Aga Zaryan - Looking, Walking, Being (2010)

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Aga Zaryan - Looking, Walking, Being (2010)

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Aga Zaryan born January 17, 1976 - is an internationally recognized jazz
vocalist of the new generation. Aga conveys the finest of the history of
jazz to today's audiences, continuing the traditions of great artists like
Shirley Horn, Carmen McRae and Joni Mitchell. She is known for her
distinctive style, class and intimate approach to singing, with a
characteristic lightness of phrasing and warm, slightly matte-toned voice.
Aga Zaryan has been successful in integrating ambitious artistic goals with
popular appeal, recording four albums to date, all of which have earned
gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in Poland. In 2008 she was honored
with the Polish muisic industry's most prestigious prize - The Fryderyk
Chopin Award. She was nominated for the title of Woman of The Year 2008 by
Gazeta Wyborcza-Wysokie Obcasy, one of Poland's most influential and widely
circulated newspapers. Aga was also named Jazz Vocalist of The Year in the
European Jazz Forum Magazine's yearly Jazz Top readers' poll in 2007 and
2008. She has appeared in clubs and at festivals in Poland, England, the
USA, Germany, Israel, France, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Montenegro,
Bulgaria, Turkey, Portugal, Russia and Iceland. MUSICAL BEGINNINGS While
still in her teens, Aga developed a passion for music and theatre. After
hearing the music of Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis, Aga decided to become
a jazz vocalist. She studied voice at the Fryderyk Chopin Public Secondary
School of Music, and attended the Post-Secondary Jazz Studies Program
there, graduating with honors. Aga was awarded scholarships to attend
international Jazz workshops on two occasions: the Stanford Jazz Workshop
and Jazz Camp West, both in the United States, where she was able to
further develop her vocal skills. SOLO CAREER In 2002, Aga's debut album
"My Lullaby" Ц recorded with a group that included Tomasz Szukalski, Darek
Oleszkiewicz, Micha^(3) Tokaj and ?ukasz ?yta - was released. This
collection of jazz standards, sung with the backing of a jazz quartet in
original and personal interpretations, brought her critical acclaim as one
of PolandТs premier vocal talents. In 2006, Aga performed at the JVC Jazz
Festival in Warsaw, opening for Branford Marsalis, an occasion which
enabled her to introduce herself to a wider audience as a great performer
and sophisticated jazz vocalist. Since that time, Aga has appeared in clubs
and at festivals in Poland, England, the USA, Germany, Israel, the Czech
Republic, Sweden, France, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Turkey, Portugal, Russia
and Iceland. In 2006 the premiere of "Picking Up the Pieces" took place Ц
an album recorded in Los Angeles with a first-rate international line-up of
musicians: Larry Koonse (guitar), Munyungo Jackson (percussion), Nolan
Shaheed (cornet) and Darek Oleszkiewicz (double-bass). "Picking Up the
Pieces" is comprised of a set of eleven songs that tell the stories of
women, illustrating their life, emotional and spiritual situations. Thanks
to it's exceptionally intimate feel, the album was very well-recieved
critically and enjoyed great commercial success, becoming a Bestseller
which achieved platinum status. With the release of УPicking Up The
PiecesФ, Aga Zaryan established herself not only as one of Poland's
premiere jazz vocalists, but as an artist of international standing. In
early 2007, Aga travelled to the United States for a series of concerts
with her American line-up, appearing in prestigious jazz venues such as
Joe's Pub in New York City and Blues Alley in Washington D.C. The concerts
were enthusiastically received by the public, with critics across the ocean
taking notice of Aga's talent as well. "Beauty is Dying", recorded in the
summer of 2007, is Aga Zaryan's first album on which she sings in Polish.
On it she is backed by a jazz piano trio, enhanced by a 17-piece string
section with harp and oboe. The album contains nine works by Polish poets,
depicting scenes of Warsaw at the time of the '44 Uprising, selected and
sung by Aga to original music composed and arranged by pianist Micha^(3)
Tokaj. It has been described as lyrical and pulsing with emotion, the
delicate string section and laid-back jazz trio melding perfectly with
Zaryan's singing. A RIVER OF PEOPLE - A SEA OF LISTENERS. On August 4th of
that year, a one-of-a-kind concert took place at the Warsaw Uprising Museum
in Liberty Park, where Aga performed the material from УBeauty is DyingФ
with the full lineup of musicians who took part in its recording. The
concert was broadcast live on Polish Public TV and Radio, and attendance
was so high that traffic in the immediate vicinity of the venue was
gridlocked for hours, as a vast and steady river of people converged on the
park. The culmination of the event saw over seven thousand people listening
to Zaryan's performance in concentrated silence. The concert went down in
history as somewhat of a sociological phenomenon, in that the audience
spanned four generations, with first-hand witnesses to the events it
honored in attendance, as well as their great-grandchildren. "Beauty is
Dying" was followed with appearances in prestigious concert halls and
venues throughout Europe. Later in 2008, Zaryan was accorded the Polish
recording industry's highest honors - The Fryderyk Chopin Award - for
"Beauty is Dying", as the year's the Best Poetic Album. "LIVE AT PALLADIUM"
This double-CD/DVD album is a recording of one of the concerts that took
place at Warsaw's Palladium Club during Aga Zaryan's 2008 concert tour, on
which she was joined by musicians who flew in from Los Angeles for the
occasion. Aga opted for a somewhat atypical and rather delicate-sounding
combination of instruments for the project: guitar, double bass, and
percussion. The personel were guitarist Larry Koonse, bassist Darek
Oleszkiewicz, and Darryl Jackson on various percussion instruments. The
main body of the repertoire was comprised of songs from the albums УPicking
Up the PiecesФ and УMy LullabyФ, some of them with completely new
arrangements that took shape over the course of the tour. The recording is
recognized as having truly captured the exceptional mood of these concerts,
and highlights Aga's fluid ease in performance. Several of the pieces are
sung as duets, to the accompaniment of just double bass. Album was welcomed
as pure jazz, the essence of it. It was commercial success as well earning
triple platinum status!