Moje ime je Kaja Draksler. Nekaj časa nazaj sem vam že pisala v zvezi z mojim projektom, nedavno pa sta se o njem pogovarjala z Romano Krajnčan. Povedala mi je, da ste zainteresirani, tako da vam ponovno pošiljam podatke o bendu:

glasbeniki:

George Dumitriu, kitara

Goran Krmac, tuba,

Kaja Draksler, klavir,

Kristijan Krajnčan, bobni.

gosta; Jure Pukl, saksofon,

Robert Jukič, bas
Glasba je v celoti moje avtorsko delo, stilistično se spogleduje z jazzom, vendar vključuje tudi ostale zvrsti: etno, new orleans, drum'n'bass,... glavni poudarek je seveda na spontani improvizaciji...

 Z zasedbo smo decembra lani posneli CD, ki bo poleti izšel pri založbi Goga. V okviru promocije projekta organiziram turnejo konec junija-začetek julija ter prva dva tedna avgusta.

  -  4 člani Maribor
  -  nastanek banda v letu 2000

  -  veliko koncertov v odigranih Sloveniji in tujini(češka,avstrija,nemčija)

  -  debitantni album Language of stolen music , 1 Oktobra 2005, ki je osnovan na melodičnemu punkrocku plus s kančkimi progresije

ZDA-Poletno delo v kampu in potepanje po vzhodni obali ZDA

Following in the footsteps of his musical mentor, Alpha Blondy, Tiken Jah Fakoly has established himself as one of the figureheads of the new reggae scene in Africa. Fusing his infectious reggae beat with hard-hitting lyrics, Tiken Jah has become a spokesperson for an entire generation of music fans, speaking out on political and social issues through his songs.

Tiken Jah Fakoly was born in 1968 in a village in the north-west of Ivory Coast into a family belonging to the griot caste. Tiken's music was successful and soon crossed national borders and spread to Europe. He was already a star in West Africa when he moved to Paris as a consequence of political trouble in his home country. Soon he was signed by Barclay (Universal Music) and his first album there (the sixth in Tiken Jah Fakoly’s career), Francafrique, made him win the title of Best World Artist at France’s 2003 Victoires de la Musique awards. Like the following album Coup de gueule it was produced in the legendary Tuff Gong studios in Jamaica. Both albums have sold over 100,000 copies each and propelled Tiken to currently be the best selling African Reggae artist. His new Album L’African is released in autumn 2007.

Tiken Jah Fakoly is not only a star in Africa and in France where he played more than 200 concerts since 1998, filling arenas during his 2005 Coup de gueule tour (and again in autumn 2007, with L’African).

He is becoming a star in Europe and America, too. In 2005 he performed as guest of Youssou N’Dour at the United Nations Organisation’s 60th anniversary concert in Geneva. At the world music tradefair Womex 05´ Tiken Jah demonstrated with an explosive performance why he is one of the most requested African and reggae-artists of the moment. His first international album was released a few months later. As a consequence, he performed at many important festivals (Roskilde, Couleur Café, Rototom Sunsplash, Sziget, Dour Festival, Summerjam, Chiemsee Reggae, Africa Festival Würzburg, Sunsplash Wiesen, Two77Splash Amsterdam, Stockholm Festival, …). By critics and audience, Tiken Jah Fakoly’s performance was considered to be among the best at most of these festivals. He has so much energy and power, an authentic musical jewel!

Khaled is without any doubt the best known raï -singer in the world. Venues are always packed to capacity, when this charming man celebrates the most emotive performance that you might have seen in your life. When he starts Didi or Aicha, he doesn´t need to sing – the audience does. His fans are the most loyal a musician can imagine – and truly love him. Innovating, brilliant, popular in his music - curious, open minded, non-dogmatic, sexy: Khaled is a phenomenon. He has been revolutionary to Arab music and invented the raï. His significance to the modern Arab culture, in North Africa and in Europe, is enormous.
Khaled started singing as a young guy in the 70’s. At that time there was popular wahrani an underground music, acoustic and heavily percussive, sweetened by the accordion. The music, as befitted its lyrics, was rough and ragged. But it was changing, and Khaled was part of the vanguard that altered raï forever. He was already a star among the Algerian youth when he moved to Paris in 1985. The career he developed there since then is really exceptional in world music. Khaled has witten worldwide hits and sold millions of records (and cassettes). N’ssi N’ssi, Sahra, Kenza … 1,2,3 soleil – these albums were a huge success since the early 90’s and songs like N’ssi N’ssi, Didi and Aicha conquered the pop charts all over the world.
His latest release, Ya Rayi, shows again his sensibility and force. Being more acoustic than the previous ones the album brings Khaled back to his roots of raï. At the same time it is modern, blends the Arab sounds with flamenco and other influences.
Khaled has toured a lot throughout Europe and lately also in the USA (where Santana went on stage to play with him) and demonstrated that he is a real magnet for the audience, His excellent band that remains the same for many years, supports his brilliant voice with a powerfull groove. Lately, as a consequence of Ya Rayi, Khaled played in theatres and classical music halls, his performances being more acoustic.

