VESNA PISAROVIĆ - Naša velika pjesmarica / The Great Yugoslav Songbook - CD / 2xLP

Vesna Pisarović is a renowned singer who after a long and prosperous career in pop music in Croatia and ex-Yugoslavian countries decided to attend a jazz college in 2006 at Royal Conservatory in Den Haag. After finishing she earned a Master's degree in performing jazz songs at the famous Guildhall school in London. Currently, she resides and works in Berlin, Germany collaborating with numerous musicians.

Instead of a nostalgic desire for the old, what another fruition of Vesna's turn towards jazz gives us is an extremely creative relationship towards the past. The entire ‘Naša velika pjesmarica / The Great Yugoslav Songbook’ as a project is sort of an ironic look back to a musical heritage of ex-Yugoslavian mainstream music from '50-es to '70-es era. The times of the big band ballads, soft Eurovision hits, remakes of french chansons and Italian schlagers, witted twist melodies and pastoral rock scene, swing dances and inevitable South-American beats of the Mediterranean. Vesna Pisarović together with her musical partners in crime managed to adapt, deconstruct, strip, reassemble, twist, manipulate and reassemble it back into an eccentric musical montage.

Her unique voice followed by an incredible performance from some of the world famous jazz musicians such as Greg Cohen (double bass), Chris Abrahams (piano), Tony Buck (drums), Francesco Bigoni (saxophone), Gerhard Gschlößl (trombone) and Dieb 13 (turntable/electronics) put an added value into this release presenting 'old' tunes dressed in 'new' clothes. In such a way ‘Naša velika pjesmarica / The Great Yugoslav Songbook’ is a collection of impossible 'standards' become basics and templates for jazz improvisation, experimentation, the interplay between the formed and non-formed, melodic and dissonant, authentic and hybrid.