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(E,H) Tamara Obrovac
By Nenad N. Bach | Published  01/24/2004 | People | Unrated
(E,H) Tamara Obrovac

 

Tamara Obrovac

http://www.tamaraobrovac.com

...jazz je moja sloboda, a korijeni su moja istina...

...jazz is my freedom and my roots are my inner truth...

...che esso ha nella formazione della mia identita' personale e musicale...
 


u potrazi za originalnoscu glazbenog izricaja
shvatila sam vrijednost i smisao osjecaja
za vlastiti zavicaj
jezik
i tradiciju
kao i njegovu ulogu u stvaranju
mog osobnog i skladateljskog izraza
jazz je moja sloboda, a korijeni su moja istina
 

my approach towards music went
from jazz standards,
through my own compositions,
to my finding of an original expression
by connecting the language
of the folk music of my
homeland (Istria, Croatia)
with the rhythms
and improvisation typical for jazz,
so jazz is my freedom
and my roots are my inner truth

Inseguendo un concetto di originalita'
d'espressione musicale ho inparato
a capire il valore ed il senso del sentimento
che nutro verso la
mia lingua,
la mia tradizione,
e la mia terra,
come pure del ruolo
che esso ha nella formazione
della mia identita' personale e musicale


The singer flutist and composer Tamara Obrovac was born 1962 in Croatian city of Pula where she finished High school of music for flute.She is one of the most important artists on the Croatian music scene, and in the past few years she has become very popular due to the influence of the Istrian folk music that has been the creative force of her works. Istria is a beautiful Croatian region, a North Adriatic peninsula, particular for It’s musical and dialectal tradition. She also writes lyrics in a local dialects.
In addition to here international concert activities she composes for theatre performances, cartoons, movies, musicals, etc. and she is also a member of the international Balkan winds ensemble.
This creative musician has become known for her highly aesthetic performances, her interpretations are
suffused with spontaneity, inventive improvisation, freedom, humour and the ability to communicate with the
audience. Her musical career began in Zagreb where she went by the beginning of the 1980ies to study sociology - it was then that she formed her own band that played her compositions. She slowly began discovering the jazz scene of Zagreb and Ljubljana and began to perform with young Croatian and Slovenian jazz musicians, to finally enroll in the jazz singing classes at the High School of Music in Ljubljana. With her natural inclination towards exploration and experimenting she always participated to projects that brought something new and as a person of powerful imagination and ideas she strived to dedicate herself to her own, personal projects. However, by the beginning of the nineties the war in former Yougoslavia quieted many things, and so it quieted club performances in both Croatia and Slovenia - it was at this time that Tamara returned to her native Istria, untouched by war, where she dedicated herself to her own musical progress and prepared her first CD entitled “Triade”, issued in 1996.This CD was a compilation of sorts, in which she presented three areas that
were most present in her work at the time: jazz standards, original jazz compositions, and compositions
inspired by Istrian folk music. With this CD she introduced freshness and a new way of thinking on Croatian jazz scene. A stylistically more refined CD entitled Ulika followed 1988, on which all her compositions are sung in dialect. This is an exceptional work of unusual strength, distinctiveness, intellectual but also spiritual permeatedness with the roots, habits, folklore, language, music and spirit of Istria and the Istrians. At that time she began to perform with here quartet in the neighbouring countries, Italy, Slovenia, Austria.A new page in her musical development was opened by the CD ”Transhistria” on which she inaugurated a new ensemble and a different sound with which, remaining faithful to the musical expression rooted in her native Istria, she definitely proved herself as an extraordinary artist that has created, by using elements of tradition, a distinctive musical expression with which she has become increasingly more present on the European musical stage. Through the communion of different musical forms and improvisation, the last CD “Sve pasiva” (All fades away) conveys an even more profiled authorial approach, creating a unique authorial form that, inspired by the vastest Mediterranean tradition, has established the “personal poetics” of the author, while in the alchemy with her extraordinary musicians she creates an incredible lightness of expression that truly characterizes only the greatest artists.

Tamara Obrovac within the Istrian cultural context
Transcript from the magazine La Battana, no. 130, December 1999, page 106, 107,

author Loredana Bogliun


We seldom encounter authors that create a new style drawing their strength from the existing poetic sources. Tamara has understood that if she intelligently picked from and artistically handled the traditional values at her disposal, she could draw from a well of infinite, creative and original stories. She understood that this approach would give her a strong artistic identity and that by creating melodies, lyrics and different
interpretations she can best express herself and her artistic singularity: to live with art - a privilege of
only few. I feel that these few are those who have felt the calling, the need for a complete dedication to
art, the gift of their own beauty to the beauty of others.

The language of truth is always universal. But the universality also needs a Voice. For Tamara Obrovac that Voice is Istria; more precisely, the cultural matrix of chakavian Istria, that typically rural, strongly
rooted Istria, characterised by a distinctly melodious speech. The authenticity of this musical story and the
interpretations of the same derive precisely from Tamara's sense of belonging to this Istrian soil. On the
concert, when she interprets her songs, she is the soil from which the wheat grows, the sun that scorches at
noon, the woman that knows the hardships of life, the impudent and innocent fury of the Istrian peasant that
was always trodden upon by the historical events, the rebellious song of the American Negro, the voice that gently caresses and strongly requests; in beautiful harmony with the musicians that during their performance become one, communicating to us the magic of rhythm, music, sound… The modern rendition of culturological archetypes is wonderful.

