The Queen of the Gypsies - Esma Redzepova

Concert review by Andrea Gerak

A few weeks ago in August, Stockholm had its yearly Kulturfestival, which is one of the greatest things here, with free events around the town. One of them was The Gypsy Queens & Kings with the Mahala Rai Banda, just in front of the Opera House.

And the Queen of Queens (well, I would say The Queen of Gypsies, for she was the only one from all the female performers to deserve this title, in my humble opinion): Esma Redzepova.

There could be pages and pages told about this charismatic lady from Macedonia, please check out her website at www.esma.com.mk

The whole evening with such a powerful, lively show was a real highlight for Stockholm (there should be much more of this kind of concerts, to shake up this cold North a bit...!!!) Let me just give you my personal impressions only about Esma's appearance, in a few words - more I can't find to express it all...

It happened to me.

What is it? Many times when I sing, I can see tears in peoples' eyes, they come to me to tell how grateful they are, what feelings I gave them with my songs - the most fantastic moments for a singer, to see others touched by something you do.

At those moments, I could imagine their states of mind, for I often have the same when I listen to music, I can be very emotional about it. But: it was still not completely real for me how my listeners felt, for I have known this only from instrumental music. I can't recall any singer alive whose voice has ever reached to my heart so deeply that it brought out my tears - and believe me, I have done quite some listening, including some of the biggest names, live...

So now it happened to me.

In the very first song when Esma stepped on the stage (stepped? is that a satisfactory word about a Queen, a real Dame, a phenomenon?), she did it to me. Letting her soul out with that powerful voice penetrated the innermost core of my being, and my feelings and thoughts had to flow out...

What an inspiration...!!! I was flying high the whole evening, and ever since, when I just think of those moments or listen to the recordings I caught with my mobile...

I am not a Gypsy myself, but love their culture, the music and the dances, it's an unbelievably rich source material for me that I try to weave into my performances. Have seen many of their folks singing, dancing and playing, on stage or at parties, but from this moment on, with these three or four songs from Esma, probably a new world opened for me as a singer.

If this is something that I can also give to others (and from the feedback, apparently I can...), this is what I wanna do in my whole life, as long as I am able to.

Thank you so much, Esma, with my greatest respect and admiration!!! Wish you good health and that people of the world can hear you for many, many years to come!












Also in Andrea's Blog (on www.andreagerak.com)

Concert review: Elisabeth Kontomanou at Huddinge Jazz 2010

A short concert review from Andrea Gerak, of jazz singer Elisabeth Kontomanou:

Since my 4 years I have spent in Sweden, one of my greatest experiences was this concert last Saturday: Elisabeth Kontomanou at Huddinge Jazz Festival (Stockholm).

The internationally touring brilliant singer put an outstanding show on the stage, featuring her outstanding vocals conveyed with passion and communication, great stage presence, remarkable musicians and vocalists, songs that gave chills, tears or joy to the audience, making them clapping, tapping, singing along, laughing, or submerging deep in their thoughts and emotions, evoked by the melodies.

A very professional performance and very human in the same time; Elisabeth is a master of keeping contact with the audience in a lovely manner.

Have to mention how respectfully she treated her colleagues on stage: six of them being excellent young talents (three of them in fact her sons!), and despite of that we could witness a few first time performances, such as the opening song, each performer did a great job. Apparently all of them on the stage enjoyed every minute of the show, just as did the audience.

Lead Vocals : Elisabeth Kontomanou
Drums : Donald Kontomanou
Bass : Lars Ekman
Piano : Pelle Karlström
Guitar : Erik Söderlind
Guitar : Joey Belmondo
Backing Vocals : Pixie Jakobsson
Backing Vocals : Christine Sundberg
Special Guest : Gustav Karlström

To get a little taste, open Elisabeth Kontomanu's MySpace and play the songs while looking at the photos.



