Whe were Cosa Rosa?
Now, you are probably thinking that I have just made a typing error,
and it should read "Who was Cosa Rosa". But no! At the outset, at the very
least, Cosa Rosa was a duo, though clearly the name is based on Rosemarie's
first name. How the name came about, I do not know, but certainly, on the
first album, it's very clearly a record made bny 2 people, indeed, there
a some tracks on which Rosemarie does not even appear! Why? I'm guessing
again, bnt as she was in Ulla Meinecke's touring band at the time, she
quite possibly simply wasn't available. A bit like Art Garfunkel's absence
during sessions for the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album, as he was away
filming "Catch 22." Rainhold was busy too, recording with Spliff, and producing
Nena, but all these tasks were in Berlin, so quite wasy to fit in.
So, who were they?
Reinhold Heil
Born 18th May
1954, Reinhold studied at the Berlin University of the Arts, before starting
work professionally in the music business. He has been a composer, producer,
keyboard player and singer, and Reinhold has been a member of the Nina
Hagen Band, Spliff (the same band without Nina Hagen) Froon, and most recently,
the Pale 3, who have been involved in a lot of film and TV music, as Reinhold
moved to Santa Barbara in the 1990's. He has been nominated for Oscars,and
has won Ascap awards for the soundtrack of "Without a Trace", Details of
his work in the world of film and TV can be seen here at IMDB
Reinhold met Rosemarie in the 1970's, and they remained life pertners until
her death. As well as having a major influence on her music, he was clearly
a man who was commited to her in life, for while the media is always full
of news of people who do not stick together even when things are going
well, he was around until the tragic end of her life, and was at her bedside
when she passed away. They were obviously lucky to have found one another,
and he is to be praised for his decency and loyalty.
Rosemarie Precht
Born 3rd
May, 1952, As almost any website will tell you, she was a qualified Architecht,
in fact her qualification was Dipl. Ing., short for Diplom-Ingenieur (German
equivalent of M.S. degree) and after qualifying, she worked for the municipal
planning office in Berlin. Perhaps there are buildings there to which she
contributed?
Having had piano lessons as a child, she was still interested in music,
and in the confined world of West Berlin in the 1970's and 80's, there
would have been ample opportunity to meet like minded people. So it was
that she ended up as the girlfriend of Reinhold, and subsequent exposure
to other musicians. As a result she was asked to join all-female band The
Insisters, as keyboard player, and made one albm with them Moderne Zeiten
(Modern Times). Shortly afterwards, Reinhold's fellow bandmember in Spliff,
drummerHerwig Mitteregger, recommended Rosa to Ulla Meinecke, a well established
German singer, as a keyboard player for her band. She was given the job,
and toured with her, also making 3 albums and co-writing at least one song,
Süße Sünden (Sweet Sins) with her. She had already been
playing her compositions to Reinhold, and at one point while he was absent
for atour with Spliff, he showed her how to use a 4 track tape recorder
to multi track her recordings, and when he returned, he suprised her with
several songs completely mixed with keyboards and vocals. As a successful
musician, he would not be easily impressed, but he was so pleased with
ther work that he decided she should become a musician in her own right,
not someone elses hired hand. With other work commitments in both their
laps, it was a duo that released the first album, Traumstation, but as
she grew in confidence and experience, the next 2 were more focused on
Rosa, with Reinhold happily taking a back seat.
Reinhold does not need extra exposure for his talents, he is still exploring
new musical avenue's even today, but Rosa sadly only got to make a limited
impact, and it is becasue of that fact that I focus more on her input.
A recent interview with Rienhold gives a much bigger and better background
to the story that I can ever give. Read it here
at the Music Pleasuredome
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