More than ever, Khaled is a herald of free spirit and of peaceful co-existance of cultures.

The New York Times describes Idan Raichel as the Middle Eastern Peter Gabriel because both share a similar multicultural musical approach and message of tolerance. The Idan Raichel Project has sold more than 250.000 copies of it’s first two al-bums and they will release their third CD in 2008. That year will also be the 60th anniversary of Is-rael’s independence, therefore a lot of media and events will focus on Israel’s music and decade with his project, Idan Raichel has become one of the most important Israeli musical phenomena of the last!
While recent headlines are dominated by news of conflict and war in the Middle East, this Israeli musical collective has achieved success by looking beyond intercultural differences and celebrating the value of diversity. With its blend of traditional Ethiopian folk music, Arabic poetry, Yemenite chants, Biblical psalms and Caribbean rhythms, The Idan Raichel Project has already taken Israel by storm with multiple number one hits and multiple platinum sales and already performed to sell-out crowds in prestigious venues all over the world in places such as Paris, Brussels, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore and many more.
With its multicultural influences and implicit messages of unity and respect for diversity, The Idan Raichel Project presented for the first time the new face of Israeli popular music. The moral of the fable is imbedded in its texts of love and faith, spun in ancient languages sung and spoken amidst the mystical ambiance of its exotic, otherworldly melodies.
In November 2006, the international CD release of The Idan Raichel Project by Cumbancha got very good reviews in media and press all over Europe. The next album will be out in 2008 and will count with many international guests that will join Idan Raichel in his new project. With a powerful live show, The Idan Raichel Project has inspire new audiences all over the globe and will tour in 2008 to present it’s new work to European audiences!

In Spain, where she grew up, Concha Buika is considered as the new star of flamenco music - an aspiring female singer whose voice is described as being a mixture of Tina Turner, Lora Flores and Sarah Vaughan. However, Buika is definitely noncommittal to one specific style of music. Moreover, she picked up the twofold influence of her origin. Being the child of African parents who immigrated to Spain as their political exile before her birth, she grew up on the island of Mallorca. In her family, music always played an important role. During her childhood in Spain, she also became acquainted with Gypsy families and spent parts of her free time with making music with them.
Her personal background has left its traces on Buika`s music, in which she combines elements of soul, hip hop, jazz, copla and flamenco. Hence, Buika is especially marveled at her ability to cope with every style of music.
After featuring several reputable deep house productions and bringing out her first solo CD “Buika” in 2005, now she is attracting attention for her music again: her current album “Mi Niña Lola” received the award for Best Produced Album at the Premios de la Musica, which can be considered as the Spanish equivalent to the Grammy awards. “Mi Niña Lola” is featured by an all-star line up, among them the Latin Jazz trumpeter Jerry Gonzales, the flamenco guitarist Niño Josele and the famous song writers Manuel Quiroga and his collaborators Salvador Valverde und Rafael de Léon. The album is produced by the Grammy winner and highly appreciated producer Javier Limón (Bebo Valdes/Diega El Cigala: Lagrimas Negras, Paco de Lucia and many others). The Spanish newspaper El Pais calls the album “a revolution”, the Sunday Times exults “a star is born.” The 88-year-old Chavela Vargas adopted Buika as her musical godchild and predicts a great future to her.
Buika is well-known for her extraordinary impressive live perfromances, full of energy and emotions. This reputation is also reflected in her remarkable concert history: in 2007, buika was on an extended tour all over the globe, alluring and fascinating music-lovers in the world's greatest cities. In fall 2007, she performed in several big cities in the USA and she is also looking back to a succeful tour in France. We hop to see her soon in Central, Northern and Eastern Europe! A new album will be released in April 2008

Kevin Johansen, the Argentinean singer songwriter born in Alaska, has once again snagged three Latin Grammy nominations ... for the third time in a row! This time for his latest album entitled "Logo", that he recorded with his band "The Nada", in the categories:

- Best Alternative Song "Anoche Soñé Contigo"

Kevin has been previously nominated for an American Grammy in 2005 for Best Latin Pop Album ("City Zen") and received 3 additional Latin Grammy nominations for "Album of the year", "Song of the Year" and "Best Video".

