This lady was born in Poland and classically trained on the flute in Katowice, studied jazz sax in Warsaw, and has since hit the Parisian scene with a bang.
To quote her press release:
"She participates in TV broadcastings in France & in Poland, as well as in several jazz, funk, pop & ethno projects such as Seal, Rido Bayonne, Dave Liebman, Michael Tee, Urban Sax, Mystery, Irena Santor, Olivier Renoir, Urbs as well as her own projects."
On the sax she is awesome. See for yourself:
It's as if she hired a a coked out publicist (or deranged stalker fan? or both?) who had her submit to a photo shoot themed "let's try to make this person look as fake as possible", which is unfortunate cause she seems quite pretty when not bimboified. Shrug, maybe it's a pop music thing that I simply don't get?
I suspect can even name the PR company responsible for the bleh horror that is her website. Shrug.
She has half a dozen excellent sax tracks on her myspace (if you're going to click somewhere, this is it!) that are well worth listening to for a smooth jazz sax experience.
She also supplements her income, as many musicians do, by giving lessons, except she gives hers online (I wonder why it isn't more common in music teaching world?). So if you are on the market for a sax teacher...
And then there is "her" (coked out publicist's or perhaps stalker's) website; in case you want to see for yourself if I'm just being mean or not. : j
I must be jaded. I didn't see it. Maybe it's because I'm used to watching the transformation of my niece, the drummer for Neon Trees. She had no choice but to go along with management when they signed with Mercury Records. They sunk more than a million dollars into promoting the band and it worked. They're on all the charts and now, most of what they make, they keep.
ReplyDeleteI listened to "God Bless the Child." I liked it a lot. She's very cool. The sound is great and sh'e beautiful.
Lovely. Makes me WANT to like sax again, although the overplay of Kenny G kinda killed it. I'll keep trying. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteHeya Kass!
ReplyDeleteAs I was posting, I had passing thought about your rockstar niece. : j
Perhaps it is a pop music thing... But then, does Anna Kei qualify as pop music?
Marketing one's image is a part of being professional performing artist of any stripe...
And as such, coordinating that image with the target audience makes business sense (but I'm not getting the impression that is what is happening here)... But what about being yourself? Well, that is one way to go... Banking on one's personality, for those that can (but I'm not getting the impression that is what is happening here either). Shrug, but this is all a tangent... I'll continue to appreciate musicians for their music, and I'll do my best not to be swayed either way by what they look like. : j
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Aloha Annie!
I actually didn't know much about Kenny G. His name cropped up as I was looking into Anna Kei... I looked him up and I heard some stuff that was very nice and some stuff that went into muzak territory... Shrug. If your burnt out on one kind of music, perhaps you could let it go fallow for a while? There is so much out there!
that just gave me an idea for my next post. : j
Oooh that video was great! I don't listen to much of the sax, but I always admire any musical talent (I have none) and it's awesome to see any instrument being played so well.
ReplyDeleteI can't get over your discription of her pictures and her publicist. I am laughing so hard right now!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteKass, I'm a big fan of Neon Trees!
ReplyDeleteNobody should hire a coked out publicist. Ha! I can't stand when women are overly made up and then airbrushed to death. They resemble barbies.
The still while she's playing sax does make me think she's pretty.
Oh, and I agree, she plays really well. Thanks for the clip.
ReplyDeleteWhoa another post I lost track of comments on! My apologies, folks!
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Aloha Sangu! So what do you listen to? I reckon we all have our skills...
It's neat when you have people with overlapping skills, like musician who turn into writers. Take Emma Bull for instance: she was a rocker and in her wonderful debut novel "War of the Oaks", music plays a special part in the narrative yarn of the story... People like that have special insights that add to stories. : j
Lydia Kang comes to mind too... Though I've never read any of her books, I would be surprised if her medical knowledge didn't add something to her stories.
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Namaskar Heidi! ＼(*＾▽＾*)／
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Viele Grüße, Theresa! I agree... It's a tired debate but the effect photoshop has had on cultural self perception in people has been and is pretty disastrous.
Still, they are people who brave their own looks and shrug away social stereotypes...
On the other there are people who have to bend to them to ply their trades. Not unlike the way writers must, to some extent, make compromises between what they want to write and what they will be able to sell. My impression is that the music industry is fairly merciless in that respect.
Pretty or ugly... She is a skilled and practiced musician. I won't hold her good looks against her. ; j
Though I long for there to be a pop star of either gender to make it being homely. I probably wouldn't like their music but I'd feel better about the world! : P