brizani

TRAVELING

?It is very seldom that a solo project performed by someone well known in rock and jazz scene comes on the domestic musical market. Recently released album Traveling (label Megaton) by Traja Brizani, bass player, composer, arranger, teacher and leader of the group Amadeus is exactly that kind of an album. Although he is an active musician in Slovenia for almost two decades and appreciated among other musicians, Traja is still not well known to the masses. His sense for the composition and especially virtuosic playing is placing him among best Slovenian musicians. Apart from performing with the band Amadeus Traja Brizani collaborated with numerous? jazz ensambles and in recording sessions.

INTERVIEW by Heather Henderson for www.beat-a-go-go.com

Can you tell me a little bit about your background?

Now, I am a member of the group Amala, and I support my boss Traja Brizani in the music we play. But before I met him, I studied saxophone in Zagreb at the classical music academy.

Classical music?

Yes, classical music. I started to study when Yugoslavia still existed. And there wasn't any jazz academy, high school for jazz, or anything in Yugoslavia. Before I went to the academy, I heard a lot of pop, pop/rock, and some jazz groups, so I was looking to meet some people to play that kind of music in Zagreb. I was very lucky - I met one of the best of these Croatian musicians. I played four years with the same rhythm section. They really were funky, you know, they were a really good group.

You had a band?

We had a band, we usually played covers - some rock songs, or Latin - and put them into funky style. We played every Thursday in one club. In this club, young musicians were coming and they were listening to us, and there were about 20 drummers watching us and learning... they came for every instrument, but I think the drummer was the most respected. One of the greatest, for me, one of the best singers from Croatia, Dino Dvornik, came also, and he was looking for a group to support him in concert. So he chose us, and we did some live recordings with him, which is a legend in live performance in Croatia. After my studies, I moved back to Slovenia and I couldn't find what to do. I couldn't find the right people.

Then Traja called me to do some horns in his pop band, Amadeus. We had a concert. In this group I found some interesting musicians, and also part of the music was good, and had a good groove. But it was made in straight pop and I didn't like that very much. It was original stuff, but it was made for commercial popular music. But Traja and his brother, who was the drummer, and also one guitar player, they were something more. They were better musicians, they could do some other things, not just this pop stuff. They were all gypsy musicians, Roms, who came from other parts of Yugoslavia and stayed here in Slovenia. They needed to exist here, and to bring some food home they had to play commercial music. But I wasn't in the same position, because I was playing here in the RTV Big Band. I wanted them to play music that they could really feel, not that they should do. And it took, I think, maybe a year and a half before they got relaxed about this idea. They were thinking, if they played gypsy music in Slovenia, there could be some problems with this. Do they want to be gypsy musicians, or to be Slovenians? So they were something in between. They knew how to play mainstream jazz, Latin pop - and also they can play polkas and other Slovenian stuff.

Traja was just playing bass, you know. He was a bass player, not a singer. But for me, he is one of the best singers in Slovenia that you can find. I suggested to him to start with his roots. If he sings in English or in Slovene, then it doesn't sound very good. If he sings in English, it's maybe OK for Slovenia, but it's not OK to present this somewhere outside. But the gypsy language is very melodic. Every word you say in gypsy sounds much better than in Slovene. He can express himself like a singer. So we started like this. I think at the same time he was thinking about his own roots. He started to listen and to find some notes, some traditional songs, and he made some arrangements of traditional songs. Besides that, he made some original compositions too. In Romish? Yes. In these rhythms and also harmonies. But at that time I didn't feel really, you know, prepared to play this kind of music, because it's a bit different. And maybe I was a bit afraid, also - the colleagues can say something - "what do you play?" Because also - I can't say it's nationalism exactly - but Slovenians are more oriented toward Europe, and we had a lot of Balkan people in Slovenia, and there were people who reacted like they felt they were, you know, something higher. But I don't think this way... Also, Traja couldn't find the musicians for this music, his own gypsy musicians.

Is this "Suita Romani", that we were listening to before?

Yes. It means "little Romani suite". And it goes from India to Spain to Balkan gypsy music. But it's not published yet. Our plans are to record this with a really big orchestra. Right now we are preparing everything to be what it should be, professional. So I don't know. We will see. We need a lot of practice, it will be hard to get all of these people, and also we're a bit afraid of the recording, what will happen with the technical aspect. But I would like to do this well, because I think that it would be a shame to throw away this kind of music.

What is Traja's musical background?

They were gypsies from Kosovo. His father was what I would call an advanced Rom. I don't really know how he became this, but he was one of the ones who didn't just play traditional music, he also played trumpet and he was very talented for music. So if he listened to, let's say, Ray Charles, or other soul singers, he could really play the music like they did - not translating the music into the Romish style. He organized a lot of small groups in Kosovo and they played some soul and also jazz music. He was also an arranger and a conductor of the Prstina jazz big band. So Traja grew up in this kind of music. He really knows all the best soul and R&B songs - Stevie Wonder, that kind - also mainstream jazz and other stuff. He's very well-informed in the pop and jazz world. In his playing you can hear the influences of Weather Report, Jaco Pastorius, the Yellowjackets... His brother was a drummer who studied percussion at the academy. He finished the academy also. They really played everything, from pop to punk to mainstream jazz. Before he came to Ljubljana, Traja says he really didn't listen much to this really traditional gypsy stuff. He was like we are. So he played with all the great jazz names in Slovenia, the people who are legends today.

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ABOUT TRAJA BRIZANI AND HIS WORK

Concert album - retrospective concert ( 20th anniversary of work) of one of our best electric bass players reconfirmed his amazing ability and musical sensibility. Work, that not only demands a broad composition and music skill but also great organizing capabilities. As a composer, arranger, teacher and great jazz player, he earned his reputation among fellow musicians and music funs. He is also known as a leader of groups, such as Amadeus, Brizani Project & Latino Messangers and Amala, which all contribute a great deal to music diversity in Slovenia. With deep faith in his musical expresion, and with a professional team of musicians, he has brought to us a visionary project. Rich and colourful instrumentation and fusion of different styles are just the right choice to satisfy one?s apetite for good music.

Taken from the revue by MatjaZ AmbroZiC 8.12.2000