a nonprofit presenter of jazz artistic and education programs
Upcoming Events
Sweet Honey in The Rock
“A wised-up adult choirboy with a slightly seductive glint in his eye.”
The New York Times
Walking a narrow line between sublime musicality and madcap kitsch, German vocalist Max Raabe is a conservatory-trained baritone besotted with the Weimar-era sound. A sight to behold, Raabe and his big band, decked out in tails, deliver impeccable hits from the 1920s and early ’30s—but aren’t above tweaking modern tunes in a retro style. Fresh off a sold-out Carnegie Hall concert, this inimitable band offers a delightful and devilishly catchy night of cabaret.

Walking a narrow line between sublime musicality and madcap kitsch, German vocalist Max Raabe is a conservatory- trained baritone besotted with his native country’s Weimar-era cabaret sound exemplified by the Comedian Harmonists. While he interprets hits from the 1920s and early ‘30s, Raabe also writes original songs and reinvents modern tunes in a retro style, such as Britney Spears’ “Oops!...I Did It Again” and Tom Jones’ “Sex Bomb.” The results are dizzying, delightful and devilishly catchy.

Backed by his polished 12-piece orchestra, Raabe possesses a supremely flexible voice, full and resonant in lower registers and pure and clear in his falsetto range. Looking like he stepped out of an Art Deco poster, complete with tuxedo and slicked back hair, Raabe is a consummate artist who transforms artifacts from Weimar-era Berlin’s brief jazz-infused cultural flowering into strangely resonant contemporary vehicles. His ironic sensibility is true both to the material, whose creators were soon to be scattered and hunted by the Nazis, and our present era.

Ultimately, Raabe is a master entertainer who has performed with his orchestra at concert halls around the world. His latest show is “Tonight or Never,” featuring songs by signature Weimar-era composers such as Mischa Spoliansky, Fritz Kreisler and Kurt Weill. In introducing this oft-forgotten repertoire to new generations, Raabe perpetrates a stylish victory over the forces that sought to banish and destroy the

Close program notes

Raabe and company evoke Weimar-era Berlin, a time of intense creative ferment that gave birth to the modern age.
Personnel: Max Raabe (vocal) Cecilia Crisafulli (violin), Thomas Huder (trumpet, vocals), Michael Enders (trumpet, vocals), Jörn Ranke (trombone, viola, vocals), Bernd Frank (tenor sax, clarinet), Johannes Ernst (alto sax, clarinet), Sven Bährens (alto sax, clarinet), Rainer Fox (baritone sax, bass sax, clarinet, vocals), Vincent Riewe (drums, percussion), Bernd Hugo Dieterich (bass, sousaphone), Ulrich Hoffmeier (guitar, banjo, violin), Ian Wekwerth (piano) Bernd Frank (musical director)