Zdenka Kovacicek, Big Band Hrt-A - Jazz Portrait (2009)

Last year, Zdenka Kovačiček celebrated fifty years of artistic activity with a concert with the HRT Big Band, the theater play S ljubavlju, Janis and a CD from Croatia Records from the Golden Collection series, and her new discography is already before us. The singer was embraced by fans of rock and jazz, blues and soul, she was a participant in pop music festivals, theater performances, and the circle of her collaborators is huge (ensemble, composers, songwriters), not only in the country, but also abroad. She often emphasized: "Rock is my life, jazz is my passion, and theater is my great love". With her new album, the tireless Zdenka wants to show her passion for the music she grew up on and which determined her interpretation. The CD contains fifteen compositions of different moods that chronologically represent her jazz work. The first four songs are interesting, the anthological Get ready (Budi spreman, translated by Miša Doležal) and All of Me (Moj svijet se ruši, translated by Vesna Lukatela) from the repertoire of Ella Fitzgerald, Zdenka's singing role model, as well as two of our authors - Ja ubrat ću sve zvijezda by Zlatko Dvoržak and the cult Zbog jedne davne melodie by Miljenko Prohaska and Drago Britvić (Opatija '70). They marked the seventies and the beginning of Zdenka's career.
This is followed by interpretations of standards that confirm her interest in ballads (The Shadow of Your Smile, Misty, Autumn Leaves, What a Difference a Day Makes, all in atmospheric arrangements by Silvij Glojnarić) and the rhythmic Makin' Whopee! and How High the Moon in effective arrangements by Ladislav Fidri. There are also evergreens such as The Way We Were and The Greatest Love of All in which Zdenka Kovačiček gives a completely new jazz approach. Musical maturity is also confirmed by Natural Woman, Summertime and Sweet Georgia Brown, a composition that fully confirms the peak of interpretative liberation, which naturally fits into the striking sound of the HRT Big Band.
On the inside of the envelope are texts by several generations of jazz connoisseurs, from Davor Hrvoje to Mladen Mazur and Dražen Vrdoljak, confirming that, in addition to her international reputation, Zdenka Kovačiček proves not only the personality of musical and stage creativity (in the theater), but also the claim of "a voice for all times", primarily due to her indestructible and unique sense for interpreting and upgrading the written musical template.
(Taken from the newspaper Cantus, No. 162, May 2010.)