Rudy Stevenson is one of the “soul men” in America’s 1960’s, who enriched the world with his compositions. His ‘Dontcha hear me callin’ to ya’ is found on the bestseller ‘Aquarius’ of the group The Fifth Dimension, with Nina Simone Rudy worked for years and his ‘Coming Home’ is to hear in movies time and again. The Berlin singer Martina Gebhardt knows and appreciates Rudy since 1988. She learned a lot from performing with him, and wanted to record parts of his work in any case. This opportunity offered itself in cooperation with the Berlin guitarist Peter Kuhz.

Martina Gebhardt studied classical voice training with Vivian Lee from 1983-1988, and from 1989 she startet to work with jazz musicians like Reggie Moore and Rudy Stevenson. In 1992 she received a jazz scholarship of the Berlin Senate and studied in New York with Kirk Nurock (p, comp.) and Judy Niemack (Prof. f. singing at the HfM Hanns Eisler / JiB). In the same year, she received a grant of the Berlin Senate Women AG for the workshop ‘Jazz in July’ in Massachusetts (United States), where she studied with Sheila Jordan (voc), Yuseef Lateef (sax), Charles Ellison (tp), Fred Tillis (sax). Followed by a further scholarship AG of the Berlin Senate Women AG in 1994, she took part in a ten-day workshop and private lessons with Sheila Jordan in Graz / A (“…) In my twenty years of teaching I have had only two students who stood out in my mind, and one of those is Martina… “). It was followed by more workshops with John Taylor (p), Jim Knapp (tp), Susan Belling (voc), Judy Niemack Jeanne Lee, Bobby McFerrin, Ann Marie Moss, Sheila Jordan, Peter Fessler, bark Eckhard and voice training with Catherine Gayer (Deutsche Oper Berlin) and Annette Goeres (Hanns Eisler/JiB).

Peter Kuhz was born in 1960 in Berlin. At the age of eleven, he began to learn classical guitar. After the private training, mostly with Bruno Henze, he dedicated himself increasingly also to other music styles, especially jazz, Jewish and Latin American music. Despite of all trips in a variety of directions, the classical guitar repertoire has always been an essential part of its activities. He took part in international master classes, e.g. with Alvaro Pierri, Pepe Romero, Roland Dyens, Scott Tennant and William Kanengiser. As Ensemble musician, he worked among others with the Deutsche Oper and the Berlin ensemble. He is touring for many years with the singer Esther Lorenz. In addition, he performed with the flutist Kerstin Brokate, the cellist Hans Rabus, guitarist Thomas Schmidt and the jazz singers Martina Gebhardt and Ute Kannenberg.