Friday 12 Jun 2009

19.00, Jazz Cafe, 5 Parkway, Camden, London NW1 7PG; Tel. 020 7485 6834
Tickets: £12 (if bought in advance).

Aura Urziceanu is one of Romania’s most prolific and popular female vocalists. She transcends jazz and pop, but it’s with the former she’ll be wowing the Jazz Cafe crowd at her exclusive London gig this June.
In 1972 she performed at the Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington at the prestigious Carnegie Hall. “Aura made as dramatic and sensational a Carnegie Hall debut as even the fevered mind of an old time Hollywood scriptwriter could imagine, dancing across notes way up high on the threshold of the limits of hearing, ending with a high note flourish that brought the packed house to its feet cheering. Duke Ellington rose to the occasion with one of the great performances of his career. The concert reached its climax with some astonishing vocal virtuosity by Aura”, said the New York Times Saturday Review at the time.

Following this, she toured Japan with Quincy Jones, recorded an album and toured with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis and shared the stage with the likes of Sarah Vaughn and Aretha Franklin.

Aura can rightly be considered a Romanian national treasure, and her early works have been sought after by a new generation of ‘crate diggers’ and music lovers alike, having recently been featured on the ‘Romanian Jazz’ compilation selected by Jazzanova.
Aura continues to tour internationally while also serving as one of the judges on the Romanian version of X Factor. Her long awaited Jazz Cafe appearance on 12 June is her first in London for twenty years, and is one not to be missed.

Details on www.jazzcafelive.com