"Logo" (Kevin Johansen's 4th studio album) is an ironic twist on Naomi Klein's "No Logo", featuring special collaborations with Andrea Echeverri from Atercioplelados, Amparo Sanchez of Amparanoia and Paulinho Moska from Brazil, among many other international guests. In this new album, KEVIN explores various rhythms and elements of the Americas all handled with an "almost" pop sound. Kevin constantly surprises due to his eclecticism, bilingual lyrics and the subtlety of his songs. Because he cannot be defined into one specific style, he often likes to define himself both as "de-genre-ate" (or lacking specific genre) and a "Subtropicalista".

Kevin Johansen, son of Argentinean mother and American father, grew up in Alaska but he considers himself Argentinean as he discovered the country when he was twelve years old. However, he also lived in big cities such as San Francisco, New York and Montevideo. He lived in NY in the 90's where he founded his band "The Nada".

Johansen continues to surprise both Anglo and Latin audiences throughout the Americas and Europe. He's been touring Latin America, US & Spain (where his albums were released) but also UK, Germany, Belgium, among other European countries (the last tour was in 2006).

La Shica represents, even in Spain, a really new and fresh proposal that has already gained the respect of specialists and audience. Despite the young formation of this group, they have managed to impress with their charismatic Flamenco Fusion promoters and audiences everywhere they go! Normally her concerts finish with several encore and standing ovations. Formed only 3 years ago, they have already achieved to fusionate with an astonishing harmony, several sounds, grooves and riffs from different music styles as flamenco, Hip Hop, Reggae or Bossa Nova.

The body and soul of La Shica (in Spanish: the girl) is the charismatic lead singer Elsa. Elsa grew up in Ceuta (Spain) moving to Madrid as a teenager with a clear purpose: become an artist. And she did. She studied at the prestigious flamenco dance school Amor de Dios were she met and worked with some of the best like i.e. Manuel Reyes or Rafaela Carrasco. After her studies she attracted attention performing soon as soloist dancer in several tablaos flamencos and prestigious dancing companies.

Parallel to that she has been singing since the very beginning, then according to her own words “dancing and singing simply belong together”. Though you can hear the influence of  some of her singing teachers like i.e. Eliseo Parra and Rafael Jiménez “El Falo”, Elsa has her own way of understanding flamenco. And exactly this is what marks the identity of La Shica: accompanied on stage and supported by her two “palmeras” (Spanish flamenco expression for the back vocal singers and dancers who help with their hand clapping and singing to support the rhythm of the songs and to enliven the performance of their lead singer/dancer Elsa Rovayo), a very creative rhythm section (percussion and double bass) and the talented flamenco/Brazilian guitarist Fernando de la Rúa, Elsa achieves to capture the audiences with her grace and talent from the very first note, mixing the elegance and the intensity of traditional flamenco dance and rhythms with some modern beats and grooves of hip hop reflected symbolically in her short hair and her golden tapping shoes… . In October 2007 La Shica will have a Showcase at the WOMEX, and in the second quarter of 2008 she’ll release their new album on Warner Music. La Shica is different - Check her out!.

Mercan Dede, being an accomplished DJ, musician (Ney & drums) and producer, has performed with musical personalities such as Dhafer Youssef, Natacha Atlas, Omar Sosa, Susheela Raman, Transglobal Underground and many others.
The inspirational force behind the work of Mercan Dede is unique. When he takes the stage with his band, he hovers at the side behind his turntables and electronics. Along with the groups’ stunning performances and the group’s spectacular dervish dancers he is ever on the lookout for new collaborators, no matter which country or generation, to create universal language.
A profoundly spiritual individual, Dede found the traditional Sufi understanding of music as a means to uplift and harmonize the soul reflected in the rave/nightclub scenes of Europe and North America. He began spinning vinyl at the age of 23 under the name DJ Arkin Allen, often accompanied by musicians.
In his latest album Breath, Dede collaborates with great local and international musicians. By drawing inspiration from the core elements of the earth in his four part Anasir-I Erbaa series, Mercan Dede follows up his previous two releases Nar (Fire) and Su (Water) with Nefes (Breath) a musical exploration dedicated to the third element air.
Since his very successful showcase at Womex in 2002, in numerous renown festivals (of different types such as Montreux Jazz Festival, Ars Electronica and Stimmen Lörrach) over the years he has proven to be a master in communicating the intrinsic harmony of the universe through his music.
A Turkish newspaper referred to him as a "dervish for the modern world". As such he will continue to delight his audience including DJ-sets, visual arts as well as dance & theatre elements. A new album will be released in early 2008.