Mzaza / Paris Dreaming
Parliment of Birds CD Launch -The Press Club
Author: Lisa Lamb
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If you ever feel you are in the wrong country, listen to Mzaza and you will know you are. This six-piece Brisbane group combines sounds from East & West with ease and sensuality. Vocalist Pauline Maudy is stunning in a black cocktail dress with feathers, and birds in her hair. She is outrageous, yet reserved and very, very classy. Singing in French, Spanish and Arabic with ease and her voice is like liquid amber. In the intimate setting of The Press Club, you could easily be transported to Paris or Marseille. This is world music at its finest! |
Mzaza have a unique style and incredible passion which echos through the the transfixed audience. The diverse rythem section features the superb Greta Kelly on Violin and Kemanche (a fiddle with Persian /Turkish origins), Bill Anderson on woodwind, Miranda Deutsch on guitar, Jordan Stamos on percussion and seventeen year old Stephen Cuttriss whose musical talents were so vast he managed to make the accordian sound cool.
Mzaza are like a classically trained gypsy band, singing songs that are passed on through cultures and generations from Edith Piaf to Bulgarian folk ballads. Pauline has sung everything from jazz, rock, funk to house/electro and even performed along side burlesque artists at the Mad Hatters Ball, with the voice of an angel and the soul of a devil girl, she is truely enchanting.
Paris Dreaming is a two piece troupe featuring Ewan McKenzie, regarded as one of Australia’s premier Gypsy Jazz guitarists and Kay Sullivan, who is like a mischievous pixie on accordian, moving through the crowd like a street performer, before setting on stage to a powerful version of La Vie en Rose (life through rose-coloured glass) by Edith Piaf. Playing tunes ranging from the Belle Epoque to American swing ballads and self penned compositions with a gypsy style, they are romantic and delightful.
Mzaza Gigs:
Apr 30 2009 7:00P The Muddy Farmer/Madass Folk Club Brisbane, Queensland
May 3 2009 7:00P Woodford Tree Planting Festival Woodford, Queensland
Jun 5 2009 4:30P Greenfest Brisbane, Queensland
Jun 7 2009 11:30A Queen St Mall Brisbane, Queensland