Viktoria Anton Photo credit: Ralf Dombrowski

Ralf Dombrowski writes :

Leleka, the Berlin quartet with Ukrainian singer Viktoria Anton was a particularly fascinating band. Not only did they win the 10th International Burghausen Young Jazz Prize – and with some ease – at the final on the evening before the actual festival, but also presented a programme at the opening concert of the 49th Burghausen Jazzwoche, which moved in a way that was easy to follow between presenting folk music templates, and transforming them through jazz. Anton’s voice conveyed drama and fragility, girlish joy and feminine seriousness, while Robert Wienröder‘s piano created the combination of minor-key commitment and pianistic finesse. The bassist Thomas Kolarczyk and the drummer Jakob Hegner rounded off the band sound with melodic and rhythmic transparency, and sometimes with rock music urgency. If this band doesn’t manage to break through, an awful lot of things will need to have gone wrong….

Jakob Hegner Photo credit: Ralf Dombrowski

Leleka Photo credit: Ralf Dombrowski

LINK: Our December 2017 news piece with the finalists