament, piercing and percussive to sinewy and seductive.

The Band: Each person has a background in an experimental or alternative style of music. Roddick, Donaldson, Roche and Long were part of the legendary Six Volts (eclectic, theatrical jazz band of the 1980s). Henderson and O’Connor excel at the edgier end of jazz and are recognized leaders in the current improvised music scene. All have played extensively for theatre and dance ­ they’re adept at playing the drama, character and emotion of the songs, using their instruments as characters within the world of a song.

The Songs: Most were written as songs to be performed within a play or in Weill’s search for a new form of opera. Ranging from the late 1920s, influenced by the Berlin cabaret of the time, through to the American musical and Broadway of the 1940s, they’re not your average love songs. They deal with murder, death, prostitution, political corruption, power, class and indeed, the generally callous way human beings treat one another. The characters who originally sang these songs were salvation army stalwarts, chiefs of police, whores, slave traders, escaped convicts, precocious children, magazine editors, farmers, lovers, mothers, soldier’s wives.

The Instruments: banjo, slide guitar, ukulele, double bass, marimba, trumpet, euphonium, clarinet, saxophone, piano, Indian harmonium, trombone, drums.

A CD of THE SONGS OF KURT WEILL is now available

From the Reviews

“a completely authoritative, relaxed but razor sharp performance… this music seemed utterly contemporary - not that they’ve tried to reset the songs in any artificial way - these songs still come from historical periods of the 20th century but I could have been listening to Tom Waits or Nick Cave, something completely current… these were really very kinetic arrangements. They were rhythmically strong, fascinating textures, you’d have screaming electric guitar solos one minute and then you’d have beautiful, almost orchestral harmonies the next.”National Radio Review, 7.3.06

“(The highlight for me was) the Kurt Weill piece sung by Janet Roddick… her programme was just exquisite. It was beautifully balanced. It was in your face when it needed to be but it was also incredibly tender and romantic, wonderfully imaginative and colourful arrangements from her musicians and she was just so in charge of it.”
National Radio Roundup review 17.3.06

“Placed in a contemporary setting the music manages to sit outside time altogether. Long’s use of slide guitar and banjo is combined with trumpets, euphonium, baritone, sax and tinkering percussion. Roddick’s voice is superb...through inventive arrangements the sell-out audience got to hear the individual musical personalities of this very talented crew.”
Dominion Post, 4.3.06