Members
Bettina Steingass - Lead Vocals
Roland Grosch - Piano
Supported live by:
Carlos Serrano del Rio - Percussion
Martelle - Guitar
All Jazzamor songs composed and produced by Bettina Steingass and Roland Grosch
Genre
BOSSA NOVA ELECTRO-POP,
JAZZ TRIP-HOP
UNMISTAKABLE VOICE, MINIMAL ARRANGEMENTS, FRAGILE SOUNDS, GENTLE MELODIES, LYRICS WITH AN EDGE.
“Its hard to pinpoint any single musician of any genre - I grew up surrounded by music of all kinds - I guess it’s easier to say that I’m influenced by all musicians” - Jedd Strummer
History
In 2001 Bettina Mischke and Roland Grosch started their project Jazzamor. Influenced by the Bossa-Nova and Latin-Jazz of the 60s they developed their own style with Bettina’s voice making it unmistakeable.
The arrangements are playful yet minimalistic with great care for detail. Electronic sounds blend with double bass and latino percussions. Melancholic piano aires invoke a blue mood with Bettina’s alluring soft voice giving it all a distinct color.
Since the beginning they recorded six albums (see discography) while their style evolved further. In the first years experimenting with sounds was important but they are more conscious again of their jazz roots recently. Arrangements are more concentrated on classic instruments and soloists get more room – but the search for new soundscapes is ever present. With all this both artists never loose the skill for telling playfully nostalgic stories in the typical jazzamor style.
In the beginning Jazzamor was a pure studio project but with their first life concert they began playing all over Europe and in Asia. Maybe the Jazzamor song „Travel…“ was like a mission statement for their music.
Where ever – in a cafe in Brazil, in a bar in Mosque or in a lounge in Singapore – their songs are on a journey around the world.
After a five year break the songwriting duo Jazzamor publishes a new album. Seven new songs, two cover versions and four newly mastered songs from recent EPs.
The songs are a diverse mix of arrangements with Bettina’s voice sometimes pure sometimes distorted like in a radio jazz-show from the thirties. The piano arrangements complete the song in a typical jazzamoric way. Structured all by drum sounds both straight electronic or mixed with typical jazz drums from the past. All songs presented in down-to-earth compositions with a tribute to the musical beginnings of Jazzamor while at the same time outlined in contemporary twenty twenty-two style.
„Is it right or is it wrong“, a journey into the thirties. „From the edge of time“, a bow to the jazzy scat singing of the fifties and Jazzamor’s love for the Bossa Nova of the sixties. „For a while“, arranged with typical Brazilian samba ukulele sounds. „Aqua de beber“, a compliment to one of Jazzamor’s favourite songs from the sixties. In the beginning of Bettina’s and Roland’s musical journey this song was the most performed live-song. Now it comes in a more modern arrangement, slower and in a relaxed and laid-back mood. The title song, „Don’t let your angels go“, is inspired by a Rilke poem from The Duino Elegies. We ask what the meaning is of his words in present times. How do we read them today? Do we live our dreams - or are we dreaming our lives away in fake realities starving our dream angels to death? While we need our angels alive and well. They are creativity and future. Isn’t it that at last I am nothing without you my angel?! We are in it together and we are nothing without the freedom of the other.
