MIKE SPONZA & EUROPEAN BLUES CONVENTION (ITA, SLO)
Mike Sponza (guitar, vocal), Vid Jamnik (vibraphone), Matej Kuzel (saxophones), Moreno Buttinar (drums), Marko Črnčec (organ, piano), Mauro Tolot (bass)
It has been a life-long ambition of Mike Sponza to record a European blues summit, and he has been working towards this goal since 2004. Mike produced 2 CD's and a DVD with the “Central European Blues Convention” since then. It has been an incredible experience! Bringing together artists from all over Europe to compose the album it was like piecing together a jigsaw: different artists’ styles, music preferences, cultural backgrounds not to mention the logistic and the economic implications. But then he wanted to create something different not another compilation CD!
The goal was to produce a homogenous cd where Blues is the common language!
The songs are written for the purpose and artists experiences are fused together.
After 3 years of hard work, the EUROPEAN BLUES CONVENTION Album has been completed in June 2011.
With 33 musicians coming for 12 different countries, this double album is the first project creating a musical blues union and it is the proof of the European blues people’s strong sense of community.
Mike focused on a real exchange between artists: he created and proposed the concept of "song- crossing". It’s cool to have a song composed, let’s say, by a German Artist and performed by a Hungarian one, and so on ...
Corrections, changes, mistakes occurred in order to create a real “concept album” made by some of the finest and most original performers available in the Continent. We all filter blues music through our personal life, environment and social life. We don’t have imitators here, but people who make blues music.
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