Also in Andrea's Blog

www.andreagerak.com

Erik Strandh memorial concert at Stampen

A short concert review from Andrea Gerak:

Is it appropriate to say that one had a great fun at a memorial concert? Because I did, just as all the attendees at the packed Stampen, the famous jazz-blues establishment in Gamla stan (the old town of Stockholm) this afternoon. A few hours (4?) long blues jam session, as a tribute to Erik Strandh pianist who died last Saturday in a heart attack, just after a concert in his hometown Helsingborg with his band Our Thing, at the age of 60.

As I am not too familiar with the blues scene (and not with the music scene in Stockholm in general), I didn't know Erik Strandh; one of my friends, guitarist Thierry Laprevote invited me, who played with him at that last gig...


One of the last performances of Erik Strandh:



This memorial concert was an excellent jam session (hosted by Brian Kramer); countless musicians came to say goodbye to their friend who is now in some other world, but I am sure that all the good vibes from the gig got through to the late pianist and he could hear the music.


I took some photos (had to kneel on a bar chair for about two hours, so that I could see what was going on...)


More pics in my Stockholm photo blog


Contributing musicians: Anders Nystedt,  Ivan Jezek,  Williams Caroline, Daniel Ramsten,  Olle Sjöstedt, Emil Lindroth, Micael Öberg,  Brian Kramer, Steve Wadidiz Morris, Miiko Melody,  Jon Ben Berger, Thierry Laprevote, Marcelo Nunez, Mats Qwarfordt, Fanny Holm Sickenga - and many others

Also in Andrea's Blog
 www.andreagerak.com

In Andrea's music player

A few great music artists, brought to you by Andrea Gerak, with personal comments, enjoy!

After I had 3 auditions in the first 3 days of the week (of which one of them was a demo recording session with a Swedish composer-producer who has written for example famous Christmas songs that are big not only in Sweden but in the UK, US, Italy and produced some of the now big name Swedish artists) plus practiced for the recording of my new album, and that involved listening to my own and others singing almost non-stop, intensely using my throat for about 4 hours a day on an average, I needed to have some instrumental-only sounds.

Here is a selection of music from my friends I listened to in the last couple of days. I could probably write long reviews on them and later maybe will; now just a short recommendation to each artist, picking one or two random songs, and let the music speak. New Age, Classical, Film music to your and my listening pleasure.

Started with Ballerina from one of my Spanish friends Gnomusy (David Caballero). I know this song since more than 3 years and have listened to it many times, always singing along - I think I will ask him to make a version I can use as a background for performing it...
Ballerina - by Gnomusy makes me always happy.

Went over to Jace Vek's page to see his latest piece and I had to give another go to the whole playlist again, besides plugging his 2 older albums Vision and Jace Vek Live with the Royal Sylvan Philharmonic in my ears very often. On ReverbNation, Jace presents us his newer stuff as well. His original tracks are an absolute must, you might easily find one of the greatest pianist-composers of our times...
All She Wanted - by Jace Vek
Viva la Vida - orchestrated and performed by Jace Vek is one of my faves, how do you like his version of the Cold Play hit?

Looking forward to his upcoming album!

Easy move to skip over to my other buddy Glen Gabriel. I have his CD Music In Chronological Order which is awesome, but here on RN you get the latest pieces from this composer as well. Glen's music says: Movie, Baby!!!
BIRCA - by Glen Gabriel shows me that the Viking spirit can be still found here in Sweden :-)

And a girl: Kori Linae Carothers whose new album Trillium is getting very good responses.
Dancing In The Clouds - by Kori Linea Carothers (feat. Jeff Oster)makes me do just that: dance in the clouds

And here you have them all five:
In Andrea's music player 2009/Nov/15

Have a nice Sunday everyone!

- yours, Andrea Gerak

www.andreagerak.com

Andrea's Shop

Artist of the Month: Zita Tatrai soprano

Andrea Gerak presents a new series, introducing some of her artist friends: well known or lesser known singers, musicians, bands, composers of several music styles and genres, Hungarian and international ones alike, that deserve your attention. Enjoy meeting Andrea's friends!

