 Natalia
Nazarova
|
|||
|
Natalia was born and raised near Ramenskoe, Russia. This area is a one hour train ride from Moscow. While growing up, she participated in the usual activities of family life, singing, and school. Natalia's parents were both well educated. Her father received numerous honors as an engineer in aeronautics and aviation. Her mother was a manager in a business office. As a teenager, Natalia played and performed in neighborhood activities with her sister. Natalia was always very active and played volleyball, tennis, and even climbed neighborhood trees. After what Americans call high school, Natalia applied and was accepted at the Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts. Her acceptance at this school at this time was a high honor for a Russian woman from outside Moscow and she celebrated that acceptance with her family. Since entering the academy, Natalia has participated in a wide variety of the performing arts in Russia, Italy, and America. Her professional resume, as you can see, gives an overview of her activities. Please feel free to email her with any questions or thoughts you have. Natalia Nazarova is a Russian Actress/Singer living and performing in Moscow. Her work in Russian films and theatre has caused the Moscow press to refer to Natalia as the "Russian Julia Roberts." Natalia Nazarova's exciting American Singing debut is set gem-like in the compositions and arrangements of Chicago virtuoso trumpeter Orbert Davis and his producer Mark Ingram. After the briefest of musical introductions, they fashioned a series of hip settings to highlight the pure toned playfulness of Nazarova's classically trained singing. A singer prays for days like this. "A lot of this music Natalia's never experienced," says producer Mark Ingram of the blues, improvisational jazz, Brazilian music, and romantic or catchy pop numbers he and Davis created for "Listen With Your Heart." The high production values of pop prevail on the intimate, acoustic music. "She's heard some of the styles, but she's never really experienced any of it." 1999 found this Russian actress in Chicago. With six years of vocal training preparing her to play opera roles such as Rossini's "Cinderella," Nazarova as a performer first encountered American forms and styles of music with this album. Rossini is among her favorite composers, while Cecilia Bartoli and Teresa Berganaca are among her favorite operatic voices. Nazarova's singing education melded the child-like playfulness in her upper register with the adult low tones of her voice from earth mezzo-soprano. Vocal tuition from Maria Ganeshina at the Russian Academy of the Theatrical Arts in Moscow was part of an intensive larger curriculum including the psychology of the arts and acting. She is all of that. And more. For instance Nazarova's sense of the
absurd is piqued recalling Stanislovski's attempts to change the dramatic
conventions of opera singers. As a comic/tragic actress she seems ready to
play anything in musical theater. Coming to America in 1998 and appearing
in the independent film "Postmark Paradise" alongside Tantoo
Cardinal led Nazarova to these wonderful Chicago musicians.
With the ensemble expression of theatre as familiar to Nazarova as punching the clock is to most of us, and film debut in the can, her attention turns to what she considers the more direct form of personal expression, music. Because it affords the voice most room to maneuver in her three and a half octave range, "Don't Misunderstand," the classic sounding romantic ballad treated to full string orchestra, is one of the singers favorite performances. By letting out her range she can open the dynamic level where the volume of her dramatic training kicks in. "Russians like anything expressive: loud," she laughs. "Brazilian music is popular in Russia, too," says Natalia, "because of the similarities in their energy." Hear "No Limit." The fast samba lights a fire under Orbert Davis who blows his freest lines on the album. Nazarova's unique vocal timbre is produced with the type of breath control that challenges phrase lengths. Music sounds easy from the way she moves sound around her instrument creating this exacting harmonic interpretation. Yet for the clearest indication of Nazarova's expressive range and familiarity with music put on "Embroidered Roosters." Her emotions and attitude influenced Orbert Davis' arrangement. The classic form of traditional Russian folk music is treated to voice with strings, and virtuoso Pat Ferreri, the number one session guitar player in Chicago. Natalia's music is at its most natural and alive with the intuitive nuances of the Russian language. The full color of her voice and the appropriateness of her precise articulation flow with a comfortable pace. Ingram says for the sessions in English, Nazarova's acting ability kicked in. Ingram and Davis' directions such as 'sound sassy,' 'hip here,' 'real blues,' or 'sad here,' made that stuff happen. Says Ingram, "Other than that it would have been really, really difficult to do." Nazarova asks if you've heard of people learning English by singing American songs? Well, she's another one of them. "The fact that she's such a great actress," says the accomplished trumpeter Davis, whose close musical allies in Chicago give this recording its luster and musical brilliance, "I mean, she just went right into character and made it really easy. Her personality was so much fun we spent a lot of time laughing. It never got tense." Ingram acknowledges the breadth of Nazarova's talent when he points out she's a musician with a great ear that probably has perfect pitch. Those gifts were well served by the musicianship of Davis' collaborators. "These are people that I work with in my groups, and even the string section and I work together a lot. So we were able to conserve much time bringing the music to a performance level even though they were sight reading for the first time." The musicians Davis gathered in the studio shine on the thoroughly conceived bossa nova "Come Back To Me." From the group vocalists' interpretation of the falling staccato unison part, to guitarist Bill Rupert's chops-filled solos casing the melodic line, we hear great playing. The guitar/voice/percussion textures over an insistent bass part create a surging feel. Natalia's edging towards the top of her range in the second chorus and coda give the performance a musical playfulness that pervades much of the album. "Winds of Life" sounds like a jazz standard in a swing groove. Nazarova's breathy performance and Russian scat syllables, Davis' time play, laying his phrases ahead of or behind the beat underlining his bold trumpet chops, and pianist Ryan Cohans' improvisation all add up to straight ahead jazz. Nazarova in top hat, black vest, tights, sitting on a chair in the spotlight, then rising to dance a soft shoe while singing the cabaret inflected "Surely We Are Falling In Love" comes to mind as one listens to it's insinuating vibe. Davis employs a cup mute for musical effect. Nazarova's comic personality shines through the number, an original in the classic American songbook tradition. Bassist Marlene Rosenberg brilliantly supports and creatively improvises around the comedy of an opera trained singer giving us her version of the "you done me wrong blues" in "Simple Lies." Davis' pungent, plangent and secure trumpet builds tension and emotion through controlled expressiveness. During the coda, the Nazarova characters resolve melts away in the face of Davis' trumpet humor. They end on the same comic wavelength. On "Don't Understand," the way Davis focuses his flugelhorn on the song's mood by stashing his chops in the service of beauty pushes force just below the surface of his part, emotion held back out of a need to create dramatic tension. That and the rich but minimal accompaniment, which leaves the singer exposed and vulnerable, builds lovely romantic tension in this moving performance. In addition to the Brazilian, Russian, and jazz inflected pieces, there are numbers such as "I Got Wings," "I Believe in Love," and, especially, "Listen With Your Heart" that have pop aspirations. "Listen With Your Heart" also serves as the album's epilogue to the English selections. With the solemnity of the Samuel Barber-type strings creating a vast musical landscape filled with Earth tones of electric bass and shooting stars of guitar synthesizer in panoramic slow motion, the music evokes the vastness of the Russian countryside. Nazarova's performance viewed as a love letter home to her personal Russia creates emotional nuances on this debut recording which are hard to deny. As evidenced by this wonderful, intimate release it will be the Artist who shows us the way toward world harmony in the next millennium. Chicago area trumpeter/composer Orbert Davis, Chicago producer/songwriter Mark Ingram and the Moscow born dramatic actress Natalia Nazarova found the song of artist understanding in expressing the human condition that pulled them together. Let them draw you in. Lazaro Vega is jazz director at Blue Lake Public Radio, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Twin Lake, Michigan.
RESUME
|
