Barb Jungr

Barb Jungr

Talk of the Town magazine
13 July 2003

Fresh from two nights at Joe's Pub in Lafayette Street, New York City, Barb Jungr brings her unique blend of cabaret and chanson to the South Bank on Tuesday 15 July, accompanied by Adrian York on piano and Julie Walkington on double bass.

She tells me she'll be singing "some of my own stuff", "some of my favourite Brel" and several songs by Bob Dylan. The Belgian chansonnier with a voice as dark and bitter as his country's celebrated chocolate and the Minnesota balladeer with the dustbowl rasp may seem unlikely bedfellows, but, she points out, they both write intelligent lyrics that share "a real understanding of humanity's frailty and stupidity, all the things that make us crass, treacherous and unpleasant." Proud, touchy and vulnerable, they are both capable of the tenderest yearning and the most blistering sarcasm. And anyway, she likes them both more than she can, or cares to, explain.

For the Brel songs, she has commissioned her own translations from fellow chansonniers Des de Moor and Robb Johnson. She finds Mort Shuman's familiar translation of "Amsterdam", for example, too romantic, obscuring the visceral disgust and self-loathing of the French original. De Moor's translation, she says, presents a "much tougher, darker, nitty-gritty" picture. And "Ne Me Quitte Pas' is Englished not as "If You Go Away" but, more literally and urgently, as "Don't Leave Me Now", preserving the desperate plea (omitted from the Rod McKuen recording), "I'll be the shadow of your dog". Self-abasement doesn't come more abject.

Dylan joined her repertoire more recently. Last year she took the bold step of recording an album of his songs, a move that might seem calculated to offend both Dylan diehards and aficionados of the European chanson. But Every Grain of Sand was a richly deserved - if unexpected - success, shedding a rich melodic light on songs as familiar as "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" or "Don't Think Twice It's All Right".

All this adds up to a fairly challenging, grown-up mix. It's not a pop vision, Barb concedes, and some people find it hard to take. But she's a born communicator, exuding warmth and humour both on stage and off. Nor is her voice the scratchy, semi-spoken rasp we have come to associate with European cabaret, but a big voice, a rich, modulated alto, subtle and sensual.

Barb Jungr's background puts her in a unique position to do this. Born in Rochdale of Czech and German parents, she grew up in Stockport, where the continental influence of her family was tempered by down-to-earth Lancashire humour. She made her name on the alternative cabaret circuit along with Alexei Sayle and Julian Clary, winning the Perrier Award with Arnold Brown before teaming up with Mike Parker in the folk-jazz duo Jungr and Parker.

But her central European roots drew her inexorably towards cabaret and the chanson. "I love black American music," she says, "but it distresses me that we don't look at our own roots, personally and socially." She points out that there is a indigenous British tradition of cabaret and chansons, something that derives from the music hall and distinguishes the work of songwriters such as Ian Dury, Ray Davies, Elvis Costello, Pete Townshend and even, to some extent, Lennon and McCartney, from their US counterparts. "Rock'n'roll influenced their sound, but not the songwriting," she says. She loves the Englishness of this tradition, the way it is rooted in sharply observed details of ordinary life. Davies's wistful, wonderful "Waterloo Sunset" is the title track on her next CD, out on Linn Records in the autumn.

An indefatigable trouper, Barb has performed in Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Norway, the Yemen, Malawi, Sudan, Canada and the USA,. She teaches masterclasses up and down the UK, writing and researching on music, runs a monthly cabaret night, Café Prague, at the Komedia in Brighton, has written a musical, The Ballad of Nora's Ark with Russell Churney, and constantly collaborates with - and generously supports - fellow artists.

"The great thing is that there are no rules," she says of her teaching. "Well, there are, you can tell people this is how to do it, and then they do the complete opposite, and it's brilliant." Go and hear her rewrite the rule book at the Purcell Room on Tuesday.

------------0xKhTmLbOuNdArY Content-Disposition: form-data; name="userfile"; filename="bio.htm" Content-Type: text/html Biography

.

He put his face in front of the bathroom mirror.
I exist, said the mirror.
What about me? said Kleinzeit.
Not my problem, said the mirror. .

Russell Hoban, Kleinzeit
.

C.J. Schüler is a unique singer-songwriter well known on the acoustic circuit for his off-the-wall observations ranging from tributes to Judas Iscariot to Kafkaesque nightmares, intoned in a velvet baritone to bittersweet cabaret-jazz arrangements.

He was born in London a decade after the end of the war that brought together his parents, a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany and an East Ender of Huguenot descent. Music and writing exercised a twin hold on his imagination from an early age.
His introdution to the former came when a relative gave him a record of Handel's Water Music, and before long he was ransacking Hendon public library for records and scores, which he would bash out on an old upright piano in the back bedroom. Impractical adolescent attempts at large-sale orchestral composition were followed by more realistic projects, including writing incidental music for a prodution of The Revenger's Tragedy and playing in an early music group.
After taking a degree in English, he embarked on a career in publishing and journalism. A spell as a freelance book editor followed, mostly of travel guides and illustrated non-fiction.
Meanwhile, music was not neglected. He learnt guitar, and played in a variety of bands before finding a niche as a smoky-voiced cabaret balladeer. His debut CD, The Thought Parade, was released in 1996 to critical acclaim from The Guardian and other publications.
A veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe, C. J. Schüler has performed at many London venues, including the 12-Bar Club, Pirate Jenny's at the Vortex, and the Troubadour, appearing most recently in Brighton and Berlin. He is currently working on a large-scale song sequence for cabaret ensemble.
He is a co-author of the US bestseller The Traveler's Atlas, and his articles have apppeared in The Independent and many other publications. His photographs of ancient places have appeared in books published by Penguin and Time-Life.

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	.
He put his face in front of the bathroom mirror. I exist, said the mirror. What about me? said Kleinzeit. Not my problem, said the mirror.	.
Russell Hoban, Kleinzeit	.
C.J. Schüler is a unique singer-songwriter well known on the acoustic circuit for his off-the-wall observations ranging from tributes to Judas Iscariot to Kafkaesque nightmares, intoned in a velvet baritone to bittersweet cabaret-jazz arrangements. He was born in London a decade after the end of the war that brought together his parents, a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany and an East Ender of Huguenot descent. Music and writing exercised a twin hold on his imagination from an early age. His introdution to the former came when a relative gave him a record of Handel's Water Music, and before long he was ransacking Hendon public library for records and scores, which he would bash out on an old upright piano in the back bedroom. Impractical adolescent attempts at large-sale orchestral composition were followed by more realistic projects, including writing incidental music for a prodution of The Revenger's Tragedy and playing in an early music group. After taking a degree in English, he embarked on a career in publishing and journalism. A spell as a freelance book editor followed, mostly of travel guides and illustrated non-fiction. Meanwhile, music was not neglected. He learnt guitar, and played in a variety of bands before finding a niche as a smoky-voiced cabaret balladeer. His debut CD, The Thought Parade, was released in 1996 to critical acclaim from The Guardian and other publications. A veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe, C. J. Schüler has performed at many London venues, including the 12-Bar Club, Pirate Jenny's at the Vortex, and the Troubadour, appearing most recently in Brighton and Berlin. He is currently working on a large-scale song sequence for cabaret ensemble. He is a co-author of the US bestseller The Traveler's Atlas, and his articles have apppeared in The Independent and many other publications. His photographs of ancient places have appeared in books published by Penguin and Time-Life.
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