Contact:

Tamara Obrovac
Carlijeva 1, 52100 Pula, Croatia
tel: ++385 52 50-58-89
e-mail: tamara.obrovac@pu.hinet.hr 


Pjevacica, flautistica, skladateljica i autorica tekstova Tamara Obrovac rodjena je 1962. godine u Puli, gdje je zavrsila srednju glazbenu skolu za flautu. Jedna je od najznacajnijih i najsvestranijih osobnosti na Hrvatskoj glazbenoj sceni, a zahvaljujuci utjecajima istarske narodne glazbe koje koristi u kreiranju svog glazbenog izraza, u nekoliko je posljednjih godina stekla i veliku popularnost. Uz internacionalnu koncertnu aktivnost sklada glazbu za balet, kazaliste i film, a stalni je clan medjunarodnog ensemblea Balkan Winds (CD u pripremi) Ova kreativna glazbenica postigla je prepoznatljivost i visoku estetsku razinu, a njezine interpretacije prozete su spontanoscu, inventivnim improvizacijama, slobodom, humorom i snaznom komunikativnoscu. Najzahtjevnije aranzmane izvodi sa lakocom i jednostavnoscu svojstvenom samo najvecim umjetnicima. Njena glazbena karijera zapocela je u Zagrebu u koji pocetkom osamdesetih dolazi na studij sociologije - tada osniva vlastiti band koji svira njene skladbe. Polagano otkriva zagrebacku i Ljubljansku jazz scenu i pocinje nastupati sa mladim Hrvatskim i Slovenskim jazz glazbenicima, a u Ljubljani upisuje jazz pjevanje pri srednjoj glazbenoj skoli. Sklona trazenju i eksperimentiranju, uvijek je sudjelovala u projektima koji su donosili nesto novo, a kao osoba snazne imaginacije i ideje zeljela se posvetiti vlastitim projektima.No pocetkom 90-tih rat je utihnuo mnoge aktivnosti pa tako klupske svirke u Hrvatskoj i Sloveniji - tada se Tamara vraca u rodnu Istru netaknutu ratom gdje radi na vlastitom glazbenom usavrsavanju i priprema svoj prvi CD “Triade” koji izlazi 1996. Bila je to svojevrsna kompilacija u kojoj je predstavila tri podrucja prisutna u njezinu radu : jazz standarde interpretirane jezikom suvremenog jazza, originalne jazz skladbe pjevane na engleskom, te skladbe inspirirane istarskom narodnom glazbom. Ovim CD-om najavila je svjezinu i novi nacin razmisljanja na nasoj jazz sceni. Uslijedio je stilski profiliraniji CD Ulika, na kojem sve svoje skladbe pjeva na dijalektu. To je iznimno djelo neobicne cvrstine, posebnosti, intelektualnog, ali i duhovnog prozimanja obicajima, folklorom, jezikom, glazbom i duhom Istre i Istrana. U to vrijeme zapocinje nastupati i u susjednim zemljama, Italiji, Sloveniji, Austriji. Novu stranicu u svom glazbenom razvoju otvara CD-om
”transhistria” inaugurirajuci novi ansambl i drugaciji zvuk kojim se, ostajuci vjerna izricaju vezanom uz
rodnu Istru, definitivno potvrdjuje kao iznimna umjetnica koja je koristeci elemente tradicije stvorila
osebujan glazbeni izricaj kojim je sve vise prisutna na Europskoj glazbenoj sceni.
Kroz suzivot razlicitih glazbenih formi i improvizacije posljednji CD “Sve pasiva” donosi jos profiliraniji
autorski pristup stvarajuci unikatnu autorsku formu koja, inspirirana opcom Mediteranskom tradicijom, etablira “osobnu poetiku” autorice, a uz alkemiju sa izvanrednim glazbenicima postize nevjerojatnu lakocu izricaja svojstvenu zaista samo najvecim umjetnicima.



TAMARA OBROVAC U ISTARSKOM KULTURNOM KONTEKSTU
Loredana Bogliun

Rijetko susrecemo autore koji stvaraju novi stil crpeci snagu iz postojeceg poetskog. Tamara je shvatila da iz tradicionalnih vrijednosti ukoliko ih inteligentno zaokruzi te umjetnicki obradi, moze crpiti izvor
neiscrpnih, kreativnih, originalnih prica. Razumjela je da joj ovakav pristup pruza snazan umjetnicki
identitet i da ona, stvarajuci melodije, tekstove i dajuci razlicite interpretacije moze najbolje iskazati
sebe i svoju umjetnicku osobnost. A to je: zivjeti sa umjetnoscu - privilegija rijetkih. Mislim da su ti
rijetki upravo oni koji osjecaju poziv, tu potpunu predaju umjetnosti, poklanjanje vlastite ljepote ljepoti
drugih.Istinski govor je uvijek univerzalan. Ali i univerzalnost treba Glas. Taj Glas je za Tamaru Obrovac Istra; preciznije receno kulturna matrica cakavske Istre, ona tipicno zemljoradnicka, snaznih korijena i posebne govorne melodioznosti.autenticnost ove muzike price i interpretacije iste izlaze upravo iz Tamarine pripadnosti istarskoj zemlji. Dok na koncertu interpretira svoje pjesme, ona je zemlja iz koje raste zito, sunce koje przi u podne, zena koja pozna nedace, ljutnja drska i nevina onog istrijana koji je uvijek bivao pregazen povijesnim dogadjajima, buntovno pjevanje americkih crnaca, glas koji njezno miluje i snazno zahtijeva; u predivnom skladu glazbenika koji se u izvodjenju spajaju u jedno, prenoseci nam magiju ritma, glazbe, zvuka…..Moderna izvedba kulturoloskih arhetipova je velicanstvena.

VOTE: GLASAJTE: for WORLD AWARDS 2004
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/awards2004/vote/audienceaward.shtml

Moto poruke: kocekomenegosvojsvome...

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