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| Oriana Curls |
As I listened to a wide variety of music this week, I
started to wonder what moves us to appreciate a particular artist or style of
song. I am no different than most people because I have my favorites. However,
it must be more difficult for an artist to find an accepting audience. Years
and years of working and practicing in order to become more a proficient artist
is necessary, but then one must make the choice of musical genre. There have
been several musicians I knew who changed genres and went on to brilliant
careers. Sometimes I have even heard of some that changed the way they wrote
songs, all in an effort to reach an audience of fans. These are the thoughts
that crossed my mind as I prepared for this weeks’ featured artist: Oriana
Curls.
I don’t believe Oriana Curls went through any genre or
songwriting change in her quest for an audience. At least I’m not aware of such
changes. Nevertheless, Oriana does possess a unique style and approach that
enables her to reach a worldwide audience. She is not the first, and certainly
not the last artist Weekly Music Commentary will feature with a distinctive
musical sound. Oriana Curls does have a background that might explain her
choice of artistic direction. Her bio explains:
“Oriana Curls is a French Jazz, Pop and Cabaret
Singer-Songwriter based in London. Her talent as a songwriter and her
impressive four-octave range voice has already allowed her to work with some of
the best musicians, writers and producers throughout London. From such varied
and successful artists as Andy Bradfield ( Producer for Imelda May, Rufus
Wainwright, Eliza Doolittle), Stephen Large ( Musical Director for Caro
Emerald, Duffy, Rebecca Ferguson), Marcella Puppini (founder of The Puppini
Sisters), and more recently with multi-instrumentalist and producer Koby
Israelite (John Zorn, Madonna) and LA based Grammy Award winner Helik Hadar
(Madeleine Peyroux)”.
When I was first introduced to Oriana Curls music, I
realized I had not featured any French music before. I knew of French Jazz and Cabaret
from a historical perspective, but not really the modern versions of the
musical style. Enter Oriana Curls, and we have an interesting version of French
Jazz many people are growing to love.
Once you listen to her music, you most definitely will form
your own opinion. I thought about this when I decided to feature Oriana. Most
may not be familiar with her music. However, there will be a very good number
of readers who will like her eclectic brand of jazz music. When I learned of
the various writers and producers with whom she has collaborated, I had a
feeling I would like her music. There are a few other reasons why Oriana Curls’
music might appeal to a worldwide audience. Read what I found in her bio:
“Having been trained classically in violin, piano, opera and
ballet, she has a strong Italian and Spanish family background and was also
born in Strasbourg near the German border, which makes her a multilingual
singer. Being influenced by classical, jazz, Latin and French chanson, she
sings about love and relationships, she seduces, moves and entertains the
audience with jazzy up-tempo numbers and romantic soaring ballads. Combined
with her charming gypsy violin playing and dance movements, she is very reminiscent
of the most renowned French names (Edith Piaf), adding some timeless songs to
her repertoire”.
Upon reading about her background, I began to understand
Oriana Curls and her choice of music so much more. Because of her classical
training, she had a strong musical start that allowed her to go in several
musical directions. Her multilingual upbringing also helped her develop into a
musician with a “world” view toward music. For me, it is more difficult to
enjoy music vocalized in a language other than English. It would be impossible for
me to fully understand. Although, music education and studies of social
environments of the world have helped me. Even with such education I cannot
produce such music. Oriana Curls can, and she does write and sing multilingual
music. Quite a talent indeed.
Modern technology has
helped Oriana Curls in a variety of ways as it has helped other musicians. The
music video has allowed her ever growing fan base to actually see Oriana perform.
In fact, my first introduction to her music, as well as most today, was via the
music video. Her song, “Love Me Hurt Me” is a fantastic composition and the
accompanying video provides a great presentation that I chose to highlight
below. For Oriana Curls brand of music the video is the perfect tool that
allows everyone to see, hear and feel her performances.
I have been able to read several very positive reviews of
Oriana Curls recordings and performances. A great deal of words have been used
to describe her sound. One word “quirky” I tend not to use because I don’t
really think it fits her musical style. Her music is very different from modern
popular music but I would not call it quirky. I think a better description is modern
French Jazz/Cabaret with a historical feel.
Whenever I feature artists with origins outside the US, it
is my hope that many music fans in the US will grow in appreciation of music
they normally would not hear. Hopefully Oriana Curls US audience will grow very
soon along with the rest of the world.
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