Ton's Musical Musings: Chance meeting at Womex

Womex isn't just a tradefair with showcases, it's also a meeting point for people from all over the globe who are involved with world music. And it's not just booking agents, festival programmers and label owners attending the fair, but also quite a few artists. If you're lucky, you can run into a musician you've been eager to meet for many years.

This year I had the great fortune to talk to a singer whom I've admired ever since I heard Aloukie, her first international release, in 2002. Zulya Kamalova hails from the former Soviet Union but has been living in Australia for many years now. Her work is firmly rooted in the tradition of her ancestors, the legendary Tatars.

Despite its rather corny cover art - depicting Zulya in folkloristic dress - the album turned out nothing short of a revelation: meticulously crafted songs, gorgeously arranged, that bear little resemblance to most traditional music coming from former Soviet territories. Her "small" yet delicate voice gives the songs a wonderful feeling of intimacy. After singing exclusively in her two native tongues

posted by Ton Maas on 11/10/2007 10:04 am | COMMENTS (2)
Comments (2)

Hi Paul, Glad to hear you like her. Her singing has indeed become more jazzy with each subsequent album, culminating in "3 Nights", her latest offering. She told me that having a permanent backing band, as is the case since she recorded "The Walz of Emptiness", enables her to be more "loose"

posted by tonmaas on 12/ 6/2007 10:27 am

Thanks Ton. I'm listening to her music right now, and at to my ears, her vocals have a distinctly jazzy sound to them.

posted by PaulSmith on 11/12/2007 6:25 pm

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