Helen Tzatzimakis (voice); Stelios
Chatzikaleas (trumpet); Manos Athanasiadis (piano, arrangements);
Antonis Arvanitis (bass)
(Review
by Ann Alex).
Ms Tzatzimakis is currently studying for a
doctorate in Modern Greek Literature and she is a linguist and poet. She has won prizes for her singing and her
voice has an extensive range with many tonal colours, sweet, pleasantly nasal,
deep, or light and gentle.
This is her
second CD, which includes jazz standards and songs from Greece and other
countries. The piano is especially
skilled and the trumpet and bass do their stuff well. I found that I preferred some tracks more
than others, as the Greek songs in particular are sung in a rather over-dramatic
cabaret style, but maybe that is the way such songs are meant to be done. Nearly every song on the CD is very slow
except for Youkali, a tango
(Fernay/Weill) and I longed for a bit more variety of speed. I don’t think soulful, sad songs always need
to be slow.
Having said all that, such tracks as Crazy (the well known country song); Ne Me Quittes Pas; Don’t Explain and Youkali were all enjoyable. The Marianne Faithful song So Sad used electronic effects lavishly,
which some listeners would find a bit much.
The Greek song Ederlezi had an
interesting middle Eastern feel with an echo effect.
The CD was issued on the Cobalt Music
label on March 3, 2015.
Ann
Alex.
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