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Tamara Obrovac

The composer singer and flutist Tamara Obrovac, is one of the most impressive artists on the Croatian music scene, she is one of those musicians to whom jazz means a path to understanding music as a whole. Moreover, it has ushered her towards an intensive investigation of her own regional music awareness, so she offers us a new musical journey through the Istrian and Mediterranean spaces and times. Istria is here homeland, beautiful Croatian region, a North Adriatic peninsula, particular for It's musical and dialectal tradition, which is the creative force of her works. She writes lyrics in a local dialect and sings in an ancient dialect which is not spoken any more - the Istriotic dialect.

In addition to here international concert activities, (numerous festivals, clubs, venues, more then 500 concerts all over the world) and many collaborations, she composes music for theatre and film, and for here work she received many awards.

Her international Transhistria Ensemble incorporates elements of Istrian and Mediterranean national music, jazz, and many elements of modern music, and her music, completely original and autochthonous, goes beyond time and geographical boundaries, thus becoming a universal artistic message, establishing Tamara Obrovac as an exceptional artist who managed to create her own unique musical expression.

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, an artist of a strong persona, a life and artistic force able to enchant any audience...

As she said: "jazz is my freedom, and my roots are my inner truth..."

She published 12 Author CDs: Triade, 1996; Ulika, 1998; Transhistria, 2001; Sve pasiva/Everything fades away, 2003; Daleko je/Is faraway, 2005; Neću više jazz kantati/I won’t sing jazz any more, 2009, featuring her new band “Transhistria electric” with a fresh fusion of Istrian ethno and funky and soul music; and "Madirosa", 2011, in collaboration with the Epoque String Quartet from Prague.

CD “Ulika revival” with her quartet, that had successful showcase on Jazz-ahead Bremen 2013, (Unit records, Switzerland, June 2014) got very good international reviews including All About Jazz, Jazzthetik, Jazz Podium, Jazzthing, Kulturtipp, Jazz'nmore, Jazz convention, etc.

CD “Canto amoroso” with her main band Transhistria ensemble, registered at Artesuno studio in Italy is published, in 2016 for Austrian label Alessa records.

Live at ZKM is Tamara's first (double) live album recorded on the concert of her Transhistria ensemble in Zagreb Youth theatre at the and of 2016, and published for Cantus, Croatian composers society label in 2018. The CD TransAdriaticum was published in 2019 for Austrian Alessa records with the new formation of musicians, featuring Stefano Battaglia on piano, and Salvatore Maiore on double bass, and latest CD Villa Idola is published in 2020 for Croatian label Aquarius records, and is a collaboration of her Transhistria ensemble and Croatian Radio television Jazz orchestra, with new arrangements of selected Tamara's songs. Through her albums, Tamara profiles her own authorial approach and creates a unique artistic form which, inspired by the Istrian and broader Mediterranean tradition, establishes “the personal poetics of the author”.

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4
In Pictures

Tamara Obrovac Trans Adriatic quartet in Tolmin, Slovenia

Read "Tamara Obrovac Trans Adriatic quartet in Tolmin, Slovenia" reviewed by Ziga Koritnik


A collection of photos from the Tamara Obrovac Trans Adriatic Quartet concert at Kinogledalisce in Tolmin on April 16, 2022 featuring Tamara Obrovac, Salvatore Maoire, Stefano Battaglia and Kruno Levacic. ...

4
Album Review

Tamara Obrovac: TransAdriaticum

Read "TransAdriaticum" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


La croata Tamara Obrovac è una cantante e compositrice dedita da anni alla trasposizione della tradizione della natia Istria nel mondo del jazz, cosa che ha realizzato in molteplici progetti e album con organici diversi. In questo suo ultimo lavoro è alla testa di una formazione denominata TransAdriatic Quartet della quale, oltre al connazionale e antico collaboratore Kunoslav Levačić alla batteria, fanno parte gli italiani Stefano Battaglia al pianoforte e Salvatore Maiore al contrabbasso. Il programma del disco ...

8
Album Review

Tamara Obrovac Transhistria Ensemble: live@ZKM

Read "live@ZKM" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


In November 2016, in celebration of her 20-year recording career, Tamara Obrovac took to the stage of the Zagreb Youth Theatre with the Transhistria Ensemble. In front of a sold-out crowd, the Croatian singer and composer performed a concert recorded as live@ZKM. The two-disc set features 11 of Obrovac's compositions, written alone and in collaborations, taken from her back-catalog of nine albums, all performed with passion and style by the singer and her fellow musicians. Obrovac describes her ...

