JOSIPA LISAC & B.P. CONVENTION BIG BAND INTERNATIONAL

During 1975 Josipa Lisac engaged in two ambitious projects - one was her leading role in the first rock opera in the former Yugoslavia - "Gubec Beg", the other was recording of her second LP with new studio material. The latter signified her chameleon-like career nature with constant shifts and changes in both visual appearance and the music style that was to become her signature, not unlike what the art pop icon of the 1970s, David Bowie, was doing back then.

This time Josipa transformed herself into a vocal jazz prima donna. If the excellent debut presented her primarily as a rock and blues singeress in the sense of a Yugoslav answer to Janis Joplin, this time she elaborates upon the tradition of sophisticated jazz singing of Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald and transposes it into the nice series of covers with lyrics translated into Croatian language by Ivica Krajač. Backed by the B.P. CONVENTION BIG BAND INTERNATIONAL, she easily performs jazz classics ("People", "Intime", "My Blue Valentine"), as well as soul standards ("Ain't No Sunshine", "You Are the Sunshine of My Love", "Son of a Preacher Man") and even the BEATLES evergreen ballads "Yesterday" and "Something".

By the way, B.P. CONVENTION (without the suffix) led by the most famous then Yugoslav and Croatian jazz vibraphonist Bosko Petrović, was and still is one of the best jazz and fusion bands in the region. For this recording the group was expanded into a big band ensemble including many international players (Clark Terry, Ernie Wilkins, Art Farmer among others...), so the rich orchestral sound (conducted by Miljenko Prohaska and produced by Karlo Metikos) evokes the "golden era" of big bands of the 1940s.

With this album Josipa showed to the pop audience that even jazz was no alien territory to her and she would often return to it in her later works. To the demanding prog/acid/avant/kraut/heavy listeners a record like this may prove to be a needed break - just fix a drink, listen to this kind of music and relax.

PERSONAL RATING: 3,5/5

P.A. RATING: 3/5