Barb Jungr

Barb Jungr on the cover of Every Grain of Sand: Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan Released 2002

Barb Jungr is a musical performer, composer and writer, of Czech and German parentage. She is perhaps best known as a chansonnier, or singer of chansons—in the sense of classic, lyric-driven French songs; in the broader sense of European songs in the cabaret style; and in the even broader sense of a diverse range of songs interpreted in this style. A song-stylist incorporating jazz and blues, her approach often includes radical re-readings of known writers as well as original material.

Biography

Barb Jungr was born in Rochdale and raised in Stockport in the north-west of England. At school, she sang, played the violin, and formed an all-girl folk group. Attending college in Leeds, she sang in bands whose styles ranged from trad jazz to bluegrass. She then became part of the early alternative cabaret circuit in London; formed the popular gospel and blues harmony group the Three Courgettes; and had a 12-year performing and composing partnership with the blues and folk guitarist and singer Michael Parker. With Michael Parker she appeared extensively with comedian Julian Clary, touring in his spectacular shows, and appearing regularly with him on the Channel 4 television series Sticky Moments with Julian Clary, and Terry and Julian.

She was to become increasingly interested in world music, as she toured countries including Malawi, Cameroon, Sudan, Burma, Tanzania, and Yemen for the British Council. This prompted her to study ethnomusicology, and to learn Iranian tribal singing. In addition to performing and recording music, she has written, broadcast and lectured extensively on vocal techniques and singing.

CD cover Waterloo Sunset, Released 3 November, 2003

Between 1991 and 2000, she created and performed in shows including Sex Religion and Politics (with writer/director Julia Pascal); Red Roses Blue Ladies (with pianist and composer Sarah Travis); Bare, Killing Me Softly, and Songs From The Heart (with pianist Russell Churney}; and Hell Bent Heaven Bound (with Ian Shaw, Christine Collister, and Michael Parker). In 1999, she created the show Girl Talk, with singers Claire Martin and Mari Wilson. In 2000 she appeared in director Brian Hill's Killing Tiime: The Millennium Poem, text by Simon Armitage for Channel 4.

Working with the Amici Dance Theatre Company under the direction of Wolfgang Stange, she appeared as the crazed MC of a circus of freaks in the production 20/20, a history of disability in the twentieth century. She also collaborated with composer Jonathan Cooper on his The Moon Behind the Clouds song cycle, which he wrote specifically for her voice.

More recently, Jungr has released a series of successful solo albums. Bare (1999) is a diverse collection of songs accompanied solely by Russell Churney on piano. This album has been remixed to be re-released with 3 extra tracks by ZC Music in the USA in summer 2007 under the title Bare Again. Chanson: The Space in Between (2000) is a collection of chansons, principally either of French origin or with a French lyric setting, recorded with a full band. Four of the chansons on this latter album are by Jacques Brel, consolidating Jungr's reputation as one of the foremost singers of Brel's repertoire, and two are by Léo Ferré.

Every Grain of Sand: Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan (2002) is an album of 15 Bob Dylan songs selected from the entirety of Dylan's career, featuring a full band. Jungr's chanson-like interpretation of Dylan's material is strikingly original, and certainly very different from most other approaches to covering Dylan, while at the same time remaining faithful to the essence of the originals. The English actor Jeremy Irons chose to play her version of Dylan's I Want You for his Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4. Waterloo Sunset (2003) was recorded with a full band, and was perhaps her most diverse offering so far. It included two more Dylan songs, three original songs, and the title track, a moving rendition of "Waterloo Sunset" by the The Kinks. In (2005) she recorded her fourth album for Glasgow based Linn Records, Love Me Tender, a collection of songs previously sung by Elvis Presley which included two more Dylan songs. Julian Clary chose her version of the gospel song Peace In The Valley from this album for his guest appearance on Desert Island Discs. Her fifth Linn album, Walking In The Sun, released in 2006, features a repertoire of blues and gospel songs, skilfully re-arranged and re-interpreted and featuring guest guitarist Eric Bibb, once again including two Bob Dylan tracks.

Currently Jungr hosts a monthly music night, The Blue Hours at New Greenham Arts in Newbury. In 2005 she was the lyricist for the pantomime, Cinderella at The Corn Exchange, Newbury and composer and lyricst for their 2006 production of Dick Whittington. She wrote the lyrics for Birmingham Stage Company's touring production of The Jungle Book with music by BB Cooper, directed by Graeme Messer. As a writer she has contributed to The Cambridge Companion To Blues and Gospel (2002), edited by Allan Moore, Maybe I Do: Marriage and Commitment in Singleton Society (Conversations in Print) for The Institute of Ideas, (2002), Woman. The Incredible Life of Yoko Ono (Chrome Dreams, 2004) and John Lydon, Stories of Johnny (Chrome Dreams, 2006), as well as essays and articles, largely on singing, vocal timbre and performance for various publications. She has written a musical The Ballad Of Norah's Ark with Russell Churney and the director Andy Goldberg (Bomb-itti of Errors, Daddy Cool), currently in development in New York.

Her live work increasingly takes her to the USA, and she appeared at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2006. She collaborated with composer Mark Anthony Turnage on his new work, About Water, which premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in June, 2007 featuring the London Sinfonietta, cellist Gabriella Swallow and celebrated jazz soloists including John Pattitucci and Gwylim Simcock. In July 2007 she appears at The Almeida Theatre in London, performing a collection of Bob Dylan songs, a show which will be repeated at the Edinburgh Festival, at the Queen's Hall in August, 2007.

Discography

Solo albums

CD Cover Chanson: The Space in Between Released August 2000

• Bouquet of Barbs (year?)
• Bare (1999)
• Bare Again re-release (2007)
• Chanson|The Space In Between (2000)
• Every Grain of Sand: Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan (2002)
• Waterloo Sunset (2003)
• Love Me Tender (2005)
• Walking In The Sun (2006)

Albums with Michael Parker

• Wicked (1986)
• Blue Devils (1987)
• Night and Day (1988)
• Off the Peg (1988)
• Canada (1992)

Other albums

• "Girl Talk" with Claire Martin and Mari Wilson (2005) Linn Records
• Uneasy Street (2005) The Music of BB Cooper featuring Barb Jungr and Ian Shaw
• Various artists

  "And They ALL Sang Rosselsongs"(2004)

• Various artists

  Ze Christmas Album (1982)

• Barb Jungr, Christine Collister, Michael Parker and Helen Watson

  Hell Bent Heaven Bound II: Money the £inal £rontier (1993)

• Barb Jungr, Kuljit Bhamra and Russell Churney

  Durga Rising (1997)

• Peggy Seeger

  Period Pieces: Women's Songs for Men and Women (1998)

• Various artists

  Ne Me Quitte Pas: Brel Songs by... (1998)

• Various artists

  Article 14 (2001)

• Robb Johnson

  The Triumph of Hope Over Experience (2002)

• Jonathan Cooper

  The Moon Behind the Clouds (2002)

• Various artists

  Nine Times Two (2002)

• Des de Moor and Russell Churney

  Darkness and Disgrace: Des de Moor and Russell Churney Perform the Songs of David Bowie (2003)

• Various artists

  The Music of BB Cooper: The Best of British Vocal Jazz (2004)

External links

• Barb Jungr – Official website

• Barb's official myspace page

• Linn Records

• Premiere Jazz

• Review of Barb Jungr ‘Walking in the Sun’ at HighFidelityReview.com by Mark Jordan 07/01/07. Accessed January 2007

• The Corn Exchange and New Greenham Arts