Helen Schneider & Swr Big Band - The World We Knew : The Bert Kaempfert Album (2010)

Helen Leslie Schneider was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of Dvora and Abraham Schneider (the name means tailor in German). Her family was Jewish, and had immigrated to the U.S. from Germany and Russia. Schneider studied piano before starting to perform as a singer in venues in New England and New York. Between 1978 and 1984, she achieved success as a rock singer in Germany; her song "Rock'n' Roll Gypsy" reached the top 10 record charts and she received a Gold Record Award and shared the Goldene Europa Award with John Lennon. In 1980 she toured with the German rock legend Udo Lindenberg. She played one of the leads and the love interest of Eddie Wilson in the 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers, which has since gained a huge cult following, especially in unusual places for an American film such as Nepal, Russia and especially Germany, where Schneider had name recognition. In 1987, she began her acting career at the Theater des Westens in Berlin playing the Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret.

From 1995 to 1998, she performed as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard by Andrew Lloyd Webber. She worked with Eberhard Schoener on the recording of the Short Opera (1996) and on the goodbye-song for the TV series Derrick. From 1999 to 2001, she performed as Eva Perón in the musical Evita at the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele. She received enormous acclaim for her one-woman performance pieces: A Walk on the Weill Side, A Voice and A Piano, and Transformations Ver.0.1. In 2006 she received the DIVA - German Entertainment Prize for her lifetime achievements. In 2007 Helen Schneider returned to the recording business. She recorded three CDs with Edel Music. For "Dream a Little Dream" she received a golden CD award in jazz. Bio ~

For her new album, the charismatic American Helen Schneider has now for the first time interpreted songs and arrangements of German composer and bandleader Bert Kaempfert.And who does not know the father of easy-listenings and his songs? He went with compositions like ,, Spanish Eyes "and ,, Strangers In The Night" in the history of music. Some of these jewels are also included on ,, The World We Knew ". Together with the internationally renowned and multiple Grammy-nominated SWR Big band is formed an excellent lightweight yet expressive tribute album that stands in the tradition of jazz music of the 50s and the orchestral swing music of the 60s. The lively big band sound makes the feet while listening to bob up and down and make you dance.

Personnel: Bass – Decebal Badila; Drums, Percussion – Guido Jöris; Electric Bass – Ladi Geisler (tracks: 2, 8, 13); Guitar – Klaus-Peter Schöpfer; Organ – Martin Meixner (tracks: 1, 7); Piano – Klaus Wagenleiter; Saxophone – Andreas Maile, Axel Kühn, Klaus Graf, Pierre Paquette, Steffen Weber; Trombone – Ernst Hutter, Georg Maus, Ian Cumming, Marc Godfroid; Trumpet – Felice Civitareale, Karl Farrent, Martijn De Laat, Rudi Reindl