Description
Sometimes the stars are aligned particularly favorably, as was the case in smoothing the way to produce this album. Formally, this consists of two blocks. However, they blend seamlessly into a coherent whole. Both sessions took place just a few days apart in the same studio outside Manhattan. With both of them, a dream came true for the German exceptional vocalist Erik Leuthauser in two respects. He met highly regarded and experienced instrumentalists of the US mainstream jazz scene in the context of paying tribute to grandiose representatives of classical American jazz vocal art: Susannah McCorkle and Irene Kral. Anyone who has had Erik Leuthauser on their radar for a long time will not be surprised by this set-up. "In The Land of Oo-Bla-Dee", his album debut released ten years ago, you can hear the fresh, adorable bop statement of a great jazz vocal talent with original lyrics. As it has become apparent over the years, the singer, who grew up in the small Saxon town of Freital, has surprisingly different aspects. Multi-layered albums such as "Wishes" and - most recently - "Addiction" were created after he moved to the metropolis of Berlin. They testified to rapid personal development and an exuberant desire for limitlessness, including stylistically. In between, several classic, intimate cabaret jazz-style song albums were released: soulful tributes to the magical voice/piano duo Irene Kral/Alan Broadbent and to the song masters Kent Carlson and Ronny Whyte. In other words, familiar terrain, to which Leuthauser returns once again with "Quality Time in NYC". Two different worlds? "I do what I care about. I really consider myself as a jazz singer. That's what I've always loved and why I wanted to be a singer. This will and must always be what I am. This also means interpreting material that is older, i.e., standards, songs that fit into the Great American Songbook. On the other hand, I compose my own music, in which there are not only jazz influences. The jazz vocal background influences how I compose songs".
