"Melanie
sings with passion an heart …. listen and enjoy!!" -
Steve Kuhn
"Melanie
Bong`s songs are as original as her tuneful name, and I´m
sure you will
get
as much pleasure out of her music as I do …. musical beauty
flows in and out of this lovely persona … writes Mark Murphy
of Melanie Bong`s debut album >Fantásia<. It is the
first album of the female singer, song writer, arrangeur and
leader under her
own name.
The
first idea to >Fantasia< came from the Austrian poet
Josef Singer. Inspired by his poems as well as by composers as
Ivan Lins, Joyce or Djavan she wrote numerous
compositions.
Twelve of them can be found on >Fantaasia<. Eight of
them are based
on
Singer`s poems, the other four texts are written by Melanie.
The
music is streaked with Brazil rhythms, jazz and pop elements
and the lyrical
metaphors
of Singer`s poems. The musicians enjoy much freedom for solo
play and
use
it to add personal colours to the music that provides
liveliness or inspires dreams. And always you hear the
influence of Sheila Jordan on Melanie Bong`s
singing.
This album´s music is a fusion of jazz, pop and Brazil,
carried by expressive ballads full of atmosphere.
"Melanie
Bong - her singing teacher was Sheila Jordan - is one of the
few big vocal
talents
of the German jazz scene. She has a technically brilliant
voice, a good look
at Brazilian music and she knows how to present it on a live
stage" (Jazzclub Unter- fahrt Munich).
Melanie
Bong
studied
under Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Andy Bey, Jay Clayton, Fritz
Pauer und Adelhard Roidinger at the College Of Music And
Performing Arts. She attended workshops with Ray Brown, Horace
Parlan, Art Farmer, Wynton Marsalis, Marilyn Crispell, Barry
Harris and the singers R. A. Ramamani, Gretje Bijma, Maria
Joao and Tanja Maria. Completion of studies with diploma and
Master Of Arts. Various study visits in New York. Teacher for
jazz singing and ensemble at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz
from January 1997 to autumn 1999, and numerous workshops and
courses at home and abroad, for example at the Innsbruck
Conservatory.
Work
with Alan Praskin, David Friesen, Nikolas Simion, Bob
Lanese, Paulo Cardoso, Wayne Darling, Maximilian Geller,
Johannes Enders, Peter Tuscher, Achim Tang, Tizian Jost,
Walter Lang.
Festivals
in Innsbruck, Al Mutawaset (Israel), Laibach, Maribor,
Belgrad, Braunschweig, Bremerhaven, Hamburg
and
München.
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