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A Perfect CollaborationBertolt Brecht and I discuss The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) and argue about whether Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darrin, Ella Fitzgerald, Tito Puente, Tony Bennett, Ruben Blades, Kevin Spacey, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, or Kenny Garrett recorded the definitive version of “Mack the Knife” (“Die Moritat von Mackie Messer”). He doesn’t seem to care, so we listen to his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947. It’s playing on an old vinyl LP, and we laugh at some of his remarks before he asks me—with a cigar in his mouth—to show him how to mix and scratch on the turntables like DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash. I download Sonny Rollins’ “Moritat,” and I ask him if he knows how to program a drum machine. - TNAlthough Brecht would likely pass on mixing &/or scratching records in general, since those conventional, hip hop "elements" are much too routine & vanilla flavored for an individual such as Brecht, who would certainly be turned off by metered, punchline raps that do nothing but profess someone's old-school credibility & myopic belief that "real hip hop" has, is, & will always be an oxymoron. - JPAYes, but Brecht is scratching his own voice—his testimony to McCarthy—and it’s being mixed with Sonny Rollins’ interpretation of Kurt Weill’s song. There is no rap here. The meter and melody are ones that Weill created and Rollins interpreted. The only punchlines are the ones that Brecht created. Perhaps Brecht wants to learn how to program a drum machine just to turn it off? Or, perhaps to make noise? - TNView All Friends | View Blog | View Pics | Add Comment

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