A vibrant, colourful and inspiring evening at the prestigious Jazz Cafe in Camden Town, filled by Nicolas Simion's rhythms inspired by a diversity of musical experiences from Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia and Turkey. Nicolas Simion, saxes, is accompanied by Norbert Scholly, guitar (Germany); Sebastien Boisseau, bass (France); Lieven Venken, drums (Belgium).
The concert is organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute and opens a series of events that aim at presenting the best contemporary Romanian jazz in a number of selected clubs in Britain.
According to Simion, his musical inspiration came from personal life experiences - having children, meeting people, going to anniversaries and weddings, killing time at the village pub, or even watching a bear dancing. For him, the landscapes, the forest, the sea - everything - is part of the small universe that defines the musician as person and artist.
Nicolas Simion was born in a small village in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania. He decided to emigrate to Vienna in 1989, where he met both local and international jazz heroes including Art Farmer, Leo Wright, Idris Muhammad, Jim Pepper, Harry Sokal and Christian Muthspiel and, for the first time in his life, had the opportunity to play with them. His first CD under the name "Black Sea" was released in 1992. Since then he drew the attention of a growing audience with periodical releases. He is one of the most innovative musicians on today's scene. In 1995 he was awarded the "Koernerpreis" for a work commissioned by the Austrian Ministry of Culture. He's been living in Cologne since 1997.
"Like his models Béla Bartòk and George Enescu, he draws on the inexhaustible reservoir of his Transylvanian native country, without neglecting the connecting points to bebop and hardbop." Walter Schätzlein
When: Wed 24 November 2010; doors open 7pm, music from 9pm; Where: Jazz Cafe, 5 Parkway, Camden Town, London, NW17PG. Tickets: £10 from www.ticketmaster.co.uk or at the door. We have 30 pairs of exclusive tickets to give away and 40 free Transylvanian Jazz CDs to be signed after the concert. Please get in touch (t: 0207 752 0134 or office@icr-london.co.uk) if you want to attend.
