The trio of mezzo-soprano Theresa Kronthaler,
guitarist Kalle Kalima and bassist Oliver Potratz
have reunited nine years after their debut album
The Living Loving Maid, released by Sony Classical,
for a new recording in the spirit of commitment to
song. In the tracks of Some Call Him Johnny Grey,
opera meets musicals and pop rock through jazz.
What do Henry Purcell, Billy Corgan, Georg Friedrich
Händel, Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein, Antonio
Vivaldi, Chris Cornell, John Dowland, Claudio Monteverdi,
and Sting have in common? They all wrote songs.
These composers lived (and live) in different times and
cultural contexts, but their songs are not isolated from
each other. This is also proven by the new album from
Kronthaler Trio, which nine years after their debut album
The Living Loving Maid (Sony Classical, 2015), based
on a similar concept, have reunited for a new recording
in the spirit of commitment to song. In the tracks of
Some Call Him Johnny Grey, opera meets musicals and
pop rock through jazz. Kalima, Potratz, and Kronthaler
make it unmistakably clear that they aren’t curating a
legacy here; they are singing these songs today and
for today’s audience. Songs that have always been with
us, and are immediately able to seduce the listener.
In the arrangements of Kronthaler Trio, each song is
discovering and inventing itself in the very moment it is,
fleetingly, made manifest.
Theresa Kronthaler is an internationally acclaimed
mezzo-soprano who has appeared on almost every
major stage in the world, notably in Baroque, Classical
and Italian Romantic operas, and recently sang her
first Wagnerian role, Sieglinde. Kalle Kalima and Oliver
Potratz both live in Berlin and have long demonstrated
a musical openness that transcends genres.
The Austrian bassist is a member of one of Austria’s
most successful jazz bands, Shake Stew, while the
multi-faceted Finnish guitarist is at the forefront of
European jazz; his Klima Kalima has released albums
on Enja Records, and he also appears on half a dozen
albums on ACT in various bands, including with KUU,
and Andreas Schaerer.