30
Album Review

Tamara Obrovac: Ulika Revival

Read "Ulika Revival" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


In 1998 singer and songwriter Tamara Obrovac, from Istria in Croatia, released Ulika (CBS), an album dedicated to her grandmother. Ulika Revival revisits a dozen songs from that album, presenting new renditions informed by the 15 or 16 years that lie between the two releases. The revival is a great success, a masterly collection of strikingly affecting songs. In a global marketplace dominated by one or two languages it's refreshing to hear a singer who remains faithful to ...

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78

Video / DVD

New Song / Video Within the Multimedia Project Panphonia Istriana/Istrian Polysounds

New Song / Video Within the Multimedia Project Panphonia Istriana/Istrian Polysounds

Source: Michael Ricci

Within the culturological multimedia project aimed at the revitalization of the dialectal and musical heritage of Istria, PANPHONIA ISTRIANA/ISTRIAN POLYSOUNDS, Tamara and transhistria ensemble put to music the poem “Se me ra morta privari," on Vlaski/Zejanski dialect, by Silvana Brkaric Krculic. The 2nd DVD dedicated to this dialect will be released soon! The visual identity of the project is in the hands of Matija Debeljuh, director and visual artist, creator and art director is Tamara Obrovac. ...listen the sound of ...

CD "TransAdriaticum" album review / Blogfoolk.com (IT)
"A charming and profound record, also remarkable for the quality of the production and a distinguished sound: a work that stirs an undeniable interest for handwriting and interpretation, thanks to the first-rate instrumentalists and the intense sensitivity of the vocalist."
Ciro De Rosa, Blogfoolk.com, November 2019 (IT)
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Tamara Obrovac TransAdriatic quartet at Trondheim Jazzfest, May 10, 2019
"Tamara Obrovac - a new and exciting acquaintance" ...with her fine trio, she gave us a supplement of something we didn't know we needed."
Tor Hammerø / torhammero.blogg.no, May 11, 2019
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Tamara Obrovac quartet - Jazz au Chellah, Rabat Morocco concert review
"She is an audience-captivating phenomenon. With her trio she brought a different kind of energy and soon had the crowd pleading for more. Obrovac has a phenomenal stylistic range and has the temerity to want to take her trio into any number of moods."
Sebastian Scotney / London Jazz news, September 2013. UK ____________________________________________________________
Tamara Obrovac quartet - Jazzahead Bremen showcase 2013.
"I was most impressed by Tamara Obrovac's performance at the Jazzahead showcase. Tamara draws on the folk traditions of Istria but puts them in the context of a jazz trio and the resulting music is a very original and attractive blend of jazz and traditional music."
Tony Duddley Evans, April 2013, Jazzahead jury member Artistic Adviser to Jazzlines Birmingham and Cheltenham Jazz Festival.
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Tamara Obrovac transhistria ensemble & epoque quartet concert / Valamar Jazz Festival 2011.
"With her brilliant performance in the Euphrasian Basilica in the historic old city of Poreč, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, she has presented the best of the Mediterranean; the melancholy of fado, the lightness of tarantella and the lyrics in Croatian have melted with the fury of the accordion player Fausto Beccalossi so organically that the following concert of Richard Galliano Piazzolla Forever Septet seemed nothing but perfectly boring."
Josef Engels, Jazzthing, September 2011. ____________________________________________________________
Jazzarela international jazz festival Zagreb
"Tamara Obrovac has long shed all strict genre "drawers". Her exciting voice spreads with volcanic energy throughout the whole universe of music"
D. Derk, Večernji list, daily paper April 14, 2008 ____________________________________________________________
Second evening of the International festival of modern music, INTERZON 2004, marked by Tamara Obrovac & Transhistria Ensemble
"As it could have been expected, the epithet of the main attraction of the evening, and perhaps of the whole festival as well, pertained to Tamara Obrovac & Transhistria Ensemble. Dynamic and melodious. Loud as much as gentle, warm and sophisticated. Not pathetic whatsoever. Occasionally ferocious but not aggressive. Workmanship of the band members, their attractive solo jaunts and, among all, vast vocal capacity of Tamara Obrovac, her charm and untrammelled, honest, facetious and seductive performance, will be memorized for a long time."
D. Domanovic, Gradjanski, Novi Sad, May 25th 2004.", Serbia

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Villa Idola

Aquarius Records
2020

buy

TransAdriaticum

Alessa Records Jazz & Art
2019

buy

Live@ZKM

Cantus
2018

buy

Drevored dejanj

Club2 Records
2018

buy

Canto amoroso

Alessa Records Jazz & Art
2016

buy

Ulika Revival

Unit Records
2014

buy

Videos

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