Tamara Obrovac the composer, singer and flutist is one of the most impressive artists on the Croatian music scene. Her unique musical expression which blends contemporary jazz with particular musical and dialectal tradition from her homeland Istria, North Adriatic peninsula, brought here international recognition.
Her musical career as a
singer started mid 80-s in Zagreb, after finishing High school of music for
flute in here native Pula. At that time she immersed in research of jazz
harmony and soon she begins to compose her own contemporary jazz compositions,
forms her own band and in the next few years discovers tradition of her
homeland as a point of inspiration and originality.
She released her first CD “Triade”
in 1996, which immediately got critics approval (“absolute masterpiece”),
and 1998 CD “Ulika”, named on her grandmother, both with piano trio,
establishing fusion between contemporary jazz, Istrian and Mediterranean tradition
as her original musical expression.
At that time she began to
perform in the neighboring countries, Italy, Slovenia, Austria and starts to
compose theatre and film music as well. On her next CD ”Transhistria” 2001, she
inaugurated a new international Transhistria ensemble (Histria is ancient name
for Istria) and a new sound, with accordion and acoustic guitar.
In following years she
released 4 author albums, experimenting with the border areas of jazz, funk,
classical music, and different ethnic traditions of the Mediterranean, singing on
endangered Slavic and Romanic Istrian dialects.
With her distinctive
musical expression, excellent band and passionate live performances suffused with
spontaneity, inventive improvisation, freedom, humor and the ability to
communicate with the audience, she has become increasingly more
present and recognized on
the European musical stage.
She collaborated with many
renowned musicians; Glauco Venier, Gabrielle Mirabassi, Theodosii Spassov,
Wolfgang Puschnig, performed on many international festivals: Talos Jazz
fesival, Le Gipfel du Jazz Freiburg, Strictly mundial Marseille, Akordeon
festival Vienna, EBU festival Kaustinen, Saulkrasti Jazz, Freiburger
Jazz-nights, Firra Medititerranea de Manresa, Jazz-ahead Bremen, Jazz au
Chellah; and clubs: Joe’s pub NYC, Porgy&Bess Viena, Moods, Zurich, Bird’s
eye, Bern, and many more, highly praised from audience and critics as well.
She received numerous
awards for her work, among the others 9 Porin awards
(Croatian's Grammy), and
she was nominated for BBC Radio 3 World Music awards(European music and Audience Award).
Since 2010, she is the
director of Valamar Jazz Festival in Poreč.
In 2013 she recorded 2 new
CD-s in ArteSuono studio Udine (IT): “Ulika revival” with
here quartet that had
succesful showcase on Jazz-ahead Bremen 2013, and “Cantoamoroso” with Transhistria ensemble.
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