Zita Tatrai sings Turandot

Hello everybody,

I am launching a new series of reviews that can be of your interest. As I am in contact with many fantastic talents from all over the world that I have the honor to call friends, I would like to introduce them to you. I will write these reviews from not only a professional viewpoint, but because these artists are in fact my friends in one way or the other, I will give it a personal touch as well. Each month, you can meet one artist who caught my attention in the previous weeks, who had something special happening, like a new album coming out.

Why would a singer review fellow musicians? A couple of weeks ago I posted a few photos of the Hungarian Music Academy in my Budapest blog, and there I was thinking: whom I would like to hear there, performing? A few names popped into my mind immediately, and this is how reviewing some of my artist friends was born. And actually, exactly those days I wrote a couple of lines about one of my all time favorite bands The Jive Aces which was published on the biggest Hungarian music site.


With whom else should I start such a series than one of my best friends Zita Tatrai soprano who grew up in my hometown Kazincbarcika as well. Funny enough, we got to know each other only as adults, in Budapest. I met her as the wife of a composer I was working with and first I heard Zita from a recording he showed me - and I went "WOW!"

I also remember that I was very much impressed when I visited them at home and saw many wonderful, colorful paintings on the wall, radiating a lot of positive vibes, by Zita Tatrai soprano I am writing about. Later on, she was commissioned by United Nations to paint a mural at the International University of Honduras.

Even funnier is that since I know Zita, I haven't heard her performing - our paths crossed here and there every once in a while, but we both were on the move and I never had a chance to see my friend on stage...

But I heard Zita practicing, giving lessons or humming for herself, just for fun. Years ago, I was staying in her house in England for a short while, and right now she is staying with me here in Budapest. It's such a great fun! She is doing her scales in the room, and I join her from the other room, the kitchen or the bathroom - can you imagine this? Zita is singing when she does her hair, when she is checking out stuff on the net, I can hear her voice from the staircase when I come home... filling the whole house with a huge, brilliant voice, of which I often get that special feeling I always look for in music, even when she does the simple warm-up exercises. She only steps out from the house when she is satisfied with all her preparations and ready to perform, let it be an important meeting or "only" a rehearsal with her pianist.

Major achievements of Zita Tatrai's singer career include:
Finalist of the “Cittá del Alcamo” International Singing Competition 2006, Semi-finalist of the Rocca Delle Macíe International Singing Competition 2006,
5TH OTTAVIO ZIINO International Opera Competition in Roma 2006,
First International Singing Competition 'Tommaso Traetta' 2007,

Read bio


Tosca

Velvety, beautiful speaking voice as well - Zita is a trained actress, she used to be the Hungarian voice of Xena.

Singer, painter, actress - but there is more: Zita Tatrai makes great portrait photos; she has a good sense to see the beauty in even such people who don't consider themselves beautiful. I can tell that it is fun to work with her, I enjoyed her creativity while we had a photo session, this is one shot she did of me.

As a freelance journalist, years back she published articles in daily newspapers about her observations on everyday life in the city.

On top of all her artistic sides (who says that one can't excel at several art forms???), Zita is a gorgeous and very intelligent woman, a great friend, a fun, communicative person, a being with an enormous heart - a whole package.

Our little city and our little country can be proud to give such a talent to the world.

- Andrea Gerak

Zita Tatrai links:
Official website
MySpace
Artist page on Facebook
Photography page on Facebook

Concert review: The Jive Aces in Hungary

The Jive Aces are advertising themselves as the UK's #1 swing and jive band but it is not true. They are already much more than that.

It was an honor for me to perform before them on last Saturday and a fantastic experience to attend most of the gigs of their short Hungary tour.

