Rag Doll:

Beneath The Crown Of The Empress

A tribute to the great Classic Blues ladies – Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter and many more –, recorded live in front of a studio audience on Feb 22, 2020. Traditional tunes receive a breath of new life in the original line-up of the Bessie Smith Trio of old with vocals, trombone, and piano – without any 78rpm crackle!

«Even if the repertoire of Rag Doll's début album doesn't solely consist of classics made famous by women singers of the 1920s and 1930s, it should be understood as an homage by the Berlin-based trio to these blues ladies who have done so much to popularize the blues. While the live recording opens with a fast-paced rock'n'roll rendition of «It Ain't Over (Til The Fat Lady Sings)», a song recorded by Denise LaSalle for Malaco Records in 1994, and even though they top it off with «Miracle Of Love», a ballad by British pop duo Eurythmics, the trio consisting of Käthe von T. (vocal), [...] Amy Protscher (piano) und Tanja Becker (trombone) presents them in the style of those early years when blues and jazz still shared a tight musical bond. This sound is a magnificent fit for classics such as «Prove It On Me Blues» (Ma Rainey), «Empty Bed Blues» (Bessie Smith), or «My Castle's Rockin'» (Alberta Hunter) that Rag Doll interprets in proper style, yet they manage to make them their own. This is thanks to the straight-ahead, but at the same time playful piano playing and the wailing trombone that together provide a fitting backdrop for Käthe von T.'s expressive vocal delivery. These twelve songs, in their entirety, make up a well-rounded and successful début album.»

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Physical CD: € 15,00 Digital Download € 10,00