Dorota Lesch and 'Band' Die Madämchen
Just to prove it’s not all sex and drugs and Rock and Roll on ‘3Songs’ I caught these ladies onstage at the Museumsmile Festival in Bonn this weekend.
Die Madämchen are a Ladies Chamber Orchestra that was founded in 1984 in Cologne by Dorota Lesch (2nd left). Their musical roots are in Chicago Ragtime so maybe I am slipping in a plug for something Bluesy in here again. A little different though all the same.
Altogether much of the music on offer at this years Museumsmile Festival was a trip down memory lane for anyone from the 1930’s upwards. Robert Kreis with highlights from his travelling Chanson Show. Witty songs from a time when innocence was a challenge for many a songwriter. If you couldn’t write about Sex directly then you could write about the size of your cactus and your Beau’s poodle. As Kreis, Javan born but living in Holland sadly concluded, 80% of the writers and performers were Jewish and the Nazi Regime all but destroyed the genre.
Robert Kreis - Theatre Postcard circa 2011
Down the road a little at the ‘Haus der Geschichte’ there was modern music. Well, comparatively speaking anyway. The Band Fun were playing hits from the sixties (although I suspect Dell Shannon’s ‘Runaway’ even clips into the fifties). The black suits and string ties were as much a fashion statement of the times as the feather boas on the heads of ‘Die Madämchen’ and the same love of the music was plain to see in the faces of the performers.
'Fun' going back to the Sixties - yeah, yeah, yeah!
So my weekend reminded me that good music never dies, and never will as long as people like these love it enough to keep it alive.
Long may that continue to be the case and thank you all. Ladies & Gentlemen for your abilities and your enthusiasm for our musical heritage!