One could also say that as a Hungarian folk singer and dancer, the author of this review doesn't have anything to do with swing, jive, boogie-woogie, rock and roll, but this isn't true either. Recognizing, appreciating and enjoying the highest level professionalism cannot be bound to genres. Therefore, whenever I have an opportunity to meet the Jive Aces, I have great fun and while dancing, I sing I-I-I-I-I ain' got no-body, and Buona sera, signorina, buona sera - forgetting that anything else exist. If I even get a right partner, turning-whirling-somersaulting is no problem.

And the unstoppable flow of spirits, exhilaration, inexhaustible energy, humorous performance on top of super professional handling of instruments are for everybody.

Last weekend I had this all: on Friday, they made the dancers sweat in Budapest, at the birthday party of Oktogon Dance Centre (I couldn't go to this one, having a concert at After Music Club), at Saturday noon they played down by the Danube in Obuda (Old Buda), where they put the boogie and the charleston into the feet of passers-by. As a warm-up for their evening concert, for they were the star guests of 25th International Dixieland Festival in Salgotarjan, Northern Hungary.

I know the boys in the yellow suits for almost 10 years, have seen them performing in many cities of England and the Continent, worked with them every now and then, but haven't seen any show like what they gave here. It was five times as good - if such a thing can be expressed by figures - as their concert at Montreux a couple of years ago.



The audience applauded, laughed, forgot about all the worries in their lives for two hours, several hundreds of people were jumping to Jump Jive An' Wail, and didn't want to let them leave the stage at Midnight. In the foyer, the crowd completely overwhelmed the merch table, so that the new fans could get signatures on their CDs.

One could hear not only one voice saying "This was the best ever concert of my life", "I've been coming to this festival for 20 years but haven't seen anything like this" - different wording, same point.

According to the local Radio Focus "even the old hand public got convinced that it was not an advertisement gimmick to call this year's star performers as world sensation."

Also the jovial gentlemen who was seemingly familiar with with the genre and despite of his age, danced happily next afternoon when the Jive Aces entertained visitors of Polus Shopping Center in Budapest again, put it this way: "This is not only the best swing band of England, but probably the whole world".



Two more big plus points to the band. One: that mind blowing buoyancy and cheerfulness which are trade marks of their performance, are not made up for the sake of the show, the guys are indeed like that. Just an interesting detail to this: without alcohol or any other drugs - it is possible to do so.

They demonstrated their incredible work tempo (300 gigs a year!) in this country too: after all this on Sunday night played for a private party - five concerts in three days.

The other plus point: although the Jive Aces are getting to be called as real world stars, (let's only take this: Chick Corea does not appear on the album of just anyone), the cats are not giddy with success, they are friendly, familiar, human.

Most probably it's not me to judge, but boys, it's time to re-word your slogan!

- Andrea Gerak

This review was published - amongst others - in the most influential Hungarian music portal Zene.hu: The Jive Aces Showed in Hungary What Real Swing and Jive Was Like
Photo galery: the Jive Aces at Salgotarjan jazz festival
www.jiveaces.com

We Heart Music Review

Andrea is recommended by WeHeartMusic.com, a US-based music blog by 30 music lovers, featuring the most different styles of songs and artists.

"What caught my attention right away about Andrea Gerak is that she had covered "Rorogwela", which had been recorded earlier as "Sweet Lullaby" by Deep Forest on their eponymously titled CD, and was a huge hit in the early '90s. But Gerak deserves plenty of recognition in her own right, ..."
read more

And here is an interview with Vu Nguyen of the staff, introduced as a New Media Pioneer by Cyber PR.

CDs, MP3 downloads

Experimental mysticism - Review

Sobre Las Aireadas Olas, a Spanish New Age and World Music blog recommends Andrea Gerak with these words:

"The Hungarian voice that will keep one excited. Without fear, she experiments with traditional subjects, mainly with those coming from her country, approaching them from different angles. Nothing resists her; neither new age, nor world fusion, nor a cappella interpretations...

Without a doubt, if you like folk music as well as experimental tunes, Andrea Gerak will capture you with her hipnotic vision of music..."