Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill (1900-1950) was a German composer, best known for his collaborations with German playwright Bertolt Brecht, which resulted in "Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera)" (1928)
As a guest on the WSTM, Chicago radio show Zappa played "Song Of The Big Guns" ("Kanonen-Song") from Weill's "Threepenny Opera".
On Anxiety Of Influence one of the tracks is called: "Variations on a theme by Kurt Weill".
"So about four months go by, and I get another call, and they say they really want me to be involved in this festival, and would I meet with these guys from the Ensemble Modern. Then they sent me some CDs that the group had made for some German label. And the thing that astonished me was that it was just a great album. They had recorded the music of Kurt Weill. The selections were all obscure, unique things, some of them with vocals, and the recording was great, the performance was great." (FZ in The Mother of All Interviews (Part 1))
"I had heard some of the CDs they had made of Kurt Weill, and I thought they were unbelievable. I would be very happy to have the opportunity to work with a group that can play that. It was exciting to do it." (FZ in Frankfurt Press Conference 21.7.92)
Weill's wife Lotta Lenya is a star on the One Size Fits All back cover